My Sonic Lab - Eminent EX Low Impedance Moving Coil Cartridge

Eminent Review

issue No. 37
by Jason Hector

"This is a powerful MC with impressive low-level resolution and a sense of speed that is quite rare."
"It's crisp and clear yet also muscular and hard hitting ..."
"... the guitar and bass portrayed with a chunkiness that makes them seem all the more real."
"There's no shortage of power and weight"

"There's no denying the strong sense of pace that the Eminent brings to the party and the degree to which it responds to each recording. This is a first class moving coil that deserves to be a front-runner for any one with this sort of budget."

"If I had to describe the Eminent EX in one word, it would be power ... Its personality was punchy, explosive, and deliberate from top to bottom, and produced great dynamic authority and forward thrust."

"My Sonic Lab's Eminent EX is among the finest, most skillfully balanced cartridges I've heard."

 Michael Fremer, June, 2010


High Output, Low Impedance! This is the main target for MC Cartridge. To obtain High energy from Low impedance circuitry.

My Sonic Lab has continued their research in designing moving coil cartridge with low internal impedance. Mr. Matsudaira feels energy producing potential of today's MC cartridges are not maximized to its full potentials. Coils wound in low impedance MC cartridge consume considerable amount of generated energy by the coils which deteriorates subtle signals. For this reason, many manufacturers employed different materials and methods such as pure gold/silver wires, aluminum/sapphire/boron cantilever, etc but in terms of High Output vs. Low Impedance which is the main theme for MC cartridges, little has been done. Certainly, increasing the winding turns of coil will increase the output but at the same time, internal impedance will be increased. It is impossible to increment the output voltage of today's MC cartridge up to the 3mV 5mV. So in view of step-up and head-amp devices, a range of 0.5mV 0.7mV was set. But how to lower the impedance with such output level?

My Sonic Lab Eminent EX Specifications :

• Type :                            Low-impedance moving coil cartridge
• Frequency response :   10 - 50,000 Hz
• Output voltage :            0.4mV/1kHz
• Internal impedance :     0.9 Ω
• Loading :                       100 - 800Ω (specifically, about 400Ω is recommended)
• Core material :               SH-μX
• Magnet :                        Neodynium #50
• Stylus pressure :            1.9 - 2.2g
• Cantilever :                    Super-duralmine dual structure
• Stylus tip :                     Semi-line contact (3μm x 30μm)
• Channel balance :          within 0.5dB (1kHz)
• Crosstalk :                     more than 30dB (1kHz)
• Terminals :                    shiny rhodium-plated pins
• Weight :                        9.5g