Audio-Technica AT95E Dual Magnet Cartridge

I inherited my dad's Marantz turntable (and his record collection) when he passed away, and for some odd reason he had a Stanton RS500 cartridge on there. I know for a fact he used to have a Shure on it, but can't remember which model. So I wasn't sure how many hours use the Stanton had and was in the market for an affordable (and decent) cartridge. I came across a garage sale last year and the guy just happened to be selling an Audio-Technica PT300. Of course the guy had no idea how much use it had but to the naked eye the stylus looked like it was in good shape. It was a slight upgrade from the Stanton but wasn't as great as I was hoping for. I had a hard time finding any info on it aside from the user manual but from what I could tell it was a budget cart that had decent sound. So I decided it was time to get a new one online. After doing some research on cartridges under or around $100 I was deciding between the Audio Technica AT120ET, Shure M97xE, and the AT95E. At the time I was a little strapped for cash so I went with the AT95E, but after getting it set up on the turntable and spinning a few records I was really impressed with the sound of this thing. It's well balanced and sounds extremely clear. Although the cart has to be set up exact. I had my VTA (vertical tracking angle) too high which caused the record to skip and repeat the same groove over and over. But after getting it perfect this thing sounds incredible. The only complaint, if you could call it that, is that it's a little quieter than my other carts. I have to turn up the volume a bit more, which makes the background noise of my receiver more noticeable. But that's only when I want to crank it up. Otherwise I'm very happy with this cartridge. I might consider upgrading the stylus to the LP Gear ATN95VL when I reach 1,000 hours of listening. Best $40 I've spent!

This arrived in a plain white box when I ordered it directly from Amazon and I kinda wondered if it was even legit (it was). I have a 1978 Japan made Technics SL-220. It has the 1200 style "S" arm so it's compatible with the nifty Technics overhang gauge. After some research I read time and time again the recommendation for this cartridge and the great match it was for my turntable in terms of compliance and such. Set it with the gauge in my technics headshell and I haven't touched it since because it is without fault to be modest. I have no distortion inner groove or otherwise. Right now I have a TC750 preamp going into a Yamaha RX-V377 a/v receiver and feeding Energy RC Micro 5.1 speakers (Canadian sister company to Klipsch). So modest equipment that has served me very well for movies and music through my Yamaha CD player. My turntable with this cart blows the CDP-S300 away with a decent pressing. The words I've heard to describe the AT95e do not really do it justice. It's great, and PHENOMINAL for the price. Everything sounds natural and very musical and not at all fatiguing. I have 50 hours on it at this point. I would say that it was great from the first minutes of use and did noticeably improve up to about 25 hours and then tapered off from there. I'd say at 30 hours you have it pretty well broken in. I plan to purchase the LP Gear AT-95SE stylus in the future as I hear great things about that upgrade. But honestly, this is adequate with the stock stylus for my application and I'd say most people's as well. It's a fantastic cartridge for all types of rock and metal I've tried so far. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

At this price point, this is a remarkable cartridge. I bought it to rehab an old Elac Miracord turntable, roughly fifty years old. In the course of the rehab, I also replaced the RCA cables on the table. And several small tweaks were performed to my system around the time of the cartridge being installed that certainly had an effect on the system's sound: I put in 12 gauge speaker wire, I changed the speakers over from a pair of bookshelf JBLs to a pair of Klipsch KG 5.2 (this resulting in a massive upgrade), and the turntable was changed from a balky Dual to the aforementioned Elac (also a large upgrade). So you can take my review with a grain of salt. It is probably hard to track down just what those improvements did individually. The Amp being used with this system is a Luxman r115. However, the end result is fantastic, and at least part of it is due to the needle/cartridge. Very full, bright, sound with a lot of punch. I put on Rory Gallagher's "Calling Card"-- a favorite lp, and one I know inside and out, and was very impressed with the overall sound. In short succession, I spun through Jimmy Smith, BB King, UFO and George Jones, and all sounded very very good. Tracking at 1.5 grams seemed on target. Minimal noise. Yes, you can likely do better. But it will cost you more. But this is very reasonable at less than forty bucks and frankly an upgrade for most listeners. My review is upped a notch (IE, from four to five stars) simply on the price value.

Audiophiles are generally categorised by the ridiculous amounts of money they spend on gear, but sometimes it takes just a little bit of experimenting and luck to realise that being thrifty and being an audiophile aren't always mutually exclusive. My analog setup consists of a restored Thorens TD-160 MK1, Rega RB-300 with upgraded wiring and spring removed, Michell Tecnoweight, Ortofon 2M Bronze and a Gem Dandy cork-rubber mat. This is being fed into a Lounge Audio preamp and then into a fully restored Marantz 2285B. Speakers are B&W CDM-1 SE. Over the past year I've gone through a few cartridges and finally settled on the 2M Bronze; reviews generally have called this cartridge "analytic" (whatever that means!) but I've generally considered it to be a really good cartridge with excellent bass & high frequency extension and lower IGD compared to the Denon DL-103R. Very recently I was offered a very good price for my 2M Bronze and I contemplated selling it, so I bought the AT95E as a stop gap measure. The cartridge arrived in a very nondescript cube box and my first impressions weren't very high. The cartridge is very light and mostly plastic. The good thing about it's shape is that it is very easy to align, but mounting it was quite a chore since the body isn't tapped like the 2M. I also had to switch the counterweight on the Tecnoweight to accommodate the lighter cartridge. Once aligned and set, I put on a Dire Straits record and right off the bat I was very pleasantly surprised. Compared to the 2M Bronze which is approximately 10 times the price, the AT95E wasn't too bad. Despite being a brand new cartridge, the AT95E had good bass and treble extension. What was most striking was that nothing leaped out at you, this cartridge has a very even keeled and well-balanced sound with no part of the frequency spectrum being exaggerated. The bass sounded a little boomy at first but with use it actually seemed to get tighter, I didn't notice too much change in the high frequencies. While the AT95E isn't nearly as resolved as the Bronze, it has pretty good extension on the bass and treble. Compared to the Bronze, the soundstage is narrower, but not to a point where it sounds bad and the AT95E is definitely on the warmer side. There are some tracks where the treble sounds a little tizzy and not as smooth as the bronze, but this is not objectionable and would probably not even get noticed by someone that hasn't heard a more expensive cartridge. Overall, for a cartridge at 1/10th the price of the 2M Bronze, the AT95E did extremely well. I've also owned and used the Shure M97xe and compared to that I would recommend this cartridge any day. If used on a good turntable, the AT95E can definitely do well and I think it was performing at the limits of its performance on my system. This is easily the best $40 I've spent on a cartridge and I have no reservations in recommending it. The only apprehension I have is about the quality of the diamond. I haven't had a chance to view it under a microscope, but I wouldn't necessarily want to play any of my ultra rare or expensive LPs with this stylus until I've examined it under a microscope.

i hate being an audiophile on a fixed income, but this purchase was mylucky break. I've had so many cartridges in my 35 or so years of fairly high end listening. Many costing 3 or 4 times the cost I paid for the at95. After reading every review on this cart., I really could'nt believe half of what I was reading. It all sounded too good to be true for something as inexpensive as this. 40 dollars!?, really, c'mon. I even read the description and review on The Needle Daddy website. They even had a quote from a review in Stereophile magazine. " For $50 this cartridge " MAKES MUSIC" That was it I was sold. I recieved it yesterday to replace my cheapy AT92. I was shocked. Right out of the box it sounded wonderfull. I was very carefull in setting it up. (axis, overhang etc. I can't wait for it to fully break in. I played all sorts of music from near mint lp's. The bass was nice and tight but not overpowering. The midrange was so clean, especially on sax and vocalsetc. The highs blew me away. really bright but not irritating and tinny sounding. I was having such a great time. My system sounded beautiful. I noticed some reviewers talking about simbalance distortion near the last song or two. My albums sounded great, the last song sounding as clean as the first. This cartridge blew away my friends vintage Stanton 681 eee. Sounded better to me than many higher priced Shure, Grado, Ortofons, and many other so called very high end, (and high priced) cartridges. Please, when you're ready or not, get one of these little wonders. You'll be so, so glad you did.

Really don't have to say much as anybody "in the know" has already heard it all. The AT95E is an excellent choice for it's price range with great frequency response and excellent tracking. It gives a wide, warm sound with good bass response just enough brightness to please most listeners. Absolutely a top 5 entry level audiophile cartridge. Just be sure to set up your tonearm fully and correctly when you install, as you should with any new cartridge. Taking the time to properly setup your turntable will make all the difference in performance and sound, and it's something you will notice if you're upgrading from a cheap cartridge. Most of my album collection is old school 70s & 80s R&B, Hip Hop, Rock, and Jazz. The AT95E covers all of them well and I'm quite happy with the sound. It may not capture the deep bass of my Hip Hop LPs like maybe a Grado Black or Shure M44-7, but it does well enough for me. There are a lot of excellent cartridges in every price range and it can be hard to determine what's right for you, but the AT95E is easily a knockout if you're on a budget but looking for great sound.

I ordered this cartridge along with an OEM Technics headshell for a Technics 1220 MkII. I was on a budget and upgraded from an AT92E that came over from a linear-tracking Sony. It rode way too low on a non-p-mount arm as others mention and I was very happy with the height of this cartridge comparatively. I give that background because I think it is necessary in order to illustrate the sonic differences i heard in the 2 cartridges. The 20 dollar 92 had a more accurate sound to me than this cartridge did. The highs were higher without being sibilant and it seemed more accurate overall. This is probably due to the .3 x .7 mm elliptical stylus vs the .4 elliptical in the 95. I still give the 95 a perfect 5 stars for overall build quality and value. Given the chance I would buy it again on the same limited budget. It was a good affordable upgrade from the 92 but did put me on an upgrade path to the 120 which arrived this last weekend. If you can afford it, you'll get better accuracy from 120. One other side note, the 95 does much better with damaged or poor quality recordings as it doesn't seem as revealing as either the 92 or the 120.

I have a few turntables from a old Benjamin ELAC Miracord to my JVC QL-Y7, I been trying a few cartridges that would work with the Miracord for my less than desirable condition LPs, and on the cheap $$. This AT95E is my best under $100 cartridge that has worked for me. Sounded wonderful right from the start. Normally I'll play 50 or more hours for the cartridge/stylus to settle in, but this AT95E sounds very nice from the 1st LP. I set it up using a Baerwald protractor, set the tracking force per recommendations using a digital gauge and it has tracked very well and sounds better than I expected since. I have approximately 25 hours play so far, several of my older less than excellent condition LPs, and the AT95E played better than a handful of other under $100 carts in my system on this turntable. Then do this for less than than $50 on a Miracord with its arm mass - very nice.. When I wear this one down, I'll have no 2nd thoughts replacing it with another AT95E. I find the more $$ a cartridge is not always the best. My other main turntable, I have carts from just a little over $100 to over $1500 and my two favorite carts are one just over $100 and two others $500, so if you think you might be missing a lot because the AT95E is so affordable, you might get more than one would think. There are a lot of variables in systems and ones desires, and this AT95E fills one of my needs within my system. Great bargain, good tracking, respectable specs for a cart at the price point I give it 5 stars for a under $50 cartridge. What's not to like on the AT95E. The reviews for a less than $50 cartridges, I had to give it a try and I'm glad I did. I also got the AT-120E (for another turntable), and these AT cartridges give a lot for the $$. Sure you could go to higher end cartridges, but those that want an affordable cart and needs a turntable to play once in awhile and don't want to put a lot into it, this cart should be considered. Shipping from AV-House - arrived sooner than I had expected. A nice bargain always makes my day.

Ich habe den AT95 Tonabnehmer als Ersatzteil für meinen alten, restaurierten Dual 1237a Plattenspieler gekauft. Dabei war anfangs nicht klar, ob der Plattenspieler insgesamt noch wieder aufzuarbeiten ist, weshalb ich mich für ein günstiges Testsystem entschieden habe - den AT95. Sollte der Plattenspieler nicht gehen, so wäre darin kein riesiger Verlust zu beklagen. Kurze Pro/Con vorweg: Vorteile: + klarer, ausgewogener Klang + günstiger Preis + einfache Montage + Zubehör Nachteile: - sehr simple/spartanische Verpackung (falls es wen stört...) - Ersatznadeln kosten fast genausoviel wie ein neues System Geliefert wird der AT95 in einer kleinen Plastikbox. Diese beinhaltet den Tonabnehmer auf einem kleinen Schaumstoffpolster, sowie passende Befestigungsschrauben für das Headshell. Eine klassisch-spartanisch gehaltene Verpackung, die zu dem preisgünstigen Segment passt. Der Tonabnehmer ist in jedem Fall aber angemessen geschützt, da gibt es nichts dran zu meckern. Die Verarbeitung des Tonabnehmers ist makellos. Die Teile sind alle fest, die Kanten gratfrei. Auf der Nadel sitzt eine sehr nützliche kleine Kunststoffschutzkappe, die ich auch nach Montage weiterhin nutze, wenn der Plattenspieler gerade nicht läuft. Die Montage erfolgt problemlos, hierbei ist auf eine richtige Einstellung der Nadel zum Tonarm, Drehteller etc. zu achten. Fehler hierbei machen sich in einem erhöhten Verschleiß und schlechtem Klang bemerkbar, ohne, dass der Tonabnehmer selbst etwas dafür könnte! Ich empfehle hier diverse Anleitungen im Internet sowie die Verwendung einer entsprechenden Schablone. Zum Tonabnehmer selbst: Der Klang ist recht klar, einigermaßen ausbalanciert. Der AT95 bietet gut Höhen und ist dabei nicht basslastig. In dem Preissegment eine große Überraschung, da ich mich auf wesentlich weniger angesichts des niedrigen Preises eingestellt habe. Ich kann den AT95 sehr empfehlen.

Good

Testina acquistata lunedì 15/01/2018 consegnata il giorno 16/01/2018, rapido è dir poco. Passiamo all'aspetto tecnico: La testina completa è un ottimo prodotto e anche la confezione trasuda qualità, questo modello ha una risposta in frequenza da 20 - 2000hz molto buona, tecnicamente il range di frequenze ideale dovrebbe essere 20-23000hz ma per tale sensibilita bisogna spendere almeno 150€ per qualcosa di qualità. L'ho acquistata per rimettere in vita un AKAI - AP206C sul quale era montata una shure M92E un altro ottimo buon prodotto, ma ho preferito prendere l'Audiotecnica sia per il minore costo ma anche perche la M92E ha una sensibilità che va da 20-18000 Hz (quindi molto meno sensibile) ma comunque ho scelto questa Audiotecnica perchè utilizzo un Preamplificatore Pro-Ject Phono Box MM che ha proprio come risposta in uscita 20 - 20000 Hz....tra parentesi ve lo consiglio perchè è un prodotto made in Austria e non una cinesata inutile. La Testina non è difficile da montare, all'interno della confezione è presente lo schema di montaggio dei fili con l'indicazione anche dei colori dei cavi, ci vuole sono un po' di manualità, pazienza (non avere fretta) e delicatezza, il resto vien da se. Ho perso più tempo a settare l' overhang della puntina che a montare la testina. All'inizio poichè nuova, il suono vi sembrerà un po' freddo ma dopo un oretta a 2gr di peso, il suono comincia a cambiare. Questo è dovuto alla sospensione della stilo che essendo nuova è un po' rigida....pian piano comincia ad ammortizzare come di deve, abbiate fiducia.

Around this price point will generally get you something, but it won't get you somewhere in the audio quality spectrum. The AT95E's, while it does require some patents to break in (20/30 hours), the quality you get out of the package is amazing for what you pay for. Sound is clear and accurate, clarity is sharp and detailed, mids are really produced clear and crisp - though I must say they do lose a bit of clarity when things get busy. The instructions are not too clear on how to set it up, and the package; while I can't complain at this pricepoint... could be a bit better then a plastic shipping crate with the cartrage stuffed inside it. Other than that, it's really good! Would defiantly recommend!

La he visto montada en platos bastante caros. No me extraña. El sonido es muy bueno. No me ha parecido que dé una señal tan baja como he leído por ahí. Comparando una buena edición de un vinilo de jazz con el cd, he notado un leve aumento en altas frecuencias y una casi imperceptible disminución de bajas frecuencias en el sonido de esta cápsula. Por el precio que tiene dudo que haya algo mejor.