Goldring 1042
Goldring is Britain’s oldest cartridge company. It used to make turntables as well back in the vinyl heyday, so it’s safe to assume that its bods know a thing or two about playing records.
Goldring also makes OEM cartridges for other well known companies and can offer repair and refurbishment services few can match. Given the vulnerability of the things this is quite reassuring.
The 1042 has been in the range since the 1990s, when it replaced the 1040. It’s top-dog in Goldring’s moving-magnet range and, although perhaps not the sexiest-looking cartridge on the block, is made of Pocan, a glass-reinforced plastic material high in rigidity.
Superb resolution
Fitting the Goldring is a bit fiddly, but it makes up for it all the moment its (removable) Gyger S stylus hits the groove. It has superb detail resolution, which means you can hear so far into the recording that it’s inspiring. Listening to Jacqueline du Pré you can hear all the texture and gutty woodiness of her cello.
The real joy here is how this cartridge brings out the depth of this recording. It achieves this partly by virtue of eliminating noise, or at least not picking it up so much. The backgrounds are remarkably quiet, which means the music has lots of contrast and really produces a believable image in the room. In truth it reveals just why vinyl has come back so strongly. You will be hard-pressed to find a CD player or streamer that has the musical power that this Goldring does on a decent turntable.
With Esperanza Spalding’s Judas the sound is more agile, better timed and more articulate than we’d expect at this price. The trickier depths of the Captain Beefheart canon reveal a few tracking issues, but once we weight things a little over the recommended 1.7g the Goldring reveals the intensity of the music without any thinness.
The Goldring 1042 is a very good cartridge indeed. It’s a little fiddly to install but well worth the effort if great musical entertainment is your goal.