VERTERE SABRE

Vertere Acoustics has announced a new moving-magnet cartridge that sits between the company’s Magneto MM model and its award-winning Mystic MC model.

Hand-built in London into a stunning orange anodised body CNC machined from solid aluminium that has threads to accept the supplied stainless steel mounting screws, the Vertere Sabre MM cartridge uses an Alnico magnet whose suspension is individually positioned and aligned for maximum musical performance, while the coils are fixed to the body via four spiked screws precisely positioned and torqued for maximum rigidity and performance — no adhesives are used.

The Vertere Sabre is fitted with a micro-elliptical 7.5×15.5μm diamond stylus that’s bonded to a tubular aluminium cantilever. According to designer Touraj Moghaddam, this mounting process delivers maximum tracking ability without compromising high-frequency response, which is claimed to extend to above 25kHz. Output voltage is rated at 4.0mV and channel separation as greater than 22dB at 1kHz. Weight is 10.3g.

“MM cartridges have in some ways suffered from the majority having a reputation of being a bit lightweight and scratchy-sounding,” says Gareth Weller, of HiFi Collective, which distributes Vertere Audio in Australia. ‘The Sabre is not such a cartridge as a demonstration will prove. Sabre is detailed, dynamic and full-bodied and, most importantly, highly musical and addictive while from a purely mechanical point of view, it has been specifically designed so that the stylus stays in the groove to retrieve the maximum musical information possible, even when playing old or damaged records.”

Available now, the Vertere Audio Sabre sells for $1,695 (RRP).