Головки звукоснимателя — Kensington Audio C-800

The C-800 is a low-output MC cartridge made by Kensington Audio, a British brand that made its debut at UK HiFi Show Live 2025 in Ascot. The company belongs to the Talk Electronics family, which brings more than 25 years of design and manufacturing history, and musicians assemble every cartridge in the range by hand in Britain. The C-800 is priced at GBP 1,999.95 and sits in a five-model line. The entry C-500 at GBP 599.95 uses an aluminium cantilever with an elliptical stylus, the C-600 at GBP 849.95 moves to boron, the C-700 costs GBP 1,499.95, and the C-900 at GBP 2,999.95 closes the range.

Key specs that matter

The generator uses coils wound from 6N OCC copper, a grade of 99.9999 percent purity, and the stylus is an elliptical fine line tip carried on a ruby cantilever. Nominal output is 0.35 mV at 1 kHz and 0.5 cm per second. Internal impedance is 6 ohm and the recommended load is 200 ohm. The maker lists a frequency response of 20 Hz to 25 kHz within 1 dB, channel separation above 30 dB and channel balance better than 0.5 dB. The body weighs 10 grams.

Engineering and use context

Tracking force is specified between 1.1 and 1.4 grams, and dynamic compliance is given as 15 to 20 cu. The vertical tracking angle is 20 degrees, and the tracking ability figure is about 70 micrometres. Kensington describes the ruby cantilever and ultra-pure copper coils as the core of this model, placing it between the C-700 and the sapphire-equipped C-900 in its lineup. The company sells directly and offers a 30-day hire scheme for the C-800 at GBP 199.95, with GBP 300 of that fee credited toward the purchase price if the listener decides to keep the cartridge. Its announced plans include building international distribution partnerships. The same output, coil impedance and mass are shared with the C-900, so the two models differ in cantilever material and quoted bandwidth rather than electrical data.

Pairing

With its low output, the C-800 needs a phono input designed for low-output moving-coil cartridges, or an SUT placed before an MM stage. The recommended load and internal impedance are the figures to match against the loading options of the phono stage, and the body weight together with the compliance is the data to check against the effective mass of the tonearm.

Alternatives

The Kensington Audio C-900 swaps the ruby cantilever for sapphire and extends the quoted upper frequency limit to 30 kHz.