Miyajima Labs

A friend recently purchased a Miyajima Labs Shilabe cartridge to try out on my Garrard 301 slate plinthed table. He has become interested to find out what all the fuss is about with vintage idler wheel based tables. Because of the low compliance of the Shilabe, the 12” transcription arm on my Garrard would seemingly be a match made in heaven.

We had been listening to the excellent Shelter 501 into my TubeGuru preamp with excellent results. It was the best sound that I’ve had in my room, thanks in large part to the phenomenal Hungarian preamp. My friend finished mounting the Shilabe on my Sumiko headshell and screwed it onto the bayonet connection of my tonearm, and we adjusted for overhang and vertical tracking angle and popped on a newly re-mastered 45 rpm copy of Nat King Cole’s After Midnight. From the first few notes, we knew we were hearing something special. As the last few notes of “Paper Moon” faded out, my friend Arthur Loesch stated “That’s the best cartridge I’ve ever heard”. High praise from someone who has heard more systems and cartridges than anybody I know of. We continued to listen in amazement for the next four hours. At the end of the night, I knew I had to have this cartridge in my arsenal. It had everything! It had bass that you could feel in your gut, dynamics, resolution, a massive three dimensional soundstage-all this with amazing finesse and refinement. It was indeed the best cartridge any of us have heard. It was one of those magical moments that don’t come around for us old geezers much anymore.

It is now available for demonstration in my showroom for anybody that cares to hear records like you’ve never heard them before.

Miyajima-Laboratory 　 Stereo cartridge -Shilabe- 　
Impedance 　About 16 ohms (About 0.23mV output) 　
Frequency range (-3dB) 　20 Hz to 32 kHz 　
Tracking force (Best) 　2.5g - 3.2g (recommended 3.0g)
Diamond needle 　Stylus Shape 　Shibata 　
Compliance (100Hz) 　around 5×10-6cm/dyne 　
Weight 　about 10.4g 　
Body 　African Blackwood
Price: $2995.