The Miyajima range of moving coil cartridges from Japan is now available in the UK. Noriyuki Miyajima started out building mono cartridges to his own design and now has a range of handmade MCs with hardwood and composite bodies using a mix of conical, elliptical and Shibata styli. Miyajima is being distributed in the UK by Timestep whose proprietor Dave Cawley is “absolutely delighted to be now bringing the range to the UK market.” He is particularly enthusiastic about the mono models now that this format is seeing a resurgence in the vinyl market; “Using a properly designed mono cartridge to replay mono records results in a sound that simply can’t be matched by using a stereo cartridge. There’s something really special about that marriage of vintage classics with cutting-edge technology. You can’t beat it.”
The ‘hand-crafted’ Miyajima cartridges are available in mono, stereo and 78RPM variants with prices starting at £295 for the composite body Kotetu Mono (below) and peaking at £2,395 for the African blackwood Kansui. The stereo Shilabe (above) has the same body but comes in at £1,995. There are six mono, five 78RPM and four stereo models in the range and the Dartmouth based distributor can be contacted through www.miyajima-lab.co.uk
