Otello

"The Otello powers through Hollywood Nights with an assurance and sense of drive that makes for a very entertaining performance. The instruments come out of the mix in a pleasingly three dimensional way and are topped off with an excellent rendition of Bob Seger’s vocals. The claim of reduced inertia from this fi xed-coil cartridge system seems to translate into a coherent and lively rhythmic performance."

Hi-Fi Choice March 2018 Issue 434

Representing the entry point to the Soundsmith range of cartridges, the US-based company is known for its more specialist designs. As such, the Otello is different to any other contender in the group and uses coils like a moving-coil design, but here the coil is stationary in the body – hence the fixed-coil description. The end of the cantilever has a flux generator that moves relative to the coil to give the signal output. The other end of the aluminium cantilever is the only one in the test to use a bonded stylus, in this case an elliptical type with a titanium shank.

This arrangement achieves a claimed output of 2.12mV, which is the lowest in the test, and one that might prove a challenge in setups where gain is limited, but should still work fine with most moving-magnet phono stage designs. Soundsmith says that the advantages of the fixed-coil system are a considerable reduction in mass, which helps to improve tracking ability and reduce inertia.

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• Otello

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