Goldring’s New E4 Moving Magnet Cartridge Is The Ideal Upgrade For Vinyl Lovers

The Goldring E4 moving magnet cartridge is touted as the ideal upgrade for budget and mid-range ... [+] turntables.

Analog audio specialist Goldring has been making audio equipment for over a century and is probably best known for its range of high-end moving magnet cartridges used on turntables. With the vinyl enjoying a miraculous resurrection, the market for new cartridges has been enjoying something of a renaissance.

Now Goldring is introducing a new flagship E Series moving magnet cartridge called E4. Details have been unveiled in a press release and the new cartridge is being touted as the "ultimate upgrade for any modern budget or midrange turntable." The company claims the E4 represents the pinnacle of E Series engineering and performance.

Goldring's E4 is designed to be compatible with all medium-to-high-mass tonearms, the type found on most budget to midrange turntables. Because it's constructed using the same high-quality core as the brand's other E Series cartridge, E4 is ideal for upgrading from an obsolete cartridge in its entirety or for those who want to boost the performance of an existing E Series cartridge by replacing the stylus.

The E4 moving magnet cartridge from Goldring uses a nude elliptical stylus.

The ‘nude’ super-elliptical stylus measures 7.6 x 18 microns (0.3 x 0.7 mil) and is cut and polished from a single piece of diamond. Goldring claims the process produces a lower effective tip mass with improved rigidity, which in turn means it can retrieve more high-frequency detail than the ‘bonded’ elliptical stylus alternative.

The stylus is far less likely to ‘mis-track’ or overshoot when tracing high-frequency groove modulations, and its 7.6-micron profile can more effectively fit into closely packed inner grooves. Goldring says that compared to any similarly priced cartridge, the E4 offers lower distortion, improved transient response and a flat frequency response.

The E4 has a hollow aluminum cantilever tube to complement the low tip-mass stylus. The lighter weight and stiffness of the material enable the stylus to trace medium-to-high frequencies with better accuracy while reducing distortion and mis-tracking.

The azimuth of the Goldring E4 is adjusted during the manufacturing process to ensure it is ... [+] precisely perpendicular to the groove.

The stereo on a vinyl record is contained in a single ‘V’-shaped groove with perpendicular sidewalls angled at 45 degrees. Regular cartridges use a single large magnet interacting with two vertically mounted coils to extract a stereo signal from the groove. Still, it can produce high crosstalk levels with only a modest amount of left- and right-channel separation.

Golding's E4 uses a proprietary Magnetic Duplex Technology that positions two low-mass magnets at the same angles as the coils in the cartridge. Each magnet in the cartridge interacts only with its partner coil, enabling the E4 to transcribe the information in the groove more accurately. The result is a greater stereo separation and a more accurate soundstage.

Azimuth is the term that describes the angle that the vertical center line of a stylus makes with the vinyl record's surface. Ideally, the stylus should be precisely perpendicular to the groove. Owners of budget and midrange turntables usually have no facility to adjust the azimuth, so a cartridge must be precisely adjusted before it's fitted to the turntable's tonearm. A poorly adjusted azimuth can increase crosstalk and uneven channel balance. Goldring's E4 is designed to enable micro-adjustments during the manufacturing process, ensuring each cartridge leaves the factory without further azimuth adjustment.

Pricing & Availability: The Goldring E4 moving magnet cartridge will be available in June/July and will be priced at $299 / £199 / €259. The Goldring E4 stylus is also available separately for anyone wanting a new stylus for an E-Series cartridge and costs $275 / £145.00 / €185.00.

More info: www.goldring.co.uk (UK) www.goldringusa.com (US)

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