My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo (Mono) MC Phono Cartridge
The Solo is a superb mono cartridge using the same engine as the highly regarded Eminent, making it an excellent choice for those collectors of classic mono recordings. Like all My Sonic Lab cartridges, the Eminent Solo is characterised by an extremely low impedance (1.2 Ω) and a high output level of 0.4mV, which has been achieved using very strong neodymium magnets in conjunction with the specially developed coil core material SH-μX.
A key reason for the exalted sound of My Sonic Lab cartridges is the heritage or provenance of the creator. This can often help to explain why something sounds the way it does. Creating cartridges that produce this level of performance is only possible with immense experience and talent. Previous to founding My Sonic Lab, Mr. Matsudaira worked with Yoshiaki Sugano and played a major role in developing the original Koetsu Onyx cartridge. The two had met previously at Supex. Early in his career while Matsudaira-san worked with Sugano, he also designed a cartridge for Luxman, which is how he met Miura-san. They developed a close relationship which many years later led to Matsudaira designing and manufacturing cartridges for Air Tight while he was with Audio Craft. In 2004, after three decades of designing and building MCs for nearly every top Japanese cartridge manufacturer, Matsudaira started My Sonic Lab. He still does OEM/ODM for many of Japan’s top brands.
Most of the high energy magnets used today cannot be used for this application as the magnetic saturation of the pole piece and core material results in a flux density that interferes with the signal. This has led My Sonic Lab to design high-efficiency magnetic circuitry that will be able to pick up the micro-vibrations from a mono-record with accuracy, resolution and integrity, free from any electro-magnetic interference.
An exhaustive R&D process including collaboration with a magnetic material specialist resulted in the development of a revolutionary high-µ core material which was named ‘SH-µX’. The SH-µX has a high saturation flux density of 2.5 times and an initial permeability of more than 3 times the conventional JIS PC material, bringing unprecedented high-efficiency magnetic characteristics to a mono cartridge design. Since the use of super Hi-µ, SH-µX material reduces the number of coil windings, an unusual thickness of 45µmm is used along with direct silver solder to polished rhodium-plated pins.
The stylus tip is a semi-line contact type, with a short radius of 3µmm and a long radius of 30µmm. This design ensures accurate tracking even in record grooves with delicate amplitude variations. The elliptical design also increases the contact surface area for accurate stylus alignment and reduces the incidence of miss-tracking caused by the ‘pinch effect’.
The Eminent Solo MC Cartridge uses a Neodymium #50 magnet system with no magnetic saturation interference and thus allows for the reduction of the number of coil windings. This unique feature to MSL results in the reduction of the resistance (internal impedance) to the lowest achieved from any mono cartridge in the world. Its high output voltage makes it possible to reproduce mono recordings with unparalleled energy and resolution throughout the entire spectrum of the audio bandwidth. This is the only mono cartridge made by My Sonic Labs and is widely considered to be the ultimate choice for people who wish to play mono recordings.
Product Specifications
Body
Extra Super Duralumin A7075 alloy
Type
Moving Coil (MC)
Magnet
SH-μX core
Cantilever
Super Duralumin
Stylus
Semi-Line contact stylus (3µm × 30µm)
Output Voltage
0.4mV (1kHz)
Internal Impedance
1.2Ω (DCR)
Weight
9.0g
Recommended Tracking Force
1.9–2.2g
Compliance
10 × 10⁻⁶ cm/dyne
Recommended Load Impedance
100–800Ω (ideal
approximately 400Ω)
Frequency Response
10Hz–50kHz
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