Audio Technica AT-MC2022 Anniversary Limited Edition MC Phono Cartridge

Description

MY TAKE: Celebrating their 60 year anniversary, Audio Technica has designed a most unique phono cartridge. It's a technologial wonder! It is the only cartridge in the world to employ a one-piece diamond cantilever and stylus, unlike all other cartridges that use a stylus bonded to a cantilever.
The one-piece design maximizes energy transfer, revealing the subtlest of details. Only 60 built worldwide and just 16 sent to the USA. Only a lucky few will be able to own one. Might that be you? - Galen Carol

The result of 60 years of phono cartridge research and development, the AT-MC2022 offers cutting-edge technology for the analog audio aficionado. This innovative moving coil cartridge produces a sharp, vibrant soundscape that lets you hear – and feel – every detail of your music.
 

The AT-MC2022 has been designated an Audio-Technica Excellence Product, a recognition that identifies products that meet our highest standards of high-fidelity performance. 

The highlight of the cartridge is its unified stylus-cantilever, formed from a single, lab-grown diamond. This unique construction eliminates the distortion caused by conventional bonding of stylus to cantilever, allowing for a purer transmission of the vibration from the record groove to the coils. The unified, very slim 0.22 mm (0.009") diamond cantilever ensures extremely high propagation velocity and fast transient response.

The AT-MC2022 utilizes a highly efficient magnetic circuit resulting in greater magnetic flux density and output voltage. The hybrid construction of the cartridge body consists of an aluminum base and titanium housing, with an elastomer undercover to reduce undesirable resonance. Threaded mounting holes allow for easy installation to a headshell or integrated tonearm, and high-quality terminal pins (with gold plating that’s approximately 30 times thicker than is conventional) reduce contact resistance.

In celebration of Audio-Technica’s 60th anniversary, the AT-MC2022 moving coil cartridge features design accents inspired by traditional shippo enameling (Japanese cloisonné) and comes in a specially crafted walnut storage case with flip lid, drawer and acrylic window engraved with the product’s serial number and the 60th anniversary A-T logo.

REVIEWS:

The Tracking Angle - "Before retiring last evening, I played a few sides of the sonically and musically astonishing British Decca production of Porgy and Bess with Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus (Decca SET 609-11) recorded in 1975 with leads Willard White and Leona Mitchell. It’s among the best sounding recordings I own and not too costly on Discogs in either this or the same London edition OSA 13116). I always thought Kenneth Wilkinson engineered it and why not, it sounds good enough to have been, but there are no engineering credits so I don’t know who did, nor do I know why I thought he'd engineered it).

"The vocals, whether male or female, solo or massed chorus as reproduced by this cartridge were as effortless, natural and realistic sounding as I’ve ever heard them and you can make a check list of what that means and I’d check off the whole list if you presented it to me. And they were precisely sized on the stage. Even though the vocals are bathed in reverb, the voices remain clarified, and three-dimensional on the stage. Any lingering thoughts about the low bass performance would be dispensed with at the end of side two’s single tympani thwack.

"Last night was one of those evenings of listening pleasure, discovery and awe produced in great part by the truly remarkable Audio Technica AT-MC2022. The rest of the system didn’t hurt the experience but I’d grown accustomed to most of it. This was a special evening.

Conclusion

"The AT-MC2022 cartridge delivers, in my experience, unprecedented transparency, timbral honesty, midband "palpability", transient speed and clarity and a “wide-openness” I’ve not heard elsewhere. You definitely pay a lot for a lot of “nothing” and "nothing" is what I want from a phono cartridge, because a phono cartridge that adds nothing gives you everything. You may have other ideas." - Michael Fremer

Full Review

FEATURES:

Produces a sharp, vibrant soundscape that lets you hear – and feel – every detail of your music

Integrated stylus and 0.22 mm cantilever, formed from a single lab-grown diamond, eliminates the distortion caused by conventional bonding for pure signal transmission and fast transient response

The integrated diamond cantilever is lab-grown using CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process

Body constructed of titanium and aluminum with an elastomer undercover to reduce undesirable resonance

Utilizes a highly efficient magnetic circuit resulting in greater magnetic flux density and output voltage

High-quality terminal pins (with gold plating that’s approximately 30 times thicker than on conventional pins) reduce contact resistance

Black accents on cartridge body are inspired by traditional shippo enameling (Japanese cloisonné)

Threaded cartridge mounting holes allow for easy installation to a headshell or integrated tonearm

Comes with specially designed walnut storage case, featuring acrylic window with laser-engraved 60th anniversary logo and serial number. In addition, the packaging uses a traditional Japanese Echizen Washi paper.

Hand crafted Ion plating that achieves both high durability and a stunning mirror finish

Please Note: AT-MC2022’s stylus assembly is not field-replaceable, but Audio-Technica offers a fee-based Moving Coil Exchange Program to properly service your moving coil cartridge.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Produces a sharp, vibrant soundscape that lets you hear – and feel – every detail of your music

Integrated stylus and 0.22 mm cantilever, formed from a single lab-grown diamond, eliminates the distortion caused by conventional bonding for pure signal transmission and fast transient response

The integrated diamond cantilever is lab-grown using CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process

Body constructed of titanium and aluminum with an elastomer undercover to reduce undesirable resonance

Utilizes a highly efficient magnetic circuit resulting in greater magnetic flux density and output voltage

High-quality terminal pins (with gold plating that’s approximately 30 times thicker than on conventional pins) reduce contact resistance

Black accents on cartridge body are inspired by traditional shippo enameling (Japanese cloisonné)

Threaded cartridge mounting holes allow for easy installation to a headshell or integrated tonearm

Comes with specially designed walnut storage case, featuring acrylic window with laser-engraved 60th anniversary logo and serial number. In addition, the packaging uses a traditional Japanese Echizen Washi paper.

Hand crafted Ion plating that achieves both high durability and a stunning mirror finish

Please Note: AT-MC2022’s stylus assembly is not field-replaceable, but Audio-Technica offers a fee-based Moving Coil Exchange Program to properly service your moving coil cartridge.

Cartridge & Stylus -

Frequency Response 20 to 50,000 Hz
Channel Separation 30 dB (1 kHz)
Vertical Tracking Angle 20°
Vertical Tracking Force 1.6 to 2.0 g (1.8 g standard)
Stylus Construction Unified line contact (integrated cantilever type)
Recommended Load Impedance ≥ 100 ohms (when head amplifier connected)
Coil Impedance 12 ohms (1 kHz)
DC Resistance 12 ohms
Coil Inductance 25 μH (1 kHz)
Output Voltage 0.55 mV (1 kHz, 5 cm/sec.)
Output Channel Balance 0.5 dB (1 kHz)
Cantilever 0.22 mm (0.0087") square diamond
Static Compliance 21 × 10-6 cm/dyne
Dynamic Compliance 15 × 10-6 cm/dyne (100 Hz)
Cartridge Weight 9.5 g (0.34 oz)
Dimensions 17.3 mm (0.68”) × 17.7 mm (0.70”) × 26.7 mm (1.1”) (H × W × D)
Accessories Included Non-magnetic screwdriver, Brush, Washer × 2 , Cartridge installation screws (M2.6) (5.0 mm (0.20”) × 2, 8.0 mm (0.31”) × 2, 10.0 mm (0.39”) × 2, 12.0 mm (0.47”) × 2), Protector, Case (wooden box), Accessory pouch
Threaded Hole M2.6 × 2
Stylus Curvature Radius 2.2 × 0.12 mil