Designed for high quality listening, Wellfleet utilizes a highly polished nude elliptical stylus, eliminating the bonding between the stylus tip and shank. With the new assembly, excessive mass in the shank is cut away to further reduce tip mass, resulting in a faster, more direct, and more accurate response of the stylus’ movement by the cantilever and magnet. Sonically, this increases the process speed and focuses central images, pulling them toward the listener with a heightened sense for detail, according to Sumiko.
"With the Wellfleet, vocals are immediate, clear, and detailed, the warmth of human vocal work becomes more apparent with hints of rasp and emphasized subtleties, boosted by tight and well controlled bass. Backing vocals become easier to discern, and the listener is able to identify distinct instrumentation such as the rattle of snare wires, or the woody twang of a vintage acoustic guitars. Listeners will hear an improvement in surface noise and sense a more distanced backdrop, facilitating a deeply suspended image," the company adds.
Flexibility remains paramount for the brand’s offerings – with (5) current stylus assembly variations currently available, capable of utilizing this generator. Rainier owners can upgrade to Olympia, Moonstone and now Wellfleet with a simple stylus swap. The Wellfleet will retail for $449 USD through Authorized Sumiko Dealers beginning February 2022.
Since the production of the first Sumiko cartridge in 1982, Sumiko has been focused on creating state of the art phono cartridges, hand-built in Japan by skilled artisans to excel at the reproduction of analog music - from the accessible Oyster Moving Magnet models to the Low Output Moving Coil Reference cartridge designs.
www.sumikophonocartridges.com
