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Moonstone Phono Cartridge
Next-Gen Moving Magnet Phono Pickup
The apex of our 3 new Oysters, Moonstone is dressed to impress. Further reducing moving-mass & output and topped off with our listen-tested 0.3 x 0.7mil elliptical diamond, Moonstone transcribes sonic imagery with weight, richness, depth & sparkle. Texture is keenly realistic. The sonic image is suspended and well-controlled over a nearly-absent noise floor, providing fantastic clarity without etch nor confusion. Moonstone is a must-have for audiophiles on a budget.
Our Latest Oysters
Designed for discerning, value-minded audiophiles, Rainier, Olympia & Moonstone supplement & complement our existing range of Oysters. They build upon, enhance & refine the sonic character that listeners worldwide have enjoyed for decades. New innovation in cartridge design addresses the problem of resonance — the things that need to happen around a generator to voice a cartridge with honesty.
Hand-Crafted in Japan
Each Sumiko phono cartridge is crafted by hand in Yokohama, Japan — near the waters where our namesake Oysters dwell. We’ve selected by ear the finest materials that combine to deliver a performance that has enlightened generations of listeners. Each design is thoroughly auditioned until perfected. Production is then performed by world-class cartridge makers with a collective eye for precision & quality.
sound is good
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2025
clean sound F Response 12 Hz 33KHz 3mV
Michael Hansberry
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2025
Great detail, warm sound, a bargain.
Bob Wilson
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2025
Nice cartridge but stopped working after 3 months. One channel stopped in the middle of a record. Then both channels stopped. Thought it was my phono stage gone bad. But switched to a different cartridge, and the other cartridge worked fine. Would not recommend this cartridge.
J. Gordon
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2025
Highly recommend!Because of the cartridges are the same, you can you by a less expensive version and upgrade to this stylus later.Beautiful sound, channel separation and sound stage with detail.
Alvaro R. Mendizabal
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2025
The cartridge sounds great. It is a little livelier than the Ortofon Blue that also sounds great. I just changed my receiver from a Denon to a Yamaha as I like the livelier sound of Yamaha
Graham C.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2025
Nothing wrong with this product, but was sent stylus only not complete cartridge. Amazon return and refund went smoothly.
Mark Haynes
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 28, 2024
My Goldring cart needed a new stylus and I was looking at the E4 stylus but for not much more I noticed the Sumiko Moonstone cart. Having done my research I was impressed by the reviews and it seemed to be just the ticket for my Origin Live Alliance arm mounted on my modded 1989 Linn Sondek. It took several hours before the cart started to sound good (it wasn't impressive at first), but once it had 10 hours on it the sound was very full with powerful bass and astounding dynamics. In many ways this reminded of the old Ultimo 10X moving coil cartridge of the late 1980s that I used to own. Moving coils are now ridiculously expensive, but they have a magic that you don't often find in moving magnets. This is an exception!
Melissa Smith
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2024
The media could not be loaded.
TH_Trieste
Reviewed in Italy on February 1, 2023
Ottima qualità e veramente suono bellissimo.
ロムスカ
Reviewed in Japan on September 23, 2022
神経質なところがなく上品で高級な音。ロックやジャズでは物足りないがイージーリスニングなどにはもってこい。表面的にならず、ちょっと奥まった音場に空間情報豊かで立体的な音像が生々しい。現代風なパキパキした高域とは正反対のアナログでなければ出せない音。ソースを選ぶが嵌れば唯一無二の存在。
TOW
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2022
Purchased this cartridge to have a choice in sounds. I have a Fluance RT85 which came with a great Cartridge ( Ortofon 2M Blue ) which also sounds great. Seems the Moonstone trebles are a little softer and the mids and basses a little warmer than the 2M Blue. I have both of them on their on headshell already set up, just change the weight a little on the tone arm and good to go. I use both cartridges with a Project tube box preamp running through a Yamaha A-S701 amp and Klipsch RP 280 speakers with 12 Jamo Sub. I would definitely buy the Moonstone again, but its a bit expensive to me, but that’s just my opinion.
Client d'
Reviewed in France on May 19, 2021
Cette cellule est parfaite !
Fabrice
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2020
(edit) I complained several months later because the stylus was not properly aligned.I obtained a product exchange from GRAMOPHONE.Now stylus is properly aligned and both channel have the same volume.For this reason, I put an additional star because this cartridge is very good for the price.(end of edit)I bought this cartridge because I wanted to mount an additional tonearm/cartridge on my turntable.I had some difficulties to tune the height of the tonearm. I could not find a precise documentation regarding the ideal angle of the arm with the record for this cartridge, so I adjusted by ear but I prefer having to follow manual rules with diagram and mesures than trying adjusting manually by ear.Signal level is not symmetrical on my cartridge, the right channel is a little bit louder. The cantilever is not perfectly centered with the base, I tilted a little bit the cartridge to compensate. This is why I put only 4 stars.Frequency response is globally flat, which for me is a good point.In my turntable, the Sumiko is setup as the low end cartridge. The other cartridge is a high end Clearaudio Da Vinci V2. The most notable difference between the 2 cartridges is the channel separation. Stereo is a lot more present on the Clearaudio, resulting in low level sounds present in a single channel not audible with the Sumiko. Furthermore, dynamics and extreme high level frequencies look attenuated a little bit with the Sumiko.But the overall experience is very good for the price. I recommend a 100%!
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