Allnic Audio Amber MC Cartridge

The star products from South Korea’s Allnic Audio continue to arrive on the island for review. Usually, the delivery guy/gal is cussing me under his/her breath wrangling the massive boxes in which the Allnic tube amps and preamps arrive. This time, no grumbling. A tiny cartridge.

The new Allnic Audio Amber Moving Coil Cartridge, in fact, the more expensive sister to the equally new Rose MC Cartridge ($2900—now in Karl Sigman’s hands—review up late August). The MSRP of the Amber Moving Coil Cartridge is USD 5400.

The Amber is handbuilt in South Korea by Allnic head Kang Su Park. Park’s brilliance is well known by audiophiles heard through his aforementioned amps and preamps. Less so for his original Puritas MC cartridge. 

The Puritas gained quite a reputation with audiophiles but the new Amber is the end of 13 years of research and development, especially in the search and choice of advanced materials.

The Amber comes in a lovely presentation box, housed in a screw down, metal case. Beware, there is no stylus guard [this has been remedied in all subsequent releases—Ed].

Features

Allnic Audio is very proud of the hard work that has gone into producing the Amber. The design reproduces music via a mechanism that emulates an LP lathe’s cutter head, the cart’s diamond stylus replacing the lathe’s diamond chisel. 

Unlike many high end carts, the Amber MC has two separate, hollow, polycarbonate bobbins as opposed to one. Park believes that polycarbonate reacts far more quickly than traditional iron giving the Amber greater speed and agility in the grooves. 

One of the new features Park is most proud is the development of a new rubber damper. Park was totally focused on producing a significant improvement over his earlier Puritas but the quality of rubber he was finding hindered progress. When he found the correct rubber after years of research, it was almost a ‘Eureka’ moment! 

Also included on the Amber are CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) dual coils, a Fritz Gyger S stylus, and a solid Boron cantilever with a Zinc mounting plate. The magnet is Neodymium 50. 

Specifications

Output Voltage: 0.35mV 1KHz / 7cm/s

Impedance: 9 ohms

Compliance: 10 X 10-6 dyn / cm (100Hz)

Tracking Force: Suggested minimum 2.0 grams (+/-0.2 gram) varies by altitude; use this as a guide only

Channel Separation: 30dB above

Channel Balance: Within 0.2dB

Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 30 KHz

My Use

The Amber is said to continually improve over a minimum of 40 hours of playing time; pretty standard for a quality MC. The distributor mentioned his beta testing team demonstrated exceptional, out-of-the-box performance. He wasn't fibbing.

The always important weight/compliance, cart/arm matching:

My Bergmann Audio Magne Tonearm is 11 grams and considered medium mass. By a hair. The distributor mentioned the pairing should work but reminded me of the Amber’s tracking ability 78um at 300Hz, about 9um/mN compliance. Before purchase, check with the dealer whether your arm will work. The Amber is beefy and 11 grams of Duralumin. Too light an arm will deteriorate the sound.

Visualize the problem this way. If you think of the arm mass (A) and cartridge compliance (B) pairing as a venn diagram, then, according to Allnic, my arm manages to fit in the ‘it works’ intersection of A and B. Happily, science won out. I heard no distortion or funny business with tracking or light bass (a big problem with mismatched arms/carts) during the audition period. 

The happy combination story was foretold by the simple setup. Literally, two, insert from above, screws. Heaven. Compared to my reference Phasemation PP-2000 MC Phono Cart ($8000), it was simple. The PP-2000’s miniscule screws/washers/nuts have to be inserted from above and below which makes it a finicky nightmare to set up and needs my wife’s delicate, safe fingers for completion. The Amber was up and running in minutes, and, arm-dependent, can be set up by ham-fisted audiophiles of all stripes. 

Overhang with the Magne Linear Tracking Tonearm was a non issue. And, as usual with this type of arm, the Ortofon protractor is just a quick double check item. Your overhang and null point cross check may take a little more time. But, for my setup, the cartridge was plug and play. 

I set the tracking as instructed by the paperwork to 2.0 grams. After a couple of days, the distributor suggested 2.4 grams. I obliged. Check your paperwork upon purchase and crosscheck with your dealer. As always, use your ears. Same for VTA. The distributor suggested a slightly elevated rear end. I liked what I was hearing with the arm parallel.

Loading? Both phono stages, the Allnic Audio H-7000 LCR ($16,500) and Icon Audio PS1 Mk. II ($2400), were set at 100 ohms. The Amber appreciated that number. 

If you’d like to see how my Amber looked in action, we have a video on our YouTube channel (please subscribe). If you want to hear from the great man himself, Kang Su Park has three fascinating, in depth videos on Allnic’s channel (Video 1 ,Video 2, Video 3) about his long journey to the Amber. For vinylphiles and cartridge enthusiasts, a must watch.

Sound

As suggested by the distributor, the sound is pretty well ready to go out of the box. You won’t be waiting an interminable time for a lengthy break in. Power, dynamics, slam, translucence and subtlety were heard on the first record. Even the most agreeable carts need fifty hours. The additional break in hours only served to reiterate what an exceptional cartridge the Amber is, adding a little more transparency and timbral sophistication. 

The cart’s initial tell was very accurate. It throws an immense soundstage but always in keeping with the original event. Big orchestral recordings give you the best concert hall seat, and jazz, a Goodfellas, supper club table. Led Zeppelin? Amber gave me a rocking picture of what the boys were trying to recreate on their debut album. Big, electrifying sound!

But, the three main takeaways from those initial sessions were immediacy, coherence and timbral accuracy. Like many well designed cartridges, the bass is rocking—you’ll never be wanting more—but the musical midrange and sweet, transparent highs are equally enthralling. 

During analogue reviews, the first LP on the Bergmann is always The Firebird; Mercury’s superb reissue with Antal Dorati conducting the 1959 LSO from Kingsway Hall. The late ‘50s, early ‘60s LSO had to compete with Walter Legge’s EMI-funded Philharmonia Orchestra for the top British players, money usually winning out. Happily, the LSO, with London’s massive pool of exceptional players, still managed to secure wonderful soloists, but some had very ‘idiosyncratic’ sounds, like Roger Lord, oboe and Gervase de Peyer, clarinet. The Amber nailed their particular sounds to the wall; absolutely secure timbral accuracy. Many carts I’ve used hint or blur de Peyer’s vibrato and thin sound or the wiry timbre of Lord’s oboe. Even the subtle finger movement on Lowry Sanders’ gorgeous piccolo playing is heard. 

As for those sweet, transparent highs, nothing sounded better than the Amber’s portrayal of Rossini’s String Sonatas (ASMF on a magnificent 1969 Argo) played through the 30W triode mode of an integrated amplifier in for review. Absolutely stunning. The combination with the Allnic H-7000 had me shaking my head at its beauty. Vinyl representation far above the $5400 price point.

The Amber is superb with voices, too. I’m not a Led Zep aficionado, but Robert Plant’s expressive falsetto and head tones (usually unsupported by the diaphragm—achieved with pure, brute strength) sounded entirely accurate to me. Instruments or voice, you’ll be getting the whole picture. 

If you already have a cartridge of quality and are big into vinyl, an Amber audition is a must for 2020/21. I think you may be quite shocked at what a great design can offer at this price point. As you audition your favourite records, you’ll be captivated by the most subtle detail retrieval.

Hitherto unheard accents here, background counterpoint now heard, and lots more. But most importantly, coherence—all the Amber’s qualities seem to be in service to the music. It stays out of the way for the busy audiophile. 

So, how does Allnic Audio’s $5400 Amber Cartridge fare against my reference $8000 Phasemation?

The PP-2000, once set up, is remarkably easy to live with, works beautifully with phono stages of all types and prices, is handbuilt in Japan by artisans, and is loved by many audiophiles. The Amber is the shiny new kid, and, in value terms, is offered at a knockout price. Yes, $5400 is not cheap, but it’s axiomatic in the analogue domain you get exactly what you pay for. That’s why the Allnic Audio Amber is an exceptional bargain. I’ve heard many carts costing more but delivering less. 

Your choice between the PP-2000 and the Amber will come down to personal taste. Both will give you all the vinyl qualities you desire. The Amber offers a slightly bigger musical picture, beefy and big-boned, with the Phasemation giving the listener a little more delicacy, repertoire specific. Amber can unravel thick midrange textures as well as any cartridge I’ve reviewed, even better than my reference. Both will replay your favorite voices in magnificent Technicolor and instruments sounding exactly as they should in glorious musical spaces.

Bass? Amber by a hair—it replicates the transient as well as the Phasemation, but decay in a resonant acoustic is a smidgen more controlled (try Chicago SO/Reiner/LSC reissue Lieutenant Kijé by Prokofiev, opening track). As for massive bass drum hammer blows on side 2 of the aforementioned Stravinsky record, the Amber tracks them and produces the immense sound as if a mere bagatelle.

For $10,000 more, a Clearaudio Goldfinger may give both cartridges a bit of a spanking on the sophistication benchmarks, but this will only be apparent to those with a quality vinyl collection and an equally superb phono stage. And, will take time to appreciate. But, 10 grand! 

I’ve got a $15,000 Air Tight Opus 1 coming soon for review. I’m looking forward to running Amber and the Opus 1 against each other. Happily, Amber will be staying on the island for a while. As such, it’ll be a perfect stable mate for this reviewer.

Conclusion

I would encourage all who love vinyl, have some coin burning a hole in their pockets, or those who want to upgrade, to audition the Amber. Even those very happy with their more expensive cartridges should have a listen. The Peter Principle, its ‘lateral arabesque’, specifically, should be in play, here. If you are getting itchy feet or just want a knockout performer, the Amber will give you end-of-journey performance at a relatively reasonable cost. It’s an analogue no-brainer. Very highly recommended. 

Further information: Allnic Audio