For a phono cartridge to generate current and voltage, something must move: a coil of wire (as in a moving-coil cartridge), or a magnet (as in a moving-magnet type), or a tiny piece of iron (a moving-iron type). In those rare cartridges that depart from the electricity-generating principle of the ones described above, it can be a displacement-measuring device in which a moving shutter modulates a light source to vary a supplied voltage (as in an optical cartridge), or one in which voltage is modulated when a tiny chip of silicon crystal is squeezed by a moving element, which varies the chip’s electrical resistance (as in a strain-gauge cartridge). But regardless of what it is that moves in a cartridge, something has to.
Top Wing Suzaku (Red Sparrow) coreless straight-flux cartridge No.1
The Japanese company Top Wing (footnote 1) has recently created a buzz among vinyl fans with its two cartridges, the Seiryu (Blue Dragon) and Suzaku (Red Sparrow). Top Wing is coy in describing their “coreless straight-flux” technology. In their description of the Blue Dragon, they claim that the system “was conceived by Hiromu Meguro, former design assistant of the Grace F-8 cartridge and principal designer of [the] F-9 cartridge, when he was with Shinagawa Musen Co.”
Old-timers like me well remember those cartridges, as well as the products Meguro helped develop during his time at Nakamichi: the TX-1000 and Dragon CT turntables, which featured a unique Center-Search mechanism that compensated for eccentrically pressed records. Everyone is still waiting for the return of that major enhancement of vinyl playback—though it must be accomplished without negatively affecting the rest of the turntable’s performance! It was during his time at Nakamichi that Meguro conceived his coreless straight-flux design: “Then, the notion that moving magnet (MM) cartridges were inexpensive and moving coil (MC) cartridges were of higher grade pushed to the back of Mr. Meguro’s mind this system’s concept, which was categorized as an MM device despite dramatic differences compared with conventional MM cartridges.” Pushed to the back of his mind—until recently.
However, the website also states that the Blue Dragon was actually “designed by Yasuhiro Noguchi, president of First Mechanical Design Corp. Now active in laser technology, a field in which ultra-high levels of precision are required, Mr. Noguchi also was involved in the design of the TX-1000 and Dragon CT players when at Nakamichi.” They were a team? This gets somewhat confusing!
What, precisely, does “coreless straight-flux” mean? The web pages devoted to the Blue Dragon and Red Sparrow say that the cartridges have no core material, but that their coils are arranged in a V shape directly above the magnet: “With that, the stylus tip picks up fluctuations in magnetic flux produced by the fine sound grooves, transmitting them directly and thus accurately.”
Coreless coils—or, at least, coils wound on a nonpermeable former—aren’t unusual, and this helps explain the Top Wings’ low outputs, but how can the stylus tip “pick up fluctuations in magnetic flux”? As far as I know, it can’t. (Of course, there are always translation issues…) Nonetheless, I was intrigued.
The Red Sparrow has a line-contact stylus, outputs a low 0.2mV (at 5cm/s), and has an internal impedance of 12.3 ohms at 1kHz and what’s described in the manufacturer’s specifications as a “secret” inductance—although, like an MC cartridge, the Red Sparrow is claimed not to be sensitive to capacitive loading. The recommended range of vertical tracking force (VTF) is 1.75–2.0gm. When my review sample arrived, I installed it in my Swedish Analog Technologies CF1-09 tonearm and set it up, wondering what, exactly, was moving at the other end of the cantilever inside the Red Sparrow’s body.
I wanted to solve the mystery of how the thing works, so I sought clarification from Joshua Masongsong, of Top Wing’s US importer, Believe HiFi. He explained that while the Blue Dragon and Red Sparrow are both actually moving-magnet cartridges, they should be considered hybrid designs because they combine characteristics of MMs and MCs (including low output and extremely low coil impedance for a MM design). Their low impedance means that, unlike a typical MM or MC, the loading won’t affect the flatness of their frequency response. Probably the stigma of MM cartridges is what led Top Wing to avoid describing them as such.
One advantage of this system, according to Masongsong, is that because all of the wiring is inside the cartridge body and disconnected from the cantilever, the stylus can be easily replaced, at far less cost than with a typical MC, though it still requires a return trip to the factory. According to Masongsong, replacing a Red Sparrow’s stylus costs “about 19% of retail,” compared to about 50% for a typical MC stylus replacement (which is usually a trade-in for a new one). In the case of the Top Wing Suzaku, that 19% comes to $3135.
Yes. The Red Sparrow retails for $16,500.
Masongsong also wrote that another of the design’s advantages is the coil’s extreme smallness, comparable to what’s found in a typical low-impedance MC, and producing similarly typical—ie, low—inductance and winding capacitances. These, he said, “set the electrical resonance frequency far higher than it would be for other MMs, which should lead to less phase shift. However, it also means that it is not possible to adjust the measured frequency response by altering the phono stage input loading, and for some audiophiles this may be a detriment….Therefore the performance that you get will be highly dependent on your phono stage.”
The Red Sparrow weighs less than 9gm; the less costly Blue Dragon ($12,500), made of Ultra Duralumin, weighs 12.3gm. The Blue Dragon uses Duralumin’s damping properties to eliminate vibrational resonances, whereas the Red Sparrow disperses resonances through the use of various materials, including “titanium, dry carbon and high-performance resins,” which also reduces the cartridge’s mass and is claimed to maximize its performance “regardless of the tonearm being used.”
But really, does a difference of 3.3gm make any appreciable difference in performance in any of today’s high-performance tonearms of high to medium mass? I don’t think so. Perhaps the methodology—dispersion vs damping—does. In any case, I went into this review skeptical for a number of reasons: the stylus picking up magnetic flux variations, that secret inductance, etc.
The first sample of the Red Sparrow had a stray wire (bottom); the second sample didn’t (top).
While setting the Red Sparrow’s stylus rake angle (SRA), I saw, through my USB microscope, what appeared to be a wire attached to the top of the familiar-looking aluminum cantilever (see photo) I’ve seen on a few other, less costly cartridges from Japan. Perhaps the stylus tip did somehow pick up fluctuations in the magnetic flux—but what about the claim that the cartridge’s wiring is unattached to the cantilever? Another mystery. I asked Joshua Masongsong: “What is the purpose of that wire?”
While awaiting his reply, I finished the setup, then tried the Red Sparrow with one of the CH Precision P1 phono preamplifier’s current inputs. Not surprisingly, it didn’t sound very good—no point in describing. Then I figured that, if the loading didn’t really matter, I’d use my Ypsilon MC-16L step-up transformer, which provides 24dB of gain, into Ypsilon’s VPS-100 phono preamp. Via the MC-16L, the cartridge “sees” 200 ohms. The Red Sparrow sounded dull and recessed, and its output seemed lower than 0.2mV, based on where I had to set the volume control of my darTZeel NHB-18NS Mk.2 preamplifier. Running the Red Sparrow into the CH Precision’s voltage-amplification input, even set to a loading of 1k ohm, didn’t improve things. Because the sound wasn’t what I expected from a $16,500 cartridge, I didn’t bother running the CH’s setup wizard, which uses a 45rpm test record to determine the flatness of a cartridge’s frequency response at various load settings.
Masongsong’s reply arrived: “Turns out I can’t share that information (wire’s purpose), but upon inspection of the picture they noticed that the wire is faulty and the cartridge is defective. Not sure what your impressions have been thus far…but it has not been 100% performing. They are shipping out another one to me this week. According to [the manufacturer] the wire is not supposed to be exposed like that. I am not sure what the detriment is to the sound quality, but I will send the new one to you right away.”
Never doubt the value of a microscopic inspection! Had I not looked and noticed the wire, I’d have given this cartridge a negative review.
Top Wing Suzaku (Red Sparrow) coreless straight-flux cartridge No.2
In this new sample the wire was not exposed (see photo), and setup was straightforward. You could ask, why an aluminum cantilever on a $16,500 cartridge, but what matters is the quality of the sound, however it’s achieved. This time I began with the CH Precision’s voltage input and played the setup-wizard 45 (pink noise between 250Hz and 30kHz), setting the loading parameters between 100 ohms and 1k ohm. As promised, the response remained remarkably flat regardless of load, though it was marginally flattest at 230 ohms, with a slight “swayback” just below 5kHz.
I think anyone spending $16,500 on a cartridge is entitled to know separation and channel-balance specs, not to mention compliance, but Top Wing doesn’t provide them. I measured and found at least 26dB separation in both directions, R–L and L–R. (Using a digital oscilloscope undermeasures the separation, but 26dB measured this way is still very good.) The channel balance was good to within 0.5dB. I also measured the Red Sparrow’s horizontal and vertical resonant frequencies: 9Hz and 7Hz, respectively, which is where you want them (ideally, between 8 and 12Hz).
Footnote 1: Top Wing Corporation, 1-10-2-1102 Sakae-cho, Higashimurayama, Tokyo 189-0013, Japan. Tel: (81) 42-392-8319. Fax: (81) 42-392-8329. Web: www.topwing.jp. US distributor: Believe HiFi. Web: www.ibelieveinhifi.com.
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