Free Shipping on US orders above $49
Recommended Component 2024 – Stereophile
Builds Upon the Strengths of the Bestselling Blue Point Special
The Sumiko Songbird moving coil phono cartridge builds upon the strengths of, and lessons learned from, the bestselling high-end cartridge in the world, the Blue Point Special. No aspect of the cartridge's design was left to chance. To avoid unwanted external resonance storage the conventional cartridge body was eliminated. This allowed for the construction of the most efficient path for evacuating internal resonance through the structure of the cartridge directly into the tonearm.
This low mechanical impedance mounting system, combined with the optimization of mass, provides the perfect environment for the carefully chosen working elements of the cartridge. The coated aluminum cantilever chosen for the Songbird provides excellent energy transfer from the stylus to the coils.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the Sumiko Songbird by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "With its aluminum cantilever and elliptical stylus, the high-output Songbird moving magnet reminded HR of Sumiko's famously high-value Blue Point that Stereophile favorably reviewed in 1993. 'In lower-priced cartridges, I look for accurate tone and some type of natural vitality. Which is exactly what the mildly broken-in Songbird exhibited,' wrote HR, concluding that the Songbird, 'with its sweet tone and subtle textures, is cut from the same sonic cloth as its Reference series sibling, the Starling.'"
Suspension Design
Virtually all conventional moving coils get by with a suspension element made from a butyl material. For the Songbird, we chose to use a synthetic rubber where the hardness (10 degrees) and repulsion factor (8%) of the material can be tightly controlled with molding temperature, cure time, and skin tension.
Additionally, with this synthetic material, the specified parameters of the suspension are held to design tolerance for a longer period of time. These steps help insure the cartridge will perform as designed for a longer period of time and will last considerably longer than other designs. The final result provides a combination of superior dynamics and excellent long term tracking ability.
Why an Elliptical Stylus Shape?
Your Songbird is fitted with a specially ground, low mass stylus, a design type where the inherent character is always musical. With care and precise adjustment, tremendous amounts of detail can be extracted from the Songbird. But unlike some designs, even if it is not adjusted within a gnat's whisker of perfection, your cartridge will still deliver an intensely musical experience.
Old World Craftsmanship
Each Songbird is painstakingly crafted by hand in a process that involves hours of labor. After assembly, final adjustments are made using a battery of test records, and performance is hand-calibrated. Each cartridge is subjected to this process and is critically auditioned before it is shipped. No computer or machine is yet capable of matching the precise adjustments necessary to extract the highest level of performance from a reference quality phono cartridge.
Choose High Output or Low Output Version
The Songbird is available in two output options. The standard "Low" output version has an output voltage comparable to most other moving coils and requires either a step-up transformer or an MC phono stage for matching to a hi-fi system. The Songbird Low Output likes to see a resistive loading of 100 Ohms or less, and at least 50 dB of gain - an ideal match for any of the adjustable Pro-Ject Phono Box models, and magic with the Tube Box DS2 and Phono Box RS with their infinitely variable resistive loading control.
The "High" output version is a type that many other cartridge manufacturers have struggled to achieve with such success. Sumiko high output moving coils can be paired with almost any MM phono stage, and the Songbird marries a low-mass cantilever to a powerful generator system for 2.5mV of output.
