Goldring 2500 Moving Iron Cartridge

The Goldring 2500 is our favourite cartridge under $1500. The reason is all about the sound. This cartridge is a unicorn. After testing it and making our standard reference recording we realized this cartridge sounds remarkably like the Air Tight PC-1 Supreme costing $14,000! What is the sound like? First of all, this is one of the quietest and most accurate trackers we've heard. Extremely wide dynamic range and invaluable 6.5mV high output mean that you can use a great Moving Magnet phono stage and have 10 times less noise than an equivalent Moving Coil preamp. Don't discount how much dynamic difference this can have. Tonally, the frequency extremes are very extended. Seismic bass and hummingbird treble are unheard of at this price. The character if likened to a wine is full-bodied with a gloriously round and natural presence. The top end is a brilliant and nuanced with no harshness. This is simply a tour de force from top to bottom. 

All Goldring 2000 series cartridges feature Moving Iron technology. This lends them the high levels of detail associated with more expensive moving coil designs whilst retaining the convenience of a replaceable stylus and high output associated with moving magnet types. The cartridge employs a fixed samarium cobolt magnet and high output coil combination so that a very light iron/nickel cantilever end-piece can be used instead of the much heavier permanent magnet used in conventional designs. This reduces the moving mass  allowing the stylus to  trace the record groove more faithfully. 

The 2500 has a tapered cantilever with 2 SD diamond giving it a smooth but detailed sound, while the metal body delivers fine isolation and bass definition. Compatible with all commonly priced tonearms. We'd have no problem putting this on a $10,000 turntable.