Over the last 15 years, I have been searching for the perfect cartridge for my system. There are so many options on the market now, and it seems like most of them are pretty good. My requirements are fairly standard: medium compliance, decent output voltage, and a replaceable stylus. The last requirement rules out MC cartridges since the stylus can not be replaced (easily). After avoiding Audio-Technica cartridges for a long time, I finally tried a VM95c when my Grado started to wear out. Compared to my Grado Black, the sound is more engaging and seems to have more drive to it. Tonally, they are a pretty close match with slightly rolled off highs, which I like. What really surprised me was that there was no difference in tracking that I could hear. The Grado has an elliptical diamond and the VM95c has a conical one, and I expected the Grado to track better, but I was wrong.
The VM95c seemed to meet all my requirements except one: the bass was good, but not as detailed as I wanted. For example, upright basses seemed to lack the initial pluck that I was used to from my other cartridges. I played with the tracking weight and set it at 1.8g, which seemed to help some, but it still wasn’t what I wanted. While looking for answers, I started to come across articles about a company called RigB.
RigB manufactures new bodies for cartridges that are extremely high tolerance and very solid. Since I needed a new cartridge for my second table and I was quite happy with the VM95c as it was, I decided to order one directly from the UK. I opted for an assembled cartridge, but they do offer just the body if you want to install it yourself. It took about 2 weeks for mine to arrive via Royal Mail. It was well packaged and the assembly looked good. At a glance, it looks like it’s just missing the logo, but upon closer examination, I could see the sharper angles and improved mounting holes.
After allowing the stylus to break in, I can confidently say there is a noticeable improvement in sound. The bass is still powerful, but now more controlled. The midrange remained unchanged, which is a good thing because I appreciate the tonality of the VM95. The treble is mostly unchanged, but seems to have less distortion compared to the unmodified cartridge. To ensure what I was hearing was from the body, I moved the stylus between the two cartridges and the RigB consistently sounded better.
Sound is highly subjective and the placebo effect is real when comparing two pieces of equipment. However, in this case, I am very pleased with my purchase. I have access to other styluses and may try a micro line (ML) on it soon to see how it performs. For the cost, it is hard for me to say anything negative about this combo.
Packaging: 😈 😈 😈 😈 😈
Sound Quality: 😈 😈 😈 😈 😈
Value: 😈 😈 😈 😈 😈
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