Soundsmith Paua Mk II Phono Cartridge

The Moving Iron design allows for an incredibly low effective moving mass, which helps the stylus track grooves with greater agility and precision. This results in a sound that combines the warmth often associated with moving magnet cartridges with the speed and detail retrieval typical of high-end moving coil designs.

The Paua Mk II is a low-output cartridge (0.4 mV) that requires a phono stage capable of handling moving coil levels of gain. You will also need to ensure your phono stage supports a loading impedance of 470 ohms or higher to get the best performance.

Tracking force is critical for both sound quality and record longevity. You should set your tracking force strictly within the manufacturer's recommended range of 1.7 to 1.9 grams to ensure the stylus maintains proper contact with the groove without excessive wear.

The Contact Line stylus is designed to trace the groove walls more accurately than standard elliptical shapes. This increased surface area contact helps extract more detail from the record while reducing distortion and surface noise.

At 12.2 grams, this is a relatively substantial cartridge. You should verify that your tonearm's counterweight can balance this mass and that your tonearm's effective mass is suitable for the cartridge's compliance rating of 10μm/mN.

Yes, the telescoping design is engineered to be exceptionally rigid while remaining lightweight. This stiffness minimizes unwanted resonance and energy loss, ensuring that the signal transmitted from the stylus to the generator is as clean and accurate as possible.