Introducing the New Generation of Vertere Cartridges, XtraX and Dark Sabre

Today, Touraj Moghaddam, the founder and chief designer of Vertere, explained and demonstrated the advances in cartridge design he has made in the past year.  

Touraj launched the XtraX moving coil cartridge and Dark Sabre moving magnet cartridge, which are significant improvements over their predecessors, which will now sit beneath them in the Vertere cartridge range.

Touraj explained to the select press audience that design choices determine material choices, and using unobtanium may be ideal for the press release and the salesperson's story, but that may be the only benefit.

There are many approaches to designing a product: some are just building on a previous design by empirical methods – trial and error by another name; some go back to first principles, and some just look at what is available from the market or OEM source and make small changes to bring differentiation.

As was quite clear from the presentation and demonstrations by Touraj, his designs are driven by first principles but aided by years of experimentation and experience.

OK, he will admit the purple colour of the XtraX is to keep marketing happy. It makes no difference to the performance, but the hard anodising that enables the purple finish does assist the overall performance by being a tough, rigid shell.

What makes XtraX special?

XtraX follows Vertere's hugely popular Mystic moving coil cartridge and improves upon it in every area. Lower tip mass, a stiffer, faster cantilever attached to a very low mass cross coil in a time-constant magnetic – a combination known internally as "Direct Drive" - delivers a highly musical, high definition, and powerful, engaging performance.

The XtraX Moving Coil in bullets

·                The body is precision CNC machined from solid aluminium alloy and hard anodised.

·                Threaded body to accept the supplied stainless steel thumb screws for correct coupling of the cartridge body to the tonearm headshell.

·                Three specifically designed contact points CNC machined into the top of the body that provide the exact mechanical coupling required.

·                Alignment ridge on the front top that assists mounting XtraX to any Vertere tonearm.

·                The low-mass generator utilises a Samarium-Cobalt magnet with a low-mass cross coil made of pure virgin copper wires.

·                The low-mass generator is mounted into the high-mass body using a Quad-Point Contact with Four Stainless' Spike' Screwsfor optimum support and control of unwanted mechanical vibrations.

·                The telescopic aluminium tube cantilever utilising two different aluminium materials - maximises stiffness without a massive high Q peak.

·                Nude Micro Elliptical single crystal diamond stylus tip for maximum tracking ability without compromising the high-frequency response or increasing surface noise.

·                Square shank diamond assembly maximises alignment precision, consistency and rigidity.

·                Wideband frequency response of below 10Hz to 45kHz.

·                Output of 0.45mV will provide a lifelike dynamic range with depth and precision.

What makes the Dark Sabre special?

Traditionally, since the passing of the Shure V15 Mk3 and maybe the Mk4 moving magnet cartridges, they have tended to be seen and heard as low and middle-market products. In the last two or three years, a few more high-end moving magnet cartridges have been launched mainly to suit modern high-end integrated amplifiers – a relatively new market entrant. Vertere's Sabre, the high-end moving magnet cartridge, has been successful and brought a demand for an even further improved version. With its single crystal, nude micro elliptical diamond and dual aluminium telescopic cantilever, Dark Sabre improves on Sabre significantly.

Dark Sabre high-end Moving Magnet in bullets

·                   Aluminium alloy body CNC precision machined from solid then hard anodised black.

·                   The low-mass generator utilises an Alnico magnet with a low-mass cross coil made of pure virgin copper wires.

·                   The low-mass generator is mounted into the high-mass body using a Quad-Point Contact with Four Stainless' Spike' Screwsfor optimum support and control of unwanted mechanical vibrations.

·                   The body is mass-tuned to the generator for optimum support of unwanted energy transfer.

·                   The telescopic aluminium tube cantilever utilising two different aluminium materials - maximises stiffness without a massive high Q peak.

·                   Nude Micro Elliptical single crystal diamond stylus tip for maximum tracking ability without compromising the high-frequency response or increasing surface noise.

·                   Square shank diamond assembly maximises alignment precision, consistency, and rigidity.

·                   Alignment ridge on the front top that assists mounting Sabre to any Vertere tonearm.

·                   Three specifically designed contact points CNC machined into the top of the body that provide the exact mechanical coupling required.

·                   Wideband frequency response of below 14Hz to above 28kHz

·                   Output of 4.3mV will provide a lifelike dynamic range with depth and precision.

To find out more about our next-gen cartridges, contact your local Vertere retailer.