Saw it mentioned in another thread that LP Gear had a special price on the Audio Technica AT7V MM cartridge, so I checked it there and did some googling to find more info. Some folks commented that it looks very similar to a Signet cart which was discontinued but had a loyal following.
Well, it appears this was a Japan-only release as almost all search returns are in Japanese only. I can't read japanese and couldn't stand the mystery, so I ordered one up from LP Gear and it arrived yesterday.
The AT7V comes nicely packaged giving the impression of a higher quality offering with a fake S arm alignment gauge, 2 sets of aluminum mounting screws and a stubby slot-head screw driver (I needed one of those!).
The instruction sheet unfortunately confirms that this is a Japan release, all text in japanese characters.
While there are a few specs you can make out, it's still a mystery what the stylus tip is (updates below), though I can tell you that it appears physically smaller than the .07 x .1 special elliptical tip found on my Denon DL-160.
I mounted to my Luxman PD-277 arm using Stevenson alignment and set the tracking force and anti-skate at 1.75 grams to give it a spin. It's pretty close to a square box shape so mounting to the Luxman non-removable shell was relatively easy.
I have a Audio Technica AT-6605 test record with some torture tracks near the end of side two that produce a 300Hz tone progressing 60-70-80-90-100u lateral and 50u vertical. In order to track them all I had to reset the tracking and skate to 2 grams, after which it handled those as well as the 100Hz lateral and vertical 50u tones on side one.
I did some comparisons to the DL-160 cart mounted in my Pioneer PL-707 and I have to say I'm very impressed! Apart from the AT7V being a higher output (5mv) MM cart, right out of the box it seems to have a very sweet, refined midrange and clear but not overly bright top end. Bass is a bit warmer if not quite as tight as the DL-160. I'm sure things will change as it wears in but I'd say it's a bit less analytical-sounding than the Denon.
Because the AT7V is a higher output MM cart it seems to be a better match with the Luxman 240mm straight aluminum arm and lowers the noise floor too. It tracks beautifully and doesn't pickup any more surface noise than the Denon which is very good in that regard.
I don't have any other AT's to compare it with, but if my memory serves it doesn't have any excessive brightness that some AT's exhibit.
I tried to get some closeup shots but my digicam isn't very good. (see posts 28 & 29 below for closeups)
Anyway, check it out. I think it's a winner!
Jim
Well, it appears this was a Japan-only release as almost all search returns are in Japanese only. I can't read japanese and couldn't stand the mystery, so I ordered one up from LP Gear and it arrived yesterday.
The AT7V comes nicely packaged giving the impression of a higher quality offering with a fake S arm alignment gauge, 2 sets of aluminum mounting screws and a stubby slot-head screw driver (I needed one of those!).
The instruction sheet unfortunately confirms that this is a Japan release, all text in japanese characters.
While there are a few specs you can make out, it's still a mystery what the stylus tip is (updates below), though I can tell you that it appears physically smaller than the .07 x .1 special elliptical tip found on my Denon DL-160.
I mounted to my Luxman PD-277 arm using Stevenson alignment and set the tracking force and anti-skate at 1.75 grams to give it a spin. It's pretty close to a square box shape so mounting to the Luxman non-removable shell was relatively easy.
I have a Audio Technica AT-6605 test record with some torture tracks near the end of side two that produce a 300Hz tone progressing 60-70-80-90-100u lateral and 50u vertical. In order to track them all I had to reset the tracking and skate to 2 grams, after which it handled those as well as the 100Hz lateral and vertical 50u tones on side one.
I did some comparisons to the DL-160 cart mounted in my Pioneer PL-707 and I have to say I'm very impressed! Apart from the AT7V being a higher output (5mv) MM cart, right out of the box it seems to have a very sweet, refined midrange and clear but not overly bright top end. Bass is a bit warmer if not quite as tight as the DL-160. I'm sure things will change as it wears in but I'd say it's a bit less analytical-sounding than the Denon.
Because the AT7V is a higher output MM cart it seems to be a better match with the Luxman 240mm straight aluminum arm and lowers the noise floor too. It tracks beautifully and doesn't pickup any more surface noise than the Denon which is very good in that regard.
I don't have any other AT's to compare it with, but if my memory serves it doesn't have any excessive brightness that some AT's exhibit.
I tried to get some closeup shots but my digicam isn't very good. (see posts 28 & 29 below for closeups)
Anyway, check it out. I think it's a winner!
Jim
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