Головки звукоснимателя — Kondo Audio Note Japan IO-XP

The IO-XP is a moving-coil phono cartridge from Kondo Audio Note Japan and, by the company's own count, its sixth MC design since the original IO appeared in 1979. It is the only cartridge on the current Kondo product list, which otherwise covers valve power amplifiers, preamplifiers, phono stages, step-up transformers, cables and output tubes. In Europe the IO-XP has been listed at EUR 9,500.

Key specs that matter

The generator is a moving-coil type wound with pure silver wire, and the output is 0.12 mV measured at 1 kHz and 5 cm/sec. Internal impedance is 1 ohm. Channel balance stays within 1 dB and channel separation exceeds 25 dB, both at 1 kHz. Kondo rates compliance at 6.0 x 10-6 cm/dyne and specifies a stylus pressure between 1.7 and 2.0 g. The body weighs 12 g.

Engineering and use context

Silver is the thread running through the design. The wire and the small parts are proprietary to Kondo - the metal comes from a European mine, is annealed in-house and then aged before it is wound. The magnet is alnico rather than a rare-earth material, a choice the company keeps because of its low magnetic resistance, and for this model the assembly and magnetisation procedures were revised to get the most usable flux from it. Work on the mechanical side went into damping and into the shape and inner structure of the body, which were chosen to control the resonance of the main housing so the stylus follows the groove accurately. The extremely low output is the price of a very small coil with a single ohm of resistance, and it sets the requirements for everything that follows in the chain.

Pairing

The natural partner is Kondo's own SFz step-up transformer, whose 1.5 ohm primary tap is intended for cartridges between 1 and 10 ohm and provides 34 dB of gain, which lifts the IO-XP to roughly 6 mV - a level a moving-magnet input handles comfortably. Its second tap, at 30 ohm with 20 dB of gain, is meant for higher-impedance cartridges and is not the one to use here. The SFz is wound with 99.99 percent pure silver wire on a laminated core of thin permalloy, sits in a double-shielded pure copper chassis and has an integrated silver output lead. After the transformer, the signal can go to one of the GE-10i, GE-7i or GE-2i phono amplifiers in the same catalogue. With moderate compliance and a 12 g body, the cartridge is better matched to a tonearm of medium or higher effective mass than to a very light one.

Alternatives

The earlier Kondo IO-M also pairs an alnico magnet with a silver coil at the same very low output, but calls for a lighter 1.5 to 1.8 g tracking force.