Goldring Ethos MC-Cartridge

Goldring Ethos MC cartridge

The Ethos is a top of the range moving coil pickup with a vital bare diamond stylus. This polyhedral, linear contact profile was chosen because it has a very low tip mass and a large contact area, while being very narrow from front to back and even allowing the undistorted retrieval of ultrasonic frequencies in a recording.

To process this information correctly, Goldring's handmade GOL-1 coil unit forms the centrepiece of the Ethos system. Equipped with a hand-wound, cross-shaped, soft iron armature and a low-resonance housing made of aircraft-grade aluminium, each individual pickup is precisely tuned by our experienced technicians to reliably meet our highest performance requirements to date. The result is that when you listen to records, you are deeply immersed in the musical experience... and that's our whole ethos.

The most important features at a glance:

• Line contact stylus
• The line contact diamond bevel offers a large contact area with the groove wall and is very narrow from front to back. This allows the needle to pick up high-frequency details precisely with minimal groove wear. The vitally shaped shaft gives the needle minimal mass at the tip, resulting in excellent scanning properties.
• Alloy needle carrier
• The stiff and lightweight alloyed needle carrier has the ideal length for optimum stability and clearance height. This reduces inertia in the suspension system and improves tracking.
• Cross-shaped armature
• The coils are wound around a cross-shaped armature made of pure Swedish iron with high permeability. The reduced unsprung mass improves the ability of the needle to follow the groove wall and minimises crosstalk, improving the stereo image.
• Optimised suspension
• A new type of pad made from a special butyl rubber compound ensures optimum damping of the system. Combined with a tensioned binding wire, the pickup remains ultra-stable even during the loudest and most complex passages.
• Neodymium magnet
• The very light and powerful neodymium magnet is clamped between two pole pieces. This creates a perfectly even magnetic field spacing in which the cross armature is suspended. This is how the Ethos achieves its extremely linear frequency response right down to the lowest frequencies.
• Aluminium housing
• The housing is precision-milled from rigid, low-density aircraft aluminium, which enables a low effective mass to be achieved and unwanted resonances to be diverted into the tonearm, where they effectively ‘sand up’.

TECHNICAL DATA

• Needle grinding: Vital line-Contact
• Needle carrier: Aluminium alloy
• Replacement needle: can be exchanged at the factory
• Frequency range: 10 Hz - 32 kHz
• Linearity: ± 2 dB (35 Hz - 20 kHz)
• Channel equalisation: <1 dB at 1 kHz
• Channel separation: >30 dB at 1 kHz
• Output voltage: 0.5 mV ± 1 dB @ 1 kHz, 5 cm/s (rms)
• Needle compliance: 25 mm/N
• Dynamic compliance @ 10 Hz: 15 mm/N
• Vertical tracking angle: 20°
• Load resistance: 100 Ohm
• Capacitive load: 100 - 1000 pF
• Coil inductance: 7.5 µH
• Coil impedance: 4 Ohm
• Weight: 7.7 g
• Weight (incl. screws): 8,5 g
• Distance between the fastening screws: 12.7 mm (0.5‘’)
• Contact force: 1.5 - 2.0 g (recommended: 1.75 g)