Acoustic Sounds
Audio Technica MC-ART1000x
By: Michael Fremer

August 9th, 2024

Category:

Industry News

At Its New Soho Technica House, Audio Technica Debuts the new AT-ART1000x "Direct Power" Phono Cartridge

replaces the original AT-ART1000

At Audio Technica's new SoHo-based Technica House, described by the company as "a shared space of collaboration and inspiration, celebrating the Japanese aesthetic and Audio-Technica's analog philosophy" Audio Technica's chief engineer for cartridge design, Yosuke Koizumi explained the changes made to the original AT-ART1000 "Direct Power" moving coil cartridge introduced in 2016 and designed by company veteran and even back then retired, Mitsuo Miyata, who, when the cartridge business began to lose steam back in the 1990s turned his attention to headphones. Today A-T is Japan's leading headphone brand—or at least it was in 2016 when I interviewed him.

The ART1000 is a totally unique design shared by no other cartridge manufacturer (I doubt any other company has the skill and expertise to attempt it) in that the coils are attached atop directly above the stylus/cantilever junction. The coils fit within the magnetic gap that's located directly above. This puts the signal generation directly where the "action" occurs rather than at the other end of the cantilever behind the fulcrum produced by the elastomer suspension. The original looked like this:

The new 1000x features a new coil shape that helps produce higher output compared to the original's .2mV. Designer Koizumi says also that he found the original a bit "cool" sounding and that the new 1000x has a richer overall sound, particularly in the midrange (he talks about it in the embedded video but some might have trouble understanding his English—it took me a few plays to catch all the words). Another change is that the cartridge mounting holes are now threaded instead of requiring locking nuts. That's a big improvement for the fumble fingered!

The original 1000 cost $5000. The new 1000x costs $5500, a small increase considering the update and the passage of 8 years. Because assembly is so painstakingly precise, Audio-Technica can only produce about one of these cartridges per day so they will be in short supply.

When i visited the factory back in 2016 and met with Koizumi-san he brought part of his record collection to the factory to show me—a selection of EPs. He's a man of very good musical tastes. I say that because they align with mine, despite the age gap! Thumbing through the records I found a Move single I'd never before seen. When I wrote the original story for my previous endeavor, I remarked that he looked far younger than his age then, which was 36. He still does. Vinyl enthusiasm does that!

Normally I would not link to my previous endeavor's site but not doing so would be foolish because from there you can see the interview with the original designer referenced above, you can browse through Koizumi-san's swell EP and singles collection (it's also embedded in the MC-2022 review on this site) , tour the Audio-Technica headquarters as it existed in 2016 and read the column I wrote about the experience. The magazine's loss has been my and your gain (IMO) so here's the link to all of it (as you can see below, I accidentally misidentified the new cartridge as the "MC-ART1000x").

I hope to get one of these to review ASAP.

Comments

  • 2024-08-10 04:42:00 PM

    Anton wrote:

    This is my bucket list cartridge. Looking forward to the review!

  • 2024-08-10 06:49:13 PM

    Alastair McClean wrote:

    Michael, why when mentioning any of your work on Analog Planet do you always refer to “my previous endeavour” (or similar) rather than using its name? In addition here you reluctantly link to an article on Analog Planet with what reads like a veiled sideswipe “The magazine's loss has been my and your gain (IMO)”. It’s just….a bit odd and jarring.

    • 2024-08-10 09:32:04 PM

      tim davis wrote:

      I, myself, yeah, that's not gonna stop, can easily relate to the idea of previously found lacking employers (which in my case filled my very soul with bitter resentment & bile) being deserving of more than a smallish level of retort. I speculate that Mikey's "previous endeavor" is getting off lightly because he himself is such a classy gentleman. You ought to see the language & the revenge fantasies I've concocted over the years for mine. On the other hand since you found his remarks jarring, perhaps you shouldn't. Nevermind.

      • 2024-08-12 06:37:21 PM

        Alastair McClean wrote:

        There’s a saying. Holding on to resentments is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

        • 2024-08-13 05:37:54 PM

          tim davis wrote:

          That's very true. My favorite thing about Audiopihilia is the escape factor. Whenever I listen to a great recording on my admittedly modest system (which is still pretty bad-ass due to me listening & learning from folks like Mikey & also that there Danny Ritchie about how to get the most bang for the buck) the entirety of my bad experiences just magically fade away. For a few special minutes there is nothing in the world that I'm cognizant of except the beauty of the music & those special musicians making it all happen again & again. Without a doubt, music listening is the best therapy for my troubled self I've yet to find.

          • 2024-08-13 06:22:49 PM

            Alastair McClean wrote:

            I couldn’t agree more.

    • 2024-08-11 08:20:45 PM

      Michael Fremer wrote:

      That is to how my "new endeavor" was referred when I left so it was just a fun "payback". This is the first time I've linked to the old site so I've made progress. Just to clarify: when I was made a full time hire, my job was writing for Stereophile and running the Analog Planet website. Purely on my own I started the AP YouTube channel and over ten years built it up to 50,000 subscribers. I wasn't hired to do that nor was I paid for that. I just did it. When I resigned I was warned to not use any of the content as they claimed ownership. One of our writers Joseph Washek (an attorney) insisted on AP that I include in his contributions a proviso that it was used with permission and that he reserved the right to have it removed. His requests to have the content removed were ignored and soon thereafter so were the "Copyright Joseph Washek" privisos that had previously appeared within each review. And your reaction to all of this would be?

      • 2024-08-12 06:35:25 PM

        Alastair McClean wrote:

        My reaction? Some sadness you and Stereophile’s owners did not part company amicably as your comments above suggest. That’s a shame. I have been following your endeavours since the mid 1990’s and will continue to do so.

      • 2024-08-14 04:10:16 AM

        Jeff 'Glotz' Glotzer wrote:

        The industry has always been so 'cottage-style' over the past decades, but I always noticed a bit of "They don't talk about us and we don't talk about them" attitude even in the early 90's between Stereophile and TAS at least professionally, between publications.

        When JGH wanted to do a bit of work for TAS, it was a cause for a major change as JGH jumped ship! I don't judge it and his need for multi-channel exploration was valid then and today.

        I did get to meet HP and JGH in '93 at he Chicago CES and that was fun. , but there always seemed to be an 'arms-length' ethics between both publications throughout the years. I also thought that HP was bit prickly to as he was a bit elitist on the outside (reminded me of Artie Nudell). I read everything of HP's with a lot gratitude and learned a lot (and that of JGH- and you, really).

        My point is that it's a bit of a shame that TAS and Stereophile, while very separate businesses, very seldom mention each other in making points in about growing and cultivating the high end and they have so much in common and to only gain over the past 30 years+.

        We've seen Robert Harley move from Stereophile to TAS (and to great effect- Robert is a Jedi for the truth) as well as you back n' forth betwixt the two as the other Jedi travelling the audio galaxies.

        Here is my real point- Just this last month (August 24) Jim Austin fielded a letter from a reader about how he wished he had learned from the magazine was the nuts and bolts of setting up a system, room measurement and treatment, etc. etc. Which led him to making sub-par purchases throughout the years. Jim responded well and pointed to the archives, but my answer would have been real obvious: Robert Harley's The Complete Guide to High End Audio!

        It was everything I learned from TAS and Stereophile before it was released as a book and there is nothing better for a beginner or intermediate to study and get every friggin' fundamental about this crazy hobby in one tome! Is it the relationship to TAS as a competitor that he would forget an obvious choice? I dunno.

        I love Stereophile, TAS and I love the characters of this industry- like you Michael! You are sweet and considerate to everyone you meet and teach the truth in an age where it is rare indeed. I wish more greatness for this fine industry and for like minds to come together and appreciate all of this. There is so much joy here!

  • 2024-08-11 10:42:07 PM

    bwb wrote:

    fascinating design... a few questions..... Is it as fragile as it looks? They say they can rebuild it so that's good, but at what cost?

    Output goes from .2 mV to .22 mV with this design so yes that is higher, but hardly significant enough to mention IMHO

    • 2024-08-12 10:43:54 PM

      Michael Fremer wrote:

      since the coils sit comfortably within the magnetic gap, they are well protected and it's not really fragile nor did I find that it was a dust collector. Good point re: rebuilt cost. It's about 65% of retail so there's that, but the $5500 cost is half that of many other top quality cartridges with which it easily competes so there's that!

  • 2024-08-12 08:50:41 AM

    Volki wrote:

    Michael, Audio Technica supplied for the original ART1000 a special step-up transformer. Did you audition the X directly?

    • 2024-08-12 10:41:46 PM

      Michael Fremer wrote:

      I don't recall if I used their step up but I had sufficient step up power at the time...

  • 2024-08-12 01:45:52 PM

    Tom wrote:

    I purchased the ART1000 after your review. Prior to that cartridge my previous favorite was the Lyra Titan I, bought both the Edna and Atlas but still preferred the Titan. The Art1000 surpasses all of them in neutrality and analytics. The threaded mounting is now a big plus, I don’t have an issue with the extremely low output. My only concern is the changes to the midrange. Personally I favor more analytical sounding cartridges, I will probably still try the new model, right now I only have 100 hours on mine but after another hundred I’ll order one.

  • 2024-08-14 04:20:24 AM

    Jeff 'Glotz' Glotzer wrote:

    Hey, what a design! After paying attention to the article here, WOW! I still lust after the DS Audio's tho...

    The old one looks like they had rare insects spit on the cantilever for adhesion! lol..

  • 2024-09-29 05:46:32 PM

    Bill Demars wrote:

    Hi Michael-I am excited to read a review of this "X" version. Can you let us know if and when you receive a sample to review. And perhaps approximately when we might look for a review?