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Blue Point No. 3 High Phono Cartridge
Next-Gen Moving Coil Phono Pickup
Along with the release of our Reference Celebration 40, we bring you Blue Point No. 3 – another nod to our 40 years of cartridge development in the pursuit to enrich your listening experience. We’ve taken a close look & listen at the resonance properties of Blue Point No. 2 and have recognized room for refinement. Resonance having a more significant impact than many listeners may realize, we sought to reimagine how the housing resonates around the generator… and we feel we’ve struck gold.
High Output Moving Coil
The sonic presentation of Blue Point No. 3 harkens back to vintage Shure & Stanton MMs remembered for their smoothness. With our tried & true MC generator system, that smoothness is enhanced with the subtlety & nuance you’d expect from a Sumiko MC. First and foremost – and if ever the word were appropriate – Blue Point No. 3 assembles its sonic picture from the ground up with its oh-so buttery low-end response.
Hand-Crafted in Japan
Having developed such a refinement on a classic design, introducing a low-output variant was a no-brainer. As strongly as we stand behind Blue Point No. 3 High, Blue Point No. 3 Low is a game changer. Owners of MC phonostages can experience the same listenability mentioned above, but with the depth & imaging typical of a low-output design, then some.
Goat
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2025
Fantastic sound from this low output moving coil cartridge. Sumiko provides a very accomplished phono cartridge in their lineup from moving magnet like the Olympia on up as well as their moving coil lineup starting with the Blue Point. Dollar for dollar, Sumiko cannot be beat in price and performance.
Jason S.
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2025
Caused a loud hum when installed. Found no way to alleviate it, so had to send it back. Not sure if it was brand new due to not being sealed.
Michael Hansberry
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2025
I put this in an Ortofon headshell, sounds great!
Joseph D. Aschwanden
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2025
I was a Big fan of the Sumiko Blue Point Special Evo III Low Output Moving Coil so when I heard this cart bettered the Evo III, I had to try it out. In short, NO...it's not the same at all. For a low output moving coil, it just seems lifeless and dull. I guess if you had a pair of vintage speakers with 15" woofers and Horn Loaded Tweeters it might work, but to me, it just sounds boring, similar to the Shure V15VxMR Moving Magnet with rolled off treble. It actually sounds like a warmer version of the Blue Point No. 2, not an improvement over the BPS Evo III at all. Another issue is that the cartridge is so light, it isn't going to match well with all tonearms. At just 6 grams, most arms will have the counter weight all the way forward to the extreme.
mrclassicman
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2024
This cartridge delivers way more than I thought possible in an under 1000.00 dollar product. The basics first, it came well protected and packaged as a plus! It came with everything necessary to mount including an Allen wrench for tightening. Now for the real test! Immediately the unit demonstrated wonderful, crisp details, power tight lows, beautiful separation between the instruments as well as a focused sound stage! To be honest I expected no less and was very happy to finally have one in my system! Added benefit is the high output does not require step up transformers or special MC pre-amp!
Steven Podvoll
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2024
I have owned many higher-end moving magnet cartridges over the years, even the venerable Shure V15 type 5MR once upon a time, and I always wondered if moving coil cartridges were really worth tolerating the inconvenience of styli which aren't user-replaceable. Now I know.The Sumiko surpassed my Audio-Technica in every respect, even in some areas which were surprising to me. Given the lower *moving* mass of coils with respect to magnets, I fully expected superior transient response would result in improved ability to reproduce instrumental timbres and "air" around the instruments. But I would have expected the Audio-Technica's micro-line (Shibata-type) stylus to excel in areas pertaining to trackability, ie, silences from which musical notes emerge and the ability to resolve individual instruments even during the loudest crescendi. Perhaps a Sumiko (or other moving coil design) with a Shibata stylus would be even better but I'm perfectly satisfied and feel no pangs whatsoever of audiophilia nervosa. I'm fairly certain this could be my "forever" cartridge.
Scottie Gee
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2024
Highs and mids are harsh … lows were too soft. But more than that, the channel balance was off by more than 1dB (left was high and right was low). A break-in period may make the frequency issues a bit better, but it won’t fix the channel imbalance. That was the deal breaker.Returning for refund.
Thomas Hoffert
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
an excellent cartridge.
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