… and it’s not just the top-of-the-line cartridge from an
awesome, skilled maker: it’s a Stargate 🥇
I already owned and enjoyed the mighty DMT25’s whose authority and lively, juicy, beefy sound was bringing great joy to my listening sessions since I got it…
A few months ago I began following the maker’s quest for his new no-compromise cartridge using - indeed - a magnetic material out-of this-world…
A meteorite (yes! Used not for snobbery but to get a HUGE magnetic flux, measurable and seldom seen on any cartridge) is sliced and hand forged and beaten and thinned out… like a damask-blade.
The time consuming process and use of such an outer space material makes a great conversation topic and someway laughable… both for gonzo and open-minded musical bliss seekers… UNTIL YOUR VVS’ diamond touches one of your beloved discs!!!
What my old, trusty twogoodears heard is a miraculous blend of sweetness and power, detail and weight and authority.
Like we all do, I randomly choose a disc I know, to get the confirmation about how good the cartridge sounds, but… I didn’t find that disc… so got feverish and choose another disc, getting same feelings… needed more and more… after four discs, I found “that” disc I previously looked for and… KAPOOW!!!
The ECM disc I searched for… more to come 😏
I had a wave-like eargasm… layers of metal coming from outer-space, out-of-this world manufacturing skill and care for details gave to me one of the more intense music-generated goosebumps in many years!
Let me better explain and clarify the above random notes: every disc I listened to with the brand new cartridge represented a musical epiphany and an audio peak statement… left hand piano on a Grieg’s solo piano disc in Bis label, a Britten’s Prince of the Pagodas, a Fournier’s Bach cello sonatas, a Skip James disc on Vanguard… music sounded so pure and crystal-clear… but the blast was playing that Chinese Zheng/bamboo flute/voice and percussions disc I had as a gift a few weeks ago and that I listened a lot both for its sonic and musical merits: a disc I picked up in one box just before finding the ECM’s I searched for.
The new Analogtechnik’s cartridge sound was impressive after a few minutes… now, after about 3 hours, it’s still blossoming like a rose: I simply don’t listen to an audio system, anymore!
The Stargate digested all gears and speakers and ancillaries and I sort-of fluctuated in a limboing space of rarefied beauty and perfection: a place where money isn’t an issue, where no evil and wars exist, a place of ineffable beauty cocooning soul and mind.
I was so impressed I turned off my system thinking it was a psycho-acoustic seldom experienced moment.
Now, I’m still spinning this Chinese music disc and here I have this UNBELIEVABLE, UNIQUE music just in my tiny studio: notes decay, dynamics, the breathing of flute player, the overtones and harmonics, the thundering drums, the silky, sexy, beauty of female voice… music is appreciated as a whole, multi-layered experience.
Just pure pleasure… I “see” singer bosom palpitating when singing, a peacock outside in the garden… I “feel” the smell of the rain… wet, pure, poetic.
Kudos to Maestro Daniel Kim for succeeding vs. himself… the most difficult antagonist.
That’s most impressive and uniquely sounding cartridge I ever experienced and I won’t let it go 😏
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