Audio-Technica AT-VM95SH Dual Moving Magnet Turntable Cartridge

MY SHORT REVIEW:I love the AT-VM540ML and its predecessor the AT-440MLB. This AT-VM95ML cartridge is the affordable AT-VM95E upgraded from an elliptical stylus to a micro-linear stylus. Is it worth the extra $100? As a long-time user of the VM95E and its predecessor AT95E, I can tell you that it sounds MUCH better. And to my ears, 99% as good as the $270 AT-VM540ML.Why I can't stop listening to my LPs with this cartridge:• My old “worn out” vintage records now sound better than many new reissue LPs—all the way to the INNER TRACKS.• Dynamic punch and “inner detail”: exciting and lively, but with superb low-level resolution for all genres tested, for example: Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" (50th anniversary Mark Wilder analog lacquers), Talking Heads "Speaking in Tongues" 1980s US LP pressing, The Cure "Love Cats" 45 RPM very bass-heavy club single, "Manitas de Plata" flamenco guitar 1965 Connoisseur SocietyLP, Deutsche Grammophon "Mozart Piano Concertos 17 & 21" w/Geza Anda, Linda Ronstadt/Nelson Riddle Orchestra "What's New," etc.• The most affordable Micro-Linear (aka FineLine, Shibata, Van Den Hul) stylus-cartridge combo I could find ($100 less than the superb VM540ML with nearly-equal sound quality)• Easy to install with built-in screw holes: no fumbling with tiny nuts, lol (for alignment tips, see below)Below is my detailed review, which is nearly identical to my review of the VM540ML and AT-440MLB, except where the sound or performance differs a bit.--MY RIDICULOUSLY LONG REVIEW (FOR TURNTABLE FANATICS ONLY, OR INSOMNIACS):I’ve tried many cartridges on my old Dual turntables and never found a truly musically satisfying combo—until switching to Audio-Technica micro-linear stylus cartridges. Of the three I own, this is the best one in terms of sound-quality to price ratio.My box of abandoned cartridges includes Grado (ZF3E+, Prestige Green, Black, Silver1), Ortofon (ultra-light OM10 & 20), and an AT95E (nearly identical to the newer VM95E).This AT-VM95L is the most affordable micro-linear (aka Fine Line) stylus cartridge available as far as I know. It's Audio Technica's answer to the third-party-manufactured micro-linear stylus upgrades that have been sold for years. This cartridge's core design began in the 1970’s and so its superb sound quality I believe reflects many iterative improvements over decades.But the main reason it sounds so good, I think, is the micro-linear stylus.WHAT’’S A MICRO-LINEAR (ML) STYLUS? One that’s shaped like a pointed butter knife rather than an elliptical or spherical cone. Its flat sides aim up and down the path of the record groove while it's thin-edged sides contact a long "line" that runs from top to bottom of the groove walls (rather than two tiny groove contact point as with elliptical or conical styli). The Shibata—granddaddy of this stylus design philosophy—was invented by JVC to handle quadrophonic LP’s 30,000-50,000 kHz ultra-high frequency modulation signal, so time-domain resolution is superb with this needle.My experience with this cart (anecdotal of course, your subjective mileage may vary):• INNER GROOVE DISTORTION (IGD) ELIMINATED! I thought that many of my old LPs were worn out, especially on the inner tracks. But the ML stylus of this cartridge plays them crisply with no hint of "fuzziness"...all the way to the last seconds of each album. Yes!• MY VINTAGE VINYL SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER IN GENERAL. I’ve been digging into my sizable “unplayable old crap" LP pile (albums that I thought were trashed by the cheapo turntables of previous owners). The VM95L extracts nearly ALL of the virgin groove info (surface area untouched by the old heavy turntable arms and elliptical/round needles of yore).• CLARITY AND INNER DETAIL? WAY MORE. For example, I can now easily "pick out" acoustic bass, horn, and cymbal brush work when Miles and his crew are colliding in a polyphonic frenzy on original 1960’s Van Gelder pressings.• WHAT ABOUT SURFACE NOISE? Often LOWER than with my elliptical styli—the VM95L stylus contact area often increases the signal-to-noise ratio (more music signal ÷ same groove wear noise) and thus sounds less noisy. This does vary depending from LP to LP—however, it's never WORSE than the other cartridges mentioned above.• HUGE DYNAMIC RANGE “PUNCH”—This cart has less total signal level than Grado's “moving iron” carts (4mv vs. 5 mv) but the perceived dynamic range "bite" of horns and snare drums is much more present and “real” to me with this cartridge, often MORE so than many XRCD and SACD files I play with a top-end studio DAC converter.• FREQUENCY RESPONSE IS NEAR-NEUTRAL AFTER BREAK-IN (~30 LP plays), with some gentle bass and treble boost in the 20-100 Hz and 5K-15K range (around +1.5 dB per Audacity needle-drop using Analogue Productions "20-20Khz" LP sine-wave sweep track). Interestingly, my more expensive VM540ML & 440MLb carts actually sound more boosted in the bass and treble than this one. This cart sounds great with both my humble NAD PP2 phono preamp (~$100 used) and Yamaha entry-level 1990’s receiver (built-in phono pre-amp)• ZERO CARTRIDGE HUM—a problem with all of the Grado cartridges I've used on vintage Dual 1218 and 1219 tables. With this cartridge? Silent!• LOWER RECORD AND STYLUS WEAR - For this stylus, the A-T pamphlet recommends inspection after 1,000 hours (about 3 times longer than for their elliptical needles). The reason, A-T says, is that the much larger stylus-to-groove contact area spreads out the wear on both needle and record groove, and the thinner profile tracks rather than "pounds" the vinyl's highest-frequency squiggles. Will the 1.8- to 2.2-gram recommended tracking weight generate more wear than the 1.0-gram weight of the other AT carts mentioned above matter for wear? Probably not. See this eye-opening record-wear test by VWestlife: https://youtu.be/kZOj-eO8Mvw?si=eCz49ZfaylRSYaVI.RANDOM TIPS:• AUDITION PROSPECTIVE CARTRIDGES WITH FAMILIAR HEADPHONES - It’s amazing how much turntable/cartridge coloration and definition (or lack thereof) you can hear with headphones. Ironically, on my Grado SR80 headphones, the Grado cartridges above are horribly muddy and fuzzy in comparison to this AT cart. The Ortofons and AT95E are somewhere in between.• Any micro-linear stylus will dredge up old crud out of dirty record grooves. Reason It's making contact with the FULL depth of the grooves. You’ll see it caking your needle, blech! So for the first few plays, I’d clean it often, and with stylus cleaning fluid every 10-15 LP plays. I also clean all my records (even new ones) with Mobile Fidelity's "One Record Cleaning Solution" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DX0JPW/ and it makes a HUGE improvement in used vinyl sound quality. If you have a fancy record cleaning machine, even better!• To perfectly align this cartridge or any other, download and print out the free “Stupid Protractor” PDF (search and ye shall find). It really is “stupid easy” to use this one (and I’ve struggled with many of ‘em).• A “quick and dirty” way to tune cartridge "brightness" or “dullness”: If this or any cartridge sounds too bright, raise up your LP by putting a cork pad or spare LP under the one you’re playing (most records are pressed with an outer rim lip to keep them from damaging each other). This effectively reduces the VTA (vertical tracking angle), which often differs from one master lacquer to the next (there was no industry standard cutting stylus angle). If your cartridge sounds too dull, try to RAISE your VTA at the tonearm pivot—if you can’t (this was a fancy “audiophile” turntable feature), try removing your rubber mat and replacing with a sheet of paper to get a bit more VTA height (this worked for me on an old Dual CS 606 turntable).• More hacks to tune cartridge "brightness" or “dullness”: Cable length and thickness affects the high-frequency curve. I’ve found that longer cables (6 feet +) "dull" the HF and shorter cables (1.5 feet) brighten the sound. Why? Phono preamps have different capacitance (picoFarad or "pF") and resistance (ohm load) personalities and cable length and gauge effects the former. You can also tweak here with a $9 pair of RCA "Y" adapters and some 20-cent resistors and capacitors. Search online, lots of tutorials! This VM95L cartridge sounds best with phono preamps “tuned” to carts in the 100-200 pF range (typical) and sounds perfect with the entry-to-mid-level phono preamps mentioned above.Caveat: These are my subjective impressions only, YMMV. And, I'm in no way affiliated with Audio Technica or Amazon, nor have I received compensation or product in exchange for my reviews. Just a fellow music-lover always searching for better sound.Happy listening—whatever gear you’re enjoying! - AndrewFULL MANUFACTURER SPECIFICATIONS (THIS WAS NOT IN THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AT THE TIME OF THIS REVIEW)* Frequency Response 20 - 25,000 Hz* Channel Separation 23 dB (1 kHz)* Vertical Tracking Angle 23°* Vertical Tracking Force 1.8 to 2.2g (2.0g standard)* Stylus Construction Nude Square Shank* Recommended Load Impedance 47,000 Ω* Coil Impedance 3.3 kΩ (1 kHz)* DC Resistance 485 Ω* Coil Inductance 550 mH (1 kHz)* Output Voltage 3.5 mV (@ 1 kHz, 5 cm/sec)* Output Channel Balance 1.5 dB (1 kHz)* Stylus Shape Microlinear* Cantilever Aluminium Pipe* Static Compliance 20 x 10 – 6 cm / dyne* Dynamic Compliance 10 x 10 – 6 cm / dyne (100 Hz)* Mounting 1/2” centres* Cartridge Weight 6.1g* Dimensions 17.2 x 18.9 x 28.3 ( H x W x D mm)* Accessories Included:* Two 11 mm installation screws;* Two 8 mm installation screws;* Two washers* Non-magnetic screwdriver* Recommended Load Capacitance 100-200 pF* Replacement Stylus AT-VMN95ML* Stylus Size 2.2 x 0.12 mil* Type VM Stereo Dual Magnet* Wire Used for Coil T.P. Copper

Melhor do que eu esperava. Toca com perfeição. Nada de exageros em graves, médios ou agudos. Excelente compra. É caro, mas vale cada centavo investido.

I had originally bought a Ortofon 2M Red to upgrade from the crappy "Bum M1" cartridge that the previous owner had on my Akai AP-100C, but I had a faulty unit from Ortofon so I opted to switch brands completely to AT and I'm very pleased that I did that.*Keep in mind my tests was done on a brand new cartridge and it has yet to break in*To test this unit I had it on my previously mentioned Akai turntable listening to a brand new copy of Avicii - True run into a Fosi Audio Box X4 tube pre-amp. From there into a Technics SH-8040 which was OFF for these tests, and then into a JVC JR-S301 using my Hifiman Edition XS cans in the headphone out of the JVC Receiver.Treble frequencies were very tolerable at normal levels and even found myself turning them up abit on my pre-amp to about 60-70%. No sibilance to speak of except on the very high end of my hearing where it sounded a little jumbled and soft. The last song on side A is "Dear Boy" which has ALOT of high frequencies at the beginning of the song and this unit handled them extremely well. I cannot speak on frequencies above 15K as even at only 25 years of age my hearing has aged 20 years ahead of me. :(Mid-range and vocals sounded fantastic with presence and clarity with no muddiness.Low frequencies sounded very good with a pleasant warmth but seemed like the sub-bass was rolling off abit early.Time will tell what breaking this stylus in will do the improve the sound but I have no doubt the sound will only get better from here.I would recommend this product to anyone looking to level-up their vinyl experience and not break the bank with these insane prices on some cartridges and styli.

So, I’m a “budget” audiophile. I have some nice gear and the ability to run both a nice surround system or a nice stereo. I’ve been collecting records for only about 7 or 8 years and what I’ve done is buy a couple of whole collections from estate sales to flesh out an inexpensive assortment. Needless to say that you don’t get too many minty records doing this. Plus, the learning curve of matching gear, turntable, phono pre, stylus, etc. So, buying a few turntables and cartridges, I was left still wanting more. I was running an AT120Eb which is a very nice cart and sounds great much of the time, but still suffers from a modest amount of sibilance and IGD (inner groove distortion). Not horrible but I’m pretty picky.I was reading about this line of carts (no longer new but new to me since I didn’t pay attention for a few years) and I saw very good reviews of the shibata version. I decided it was time to give it a shot and try to improve my sound. Remember all those old records I have, literally hundreds of them, some of them a bit scratched, some of them used on a really bad record player with a stylus that apparently damaged them during use (sound fried with distortion that follows whatever is most prominent in the mix). The shibata stylus is much narrower and gets deeper in to the groove and gets past much of the burn from lesser (and wider) needles. This new vm95sh is the cure to my vinyl ills. The sound is perfect and undistorted on new records and my worst sounding records are much better than they have been. It’s remarkable how it erases so much damage by getting deeper and going past the surface wear. It doesn’t eliminate all pops and scratches, but it does, in my case, de-emphasize much of it. No sibilance and no perceptible IGD apart from the natural drop in resolution which is unavoidable on a record, so it’s killer awesome.Lastly I would say that one concern I had was the VTA issue with shibata stylus. So, they’re supposed to be very sensitive to vertical (rake) angle. My main table is a ProJect Debut Carbon with Speedbox. There is no VTA adjustment, but you can use different thickness platter mats and they do sell a shim that mounts under the tone arm base, so there are options. But, so far (I’m 2 days in) I think my stock platter and mat (1mm thick felt) and no other adjustments have the cartridge sitting about perfectly parallel to the record right out of the box. It’s almost like it was made to go on a table like mine with no fuss. I may, over the next week or two, play around with VTA by shimming and swapping mats, but right out of the box, with only my alignment protractor and tracking force scale and about a 3” strip of electrical tape to add a tiny bit of mass to the tone arm, I’m dialed in at 2.08 grams tracking force (1.8 to 2.2 recommended) and I’m loving it. A clean record with little wear is now fully rivaling my HiRes 24/96 flac and easily besting my CD’s in terms of presence and engagement. I have the clarity and resolution of my best digital (I have a nice DAC too) coupled with the natural live presence and amazing soundstage that even the best digital sources struggle to re-create. It’s just more fun to listen to vinyl now, without getting let down by the end of the record sound quality drop off. For $200? Seriously? I doubt there’s a nicer sounding, better cart on the market, especially considering how the shibata stylus saves borderline records. I have a hundred records that sounded bad last week, but sound pretty good now, and my good records sound amazing. Best investment I’ve made in the vinyl hobby.

Durante mucho tiempo usé capsulas Audio-Technica de aguja elíptica bonded, sin embargo decidí probar con una capsula Audio-technica con aguja elíptica desnuda. La capsula fué instalada en una tornamesa Technics modelo SL-D3. El cambio mas notable es una reproducción de los sonidos agudos mas precisa y los transientes (sonidos que súbitamente suben de nivel como es el sonido producido por un golpe) son reproducidos correctamente, la aguja desnuda es mas ligera que la aguja de tipo bonded, de ahi su rápida reacción ante transientes. la magnifica separación de canales es la típica que caracteriza a las capsulas Audio-Technica, el sonido en general es claro, sin distorsión audible. Muy buen desempeño para su precio.