audiomagnate
Addicted Member
This cartridge has been discontinued, but it's new to me so I thought I would review it. I know it has very low hours as this is actually a local fiend of mine's, and I know his listening habits.
I have it hooked up in my Phase Linear PL-8000II and lets just say it doesn't sound like anything I've ever had in there before. I've had an Ortofon Red M in there previously and haven't been to impressed with the sound of my records. With the Helikon, it really doesn't sound like a "record player" anymore. The noise is there if you listen for it, but it really sounds like you're hearing all the way through to the recording, and that the record isn't even part of the experience any more (and most of my records aren't in perfect shape). I've heard this exact Helikon in my buddy's crazy expensive rig and always thought it was the $5,000 table and the $10,000 preamp, but I'm using a $350 table and a $150 preamp!
It sounds so much more like a good clean high bit rate digital recording, but with a wispy but sharp high end that is impossible to describe. This cartridge is orders of magnitude better than anything I've ever had in my phono system. The deep bass is just amazing. I've owned a few moving coils in the past, but I've never heard records sound like this IN MY SYSTEM. I always use MOG or my WMA lossless files to demo, or even SACD, but now many records are "demo quality." I can't wait to get the VPI set up properly and hear what it sounds like in there.
I knew records could sound this good, but I didn't think they could sound this good with such cheap (except for the cartridge) equipment.
I have it hooked up in my Phase Linear PL-8000II and lets just say it doesn't sound like anything I've ever had in there before. I've had an Ortofon Red M in there previously and haven't been to impressed with the sound of my records. With the Helikon, it really doesn't sound like a "record player" anymore. The noise is there if you listen for it, but it really sounds like you're hearing all the way through to the recording, and that the record isn't even part of the experience any more (and most of my records aren't in perfect shape). I've heard this exact Helikon in my buddy's crazy expensive rig and always thought it was the $5,000 table and the $10,000 preamp, but I'm using a $350 table and a $150 preamp!
It sounds so much more like a good clean high bit rate digital recording, but with a wispy but sharp high end that is impossible to describe. This cartridge is orders of magnitude better than anything I've ever had in my phono system. The deep bass is just amazing. I've owned a few moving coils in the past, but I've never heard records sound like this IN MY SYSTEM. I always use MOG or my WMA lossless files to demo, or even SACD, but now many records are "demo quality." I can't wait to get the VPI set up properly and hear what it sounds like in there.
I knew records could sound this good, but I didn't think they could sound this good with such cheap (except for the cartridge) equipment.
