The Miyabi Standard’s Most Beguiling Quality
Without a doubt the most beguiling quality of the Miyabi Standard is also the one I understand the least. It has the ability to make very different sounding albums more musically satisfying and enjoyable than they had been before; I find this really fascinating. For example, before hearing them on the Miyabi Standard, I had found the Madeline Peyroux albums just plain boring. This would also be true of all but two sides of the new Thorens 125th Anniversary album, but when played with the Miyabi they are incredibly involving. I don’t notice anything that sounds particularly different about them, just that the performance is more emotionally involving. This isn’t only true on boring albums, there are other albums that I always thought were too dull, or had some other problem, that when played with the Miyabi I find myself so caught up in the performance that I am much less likely to care about these problems. Don’t get me wrong, the cartridge can’t make a bad performance good, but if the performance is good it allows me to make an emotion connection that transcends the recording process.
Comparison
My favorite cartridge so far has been the EMT TMD 25 Mono cartridge. My five favorite stereo cartridges are the Benz Ebony TR, EMT JSD5, London Decca Reference, Miyabi Standard and Soundsmith The Voice. The two EMTs need to be loaded into the Auditorium 23 SUT to sound their best, the Decca sounds best straight into the moving-magnet inputs on my Shindo Masseto, while The Voice needed an all-together different load that I could not achieve easily with my Masseto. So, I decided the only fair comparison was between the Benz Ebony TR and the Miyabi Standard. They both work wonderfully straight into the Masseto’s built-in SUT, and are my favorite of the stereo cartridges.
Let me start by saying that if I could afford the Miyabi Standard and one more tonearm, I would own both of these fabulous cartridges. If I could afford another tonearm though I would get a twelve-inch higher mass arm, and then I would want to try whole new group of cartridges that can’t be use in my current setup, so there’s no point going there. So how do these two very low output, low impedance cartridges compare? The Miyabi Standard has an output voltage of 0.2mV and an internal impedance of 2.0 ohms while the Benz Ebony TR has an even lower output voltage of only 0.1mV and an internal impedance of 1.0 ohms. These are a couple of cartridges that were designed to be used with SUTs.
They sound more alike than they do different. They are both incredibly organic, alive, and natural sounding. The Miyabi Standard sounds, bigger, bolder, and more dynamic. You would think from that description that it sounds more like a real performance and would have the warmer tonal balance, but you would not be necessarily right. The Benz Ebony TR sounds slightly more refined, may have better micro-dynamics, is a little more delicate, relaxed, and is more forgiving of recordings that have an edgy sound, or a little more glare. Then, the Miyabi Standard is more forgiving of remastered records that have a tendency to sound a little dull and laid back. Now, remember I said they sound more alike than different. This brings us back to the question of which sounds more like real music? Well, I have to be honest with you that completely depends on the recording you are listening to.
One last observation I would like to share about these two cartridges. All the differences I have mentioned could easily be masked if you don’t take the time to get the setup just right; that’s how much they sound like each other. Truth is, when I put the TR back in the system I was able to achieve an even closer sound by playing with the VTA and VTF just a little bit. I was even able to get the Thorens 125th Anniversary album to sound almost as involving with the TR as with the Miyabi.
Conclusion
By naming this cartridge the Miyabi Standard there could be some misunderstanding about how this cartridge relates to their other cartridges. While it is a little less expensive than the Miyabi/47, it is more of an alternative than their entry-level moving coil. I think a better way to understand the name is to realize that Mr. Takeda saw this as the standard for a phono cartridge that he was willing to put his name on. Let me end by simply saying that the Miyabi Standard brought beautiful, refined, and great music into my home, and it was great fun.
As I reread this review I fear that I may not have conveyed what is so special about this cartridge and it is truly special. So, I’m going to try one more illustration of how it sounds. One of the things I love most about Shindo preamps and Wavac amps is the way the midrange just comes to life.
Some call this midrange bloom, but I have heard it from so few products that I fear bloom is a description that is overused. This sound of the midrange coming to life is also what sets the Miyabi Standard apart from other great phono cartridges. The years are catching up with Mr. Takeda and I don’t know how much longer this work of art will continue to be available, and this is one phono cartridge I can’t imagine living without. There, I’ve said it, I like the Miyabi Standard very, very much and I think you will also.
Miyabi U.S. Importer’s Comment:
Thank you very much for the beautiful review of Miyabi Standard. What you say in the review exactly hits the bull’s eye. I never heard the designer, Haruo Takeda, talking about highs, mids and lows. He does talk about dynamics and transient speed though, and mostly, he talks about music.
These days, I travel to Japan very often and see Haruo every time I’m there. We always go to a free market together for vinyl hunting. He’s about 75 (nearly 20 years older than me) but insists to walk to the market which takes almost 30 minutes by foot from the train station. Usually we find several LPs worth taking, but the last time, we found a vendor with boxes and boxes of LPs and we each ended up buying over 30 LPs. AND HE STILL INSISTED TO WALK BACK TO THE STATION!! Well, I couldn’t take it, so called a cab. Next time I see him, it’ll be August, and will be terribly hot. I’m going to rent a car and go pick him up at his house to avoid the walk!!
Yoshi Segoshi/SAKURA SYSTEMS
