Soundsmith Aida Cartridge

Soundsmith Aida MkII Phono Cartridge

Experience the ES Series High and Low Output Fixed Coil cartridges in store at Yorkshire AV.

A triumph of Soundsmith Engineering, Stereophile Class “A” rated, a rarity at its price point – and for good reasons.

The Aida employs a Sapphire laser drilled cantilever and ultra low mass Contact Line solid nude diamond stylus. This configuration resolves the challenges of playing the inner grooves with the same level of confidence as the outer. How did we do this? The unique stylus shape of our CL stylus has a “sharper” playing surface on the faceted diamond, allowing it to ride easily in the groove modulations of even the most difficult passages and high frequency information that other cartridges simply cannot trace. The result - a truly superb cartridge, surpassing top MC designs with air, focus and sound staging no cartridge at this price should be able to achieve.

Specs

• Cartridge Type: Fixed Coil
• Output: High
• Available As Dual Coil Mono: Yes
• Stylus: Contact Line Nude, 0.100mm SQ
• Radius of curvature: OCL (Optimized Contour Contact Line)
• Cantilever: Ruby
• Recommended tracking force: 10mN / 1.0 gm (high), 13mN / 1.3 gm (medium)
• Effective tip mass: 0.30 mg
• Compliance: 28 μm/mN (high), 22 μm/mN (medium)
• Frequency response: 20-20,000 Hz ± 2.5 dB
• Channel separation (stereo only): 1000 Hz >30 dB, 50-15,000 >20 dB
• Channel difference: <1.0 dB (Stereo), <1.0 dB (Mono)
• Output voltage (Aida): 2.12 mV
• Cartridge weight: 6.8 grams
• Loading (Aida): ≥ 47 kΩ