Sumiko Black Pearl High Output Moving Magnet Phono Cartridge - Premium Vinyl Record Player Stylus for Audiophiles - Perfect for Turntables & Hi-Fi Systems

I have been purchasing and reviewing moving magnet phono cartridges for over six decades. or years wanted to own a Sumiko Black Pearl but never got around to it. Recently I thought it might be fun to further upgrade my Fluance RT-81 REFERENCE turntable by snagging a $10 black acrylic platter mat and a $20 wooden headshell. The supplied AT 95E phono cartridge sounded fine and even better with the ATN95EX red stylus but I wanted to achieve even better results while staying within my $100 budget. I was tempted to land an MP110 for slightly higher but was skeptical of all the hype the cart was receiving in various reviews stating the cart exhibited character. Also there werte growing reports of Fluance owners complaining of explosive pops and static buildup when first placing the headshell/cart combo over the lead-in groove of a record.Meanwhile, Amazon brought the price of the BLACK PEARL down to $$89 so I opted for the Sumiko. I am glad I did!!! The cartridge arrived in a neat little square wooden box wirh printed specs within a few days. Give Sumiko 5 stars plus for presentation! Included were a screwdriver, all the necessary kardware and a cool stylus dust brush.The BLACK PEARL is positioned midway of the company's reknowned OYSTER SERIES with the Oyster itself being the ENTRY modelasnd THE PEARL being the FLAGSHIP. While the OYSTER sports a more commonly found spherical shape, THE PEARL has an ELLIPTICAL one while THE BLACK PEARL sports a .5 mil spherical one that rides lower in the groove so as to retrieve more information while being very forgiving and tolerant of previous groove damage and wear due to mistracking.Mounting the cart in the woodenHS was brelatively easy using the supplied hardware but with at least with some help from ABOVE I accomplished the task. Still... If I were to find flaw with the Sumiko, it would be here and threaded inserts would be nice. Here is where all critizisms of the cartridge end. After making sure that RAKE ANGLE an d VTA were set perfectly and setting the VTF and anti-skate precisely to 1.85 grams...we were ready for a test spin and break-in period.Keep in mind the BLACK PEARL needs a full 25-100 hours to break-in the wonderful cantilever. Once this is accomplished you'll hear the HIGHS and LOWS open up. It is quite stunning to the ear when it occurs!!! CHANNEL BALANCE is astonishingly even and STEREO SEPARATION is easily the best I've ever heard but moreover the layers upon layers of pure dimernsionality separates the Sumiko from everything else at its price point. It is so quiet! You simply listen to your albums and 45s the way they were meant t be heard amidst a super wide deep SOUNDSTAGE with a dark black background...REMARKABLE!!!Even my more expensive Clearaudio Concept MM V1 cannot equal the BLACK PEARL. Play something with SSSSSIBILANCE....Those nasty over modulated S-Sounds even on the inner grooves and you will see or hear what I mean. I did align the cart with the supplied two-point gauge and it paid off. No IGD blues whatsoever. The record maintains super low distoetion and cvontinuity from beginning to end. Listen to Rusk-MOVING PICTURES or Steely Dan-AJA or Fleetwood Mac-MIRAGE...NO SIBILANCE just clean clean low distortion natural sound without emphasizing or de-emphasizing any part of thr musical spectrum. Like a good MLB umpire the Sumiko Black Pearl calls balls and strikes right down the missle with no bias. As I sais earlier...the sound is so clean as to make me wonder how it would perform on an oscilloscope particularly on square waves. My impression is that square wave response would be so good that it would show very little sign of ringing and overshoot.DYNAMIC!!! It is extremely so with a plethora of detail and subtlety that rivals carts costing considerably more Transients are handled magnificently/ Tito Puente will stun a whole new generation of vibyl listeners and tracking ability willamaze as on the Telatc/Shaw CARMINA by Carl Orff. It does not exhibit the punch of a 3600L which for its low pric is lovely but allows the groove information to reach the ars of the listener wpthout colration whatsoever and yes I did use the wonderful built-in TI phono preamp of the RT-81 so phooey to those who would have you believe that it is not th equal to a more expensive separate outboard phono amplifier. I did use a nice tube heasdphone amplifier with no tone controls and the experience was nothing short of AWESOME!!!. OBTW...The stylus is user replaceable and easily pulls out costing under $50.So if U R tired of the hypr and character of the MP=110 and U grow tired of the brilliance of the 2M RED or wish to improve upon UR Goldring E2 or AT XP5 which sound superb in therir own rite...then give The Sumiko Black Pearl a listen. You will be glad you did and even Ray Thomas-FROM MIGHTY OAKS will come to life. HAPPY LISTENING AND HAPPY BLEST AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! PJSII