Audio-Technica expands its high-end phono offering with the AT-ART20 dual-moving coil cartridge

AT-ART20
(Image credit: Audio Technica)

Audio Technica is expanding its high-end phono range with the introduction of the AT-ART20, a dual-moving coil cartridge featuring a distinctive curved design.

With a claimed frequency response of 20-50,000 Hz, the cartridge uses a nude special line-contact stylus and a 0.28 mm boron cantilever connected to the armature using a stepped-pipe construction for enhanced rigidity and strength.

Constructed from titanium, with an aluminium base and an elastomer undercover, the cartridge's body has been built using manufacturing and polishing techniques borrowed from Japan's eyeglass industry, combining materials that help to reduce both resonance and its overall mass.

The AT-ART20 features dual moving coils in an inverted V shape, which Audio Technica says provides excellent channel separation for accurate stereo imaging and dynamics. In a change from previous designs, the front yoke of the magnetic circuit is 0.6 mm thicker to help improve magnetic flux density, which the company claims increases the output efficiency by more than 15 per cent to 0.55 mV.

The Audio-Technica AT-ART20 Dual Moving Coil Stereo Cartridge available now priced at  £2750 / $2900 /  AU$4999.

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Mary is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and has over a decade of experience working as a sound engineer mixing live events, music and theatre. Her mixing credits include productions at The National Theatre and in the West End, as well as original musicals composed by Mark Knopfler, Tori Amos, Guy Chambers, Howard Goodall and Dan Gillespie Sells. 

  • djh1697
    "The end is nigh for the LP" that is all we were told towards the end of the last century, how times have changed. Naim introduced a wonderful record deck, Linn and others have introduced new LP playing devices recently. RIP CD!
    Reply
  • GSV Ethics Gradient
    I think we've been here before - the fortunes of vinyl tell us nothing intrinsic about where CD goes. CD still outsells vinyl in unit terms, and there was a link posted recently to a story saying US CD sales had recently increased. CD may well die before vinyl, but it's motivated reasoning to claim CD is dead yet.

    Unit sales: https://www.nme.com/news/music/uk-vinyl-sales-set-to-overtake-cds-in-2022-3163798#:~:text=Vinyl albums brought in £,the end of this year.

    US CD sales: CD sales just rose for the first time in almost two decades - The Verge
    Reply