As good as the Adikt cartridge from Linn is, I wanted more. Also, the Adikt on my LP12 had done some serious hours and I wanted to experiment. The VM530 from Audio Technica is a cartridge I am familiar with having fitted them to various turntables since it’s release a couple of years ago. I had not previously fitted this AT cartridge to a Linn LP12 and was keen to hear the outcome.
In Australia, the VM530 appears to be only sold attached to a standard fitment headshell. It has a slightly different model number when sold this way – VM530EN/H. For $399, you therefore end up with a headshell you don’t require when bolting it too a Linn Akito arm, or any arm with a non removeable headshell. This is perhaps a mild miss-judgement by the importers, as a premium cartridge such as the VM530 is generally going to be bolted to a premium quality arm (which generally has a fixed headshell). Being effectively bolted down into it’s box does make for a safer passage to the owner, I guess. Audio Technica have done a very nice job of the packaging overall.
I unscrewed the new cart from what is actually a rather good quality headshell and attached it to my Linn Akito (original ‘version one’ arm as far as I can tell). I suggest, when fitting a VM500 series Audio Technica, that you remove the stylus from the cartridge body. I am not sure it is possible to easily mount the cartridge with the bolts facing down in the traditional way without a special tool. You will need something to grab the nuts mostly hidden in the boltway moulding of the cartridge body. I, as per the photos, faced the bolts up with the heads down and the threads proud of the top of the headshell, making it easy to grab the nuts with pliers.
No matter which way you orientate the nuts and bolts though, removing the stylus makes the job way easier and safer for the stylus tip and cantilever. The stylus assembly pulls straight off ie. straight down if it is already mounted on an arm. Once the VM530 was carefully aligned, tracking weight set and the anti-skating force tweaked, it was time for an audition.
The sound?
Immediately I was taken with the bass performance of the VM530. It was incredibly taught and had a real thwack about it. The midrange offered a surprising sweetness coupled with real detail. This extra detail, over and above a more average cartridge did not come at the cost of being bright or brittle sounding at all. Overall, I would suggest the VM530 is in fact, a quite neutral sounding gadget. It is maybe very slightly north of neutral, but wow, it’s pretty damned exciting to listen to (hence I can happily live with this slight colouration).
A real lack of stress and strain was noted with complex pieces of music played back with this Audio Technica cartridge
Difficult tracks that I sometimes don’t really want to listen to were reproduced with real control. As an example, Rickie Lee Jones’, ‘The Returns’ (from her Pirates album) delicate stereo imagery and fine details are beautifully played back. Even when things get heated, and the groove widens, the control remains. A real lack of stress and strain was noted with complex pieces of music played back with this Audio Technica cartridge. This improved clarity made tracks like the RLJ tune much more enjoyable to listen to. Interestingly, it is the last track on the album and inner groove distortion should be making things messier, but it didn’t seem to. Notch that up as potentially another positive for the AT 530. I also appreciated the lack of ‘HiFi sheen’ this cartridge offered. Even if it is very slightly brighter than truly neutral, it sounds incredibly ‘natural’ doing it.
Sum up.
I enjoyed this cartridge quite a bit more than the old Adikt it replaced. The Adikt though, was getting on in years so I am not sure what part this plays in the comparison. One thing is for sure, the VM530 is an exciting, clean and detailed sounding cartridge that I can highly recommend! It was obviously at home on the Linn LP12 and so as it turns out, they are a great match!. Happy listening.
- For – Quite beautiful, exciting sound
- For – Lacks almost any fake HiFi-sheen or colouration
- For – Obviously high quality manufacturing
- For – Made in Japan – If that is important to you.
- For – Upgradeability to a VM540 Microline stylus is possible
- For – Doesn’t make a mess of the last track or two (inner groove distortion)
- Against – The VM500 series are not the easiest cartridge to fit
- Against – Nothing else at all
- Tracking weight used during this review – 2 grammes
- Stylus tip shape/type – Nude Elliptical
- Price – $399
- Imported by – TAG
- Tested with – Linn Sondek LP12 – Falcon LS3/5A – on SQ402 stands – Exposure 2510 integrated amplifier
Who the hell is Audio Technica – Don’t they just make cheapy turntables?
For anyone just getting into turntables and records, it is possible to believe just this – that AT mostly make record players that sell cheaply in mass merchants. This is a shame, as Audio Technica has a very long history of making very high quality transducers in Japan, primarily headphones, microphones and phono cartridges. A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy into another. A phono cartridge turns movement of its cantilever and accompanying magnets (by wobbling it around in a groove on a record) into an electrical waveform across its coils. Audio Technica have been doing this since the early 60’s, mostly in their own plant in Japan. It is only in quite recent times that they have offered a range of occasionally mediocre turntables to the market. These are generally made in China by sub-contracting manufacturers. Their phono cartridge range has always been made in-house, until the recently released VM95 range of entry level cartridges. All models above the VM95 range including the model from the VM500 range reviewed here are still manufactured in their own facility in Japan. The VM95 range is manufactured in China. I am not sure whether they have set up their own plant there or subcontracting them out. Either way the VM95 range appears well made and sounds very good too.