EinsteinThe Pickup CartridgeusedEinstein The Pickup Cartridge Positive Feedback A+++einstein The Pickup Cartridge As reviewed by Danny Kaey See below: Positive Feedback ISSUE 75 September/October 2014 As NEW ultra low ...2050.00

Einstein The Pickup Cartridge Positive Feedback A+++

Listing ID: lis93025 Classified 
 Listed  · 968 Views

davidamb 

member since February 2006

Weinhart Design The AV Experts  Verified Dealer

Last 12 months
All-time291099.5%

1 Watcher

Time Left: None

This listing has ended.

Condition
10/10
Payment methods

Contact seller after sale to pay viaVISA/Mastercard

Ships fromLos Angeles, CA, 90077
Ships toUnited States and Canada
Package dimensionsunspecified
Shipping carrierUPS
Shipping costSpecified after purchase
Original accessoriesBox, Manual
AverageResearch Pricing

            einstein The Pickup Cartridge

                              As reviewed by Danny Kaey See below:


Positive Feedback ISSUE 75

September/October 2014





As NEW ultra low hours (Just Re Built by SoundSmith with Boron Cantilever &  Nude "Contact Line" Diamond low mass stylus.

Superior sound based on a top Ortofon cartridge nicely enhanced making this "A BEST, Top Cartridge".


The STORY: The Diamond tip got damaged and he traded it back to Weinhart Design. Please note new Boron cantilever & Diamond needle is a fresh rebuild from Soundsmith (their highest Level Re Build).

                                   Check out what Danny Kaey said:


It seems only yesterday that
my infection of the vinyl-phile bug took effect: 'twas the year 2001
when I first ventured out to Fingerprints, a local Long Beach ol' school
record shop, to get my first batch of black fury. Count forward the
years and what a ride it's been—my vinyl collection has now grown to
some 2500 records, some classical, some jazz, some rock, some pop and
some in-between. Naturally, a few record play-ahz have come and gone,
though now seem to have settled to a Brinkmann Balance and two Thorens
124 restorations, the Oswald Mills Audio 124 and Tonmechanik Berlin's
124 (formerly Norma-Hylee-Tech from Germany). 


Whereas I use both Thorens
decks for quasi vintage playback, the OMA 124 running a Schick arm
and—ironically—the Brinkmann EMT-ti, the Tonmechanik Berlin running its
own 12" arm with an Ortofon SPU A, the Brinkmann comes through when it

comes to ultimate fidelity, ultimate stability, image density,
granularity, resolution, i.e. a modern sound (though not to get
too far off the beaten path, the OMA 124 in particular, doesn't seem
that far off the pace, though more on that with a separate review /
discourse). My current reference Brinkmann setup is Brinkmann's own 12"
arm running the venerable Dynavector XV-1, and on the second pod,
Kuzma's 4Point running either an Ortofon A90 or Zu Audio's latest
generation Zu-103 (a Denon DL-103 modified pickup). 


When, during this year's CES
spectacle, Volker Bohlmeier, proprietor of EINSTEIN audio components,
pinged me to write about his newest kid, The Pickup, I obliged in kind
and without any hesitation. Not because I needed to hear yet another
cartridge; rather, to hear one that broke my semi-self imposed cartridge
price point of around $5000. Somehow or another, that 5k limit seems to
be somewhat of a constant: many a times have I been approached to
discuss pricier cartridges, yet always seemed to shy away from taking
the leap. Being intimately familiar with Volker's lineup—my main
listening room electronics consist of EINSTEIN's The Preamp, The
Poweramp and The Turntable's Choice—I felt somewhat called to
act. 




The Pickup then, arrives as
a made to order design under the guiding and watchful, partnering eyes
of Ortofon's Leif Johannson, who for years has been helming Ortofon's
ideas and cartridges. Having worked on The Pickup for some time,
certain design considerations and results were must-have items:
in typical EINSTEIN fashion, these were explosive dynamics, black
backgrounds (I despise that wording, no seriously), orderly resolution
and the EINSTEIN typical finesse and easy sound. Long a hallmark of all
other EINSTEIN products, these attributes speak directly to Volker's
vision of what playback is all about: real, dynamic sound, or, as
real as possible, in your own four walls.


An aluminum body was chosen
over more costlier and fancier titanium; pure copper windings instead of
more expensive gold/silver; a boron cantilever mounted diamond with the
famous "Shibata" cut completes The Pickup. Running as a defacto medium
output MC, no real-world phono stage should have any issues amplifying
the tiny signals being picked up from your groves. Expertly
setup by non other than the only man I trust to setup my decks, Arian
Jansen (of Sonorus Audio), off to the races we went. Sidebar:
look for an in-depth look at Arian's cartridge setup system in a future
issue of PFO—hint: it's quite ingenious and results in really the
optimal
mathematic and geometrically correct cartridge alignment.
First up was Beacon's The Ways We Separate album, released in 2013. One
of my favorite electronic additions, it's a soulful, bass busting,
soundstage shattering reference disc, I generally fire up right away
to
check my bearings. 




The Pickup delivers this
record in spades and then some. Seriously deep bass as evidenced
by Wilson Audio's Alexia and YG's Hailey (in conjunction with another
Arian Jansen—Sonorus—fabrication, the aptly named "Proximity
Subwoofer System", review forthcoming) was shaking up my listening
room. But it wasn't merely the tightly defined, thunderous bass; it was
the sheer openness of the soundstage and dramatic expansion of detail
that struck me as indeed special and unique. On Feeling's Gone, the
song starts out with a pulsating bass line that picks up tempo into
about a minute and half; the pace at which the bass lines move is
dramatically resolved, tight and in extreme focus: the digital hi-res
file in comparison misses the beat—no pun intended—all together and
by a long shot. 


Next up, I played Heart's
Little Queen, which I recently came across at a local record
shop—Bagatelle, on Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach. A catchy bass and drum
line
followed by Nancy Wilson's guitar riffs, gives this song tremendous
energy and punch. Played back on The Pickup, the shear size of
the instruments, focused on the percussion lines especially, is simply
amazing and falls squarely in line with how this song should
sound. Cueing up the same track on the Brinkmann / Dynavector combo
yields a similar, if slightly less pronounced image size and
specificity, whilst retaining the bass lines—nothing to sneeze at mind
you, nor anything you would really miss unless you had heard it via the
4Point / The Pickup in direct comparison. 




Chad Kassem's recent reissue of Zubin Mehta's Mahler's 3rd, is stupendously good, no,
make that great. As in, go out and get it. Even if Mahler's
arrangements are rather heavy hearted at times, the sonics captured here
are truly first rate... in the classical sense of the great Decca and RCA
titles of the golden age of stereo. Capturing the acoustic space that
it was recorded in, Royce Hall (1978), the LA Philharmonic is perhaps at
their prime. Maureen Forrester's contralto is ultimately powerful, yet
so incredible delicate in her reading that hearing it played back with
The Pickup gives you shivers. James Lock and Simon Eadon—Decca's
recording genius' behind this capture—are in their prime force: minimal
recording, maximum sound. QRP's pressing is equally incredible;
there are no pops, ticks or any other blemishes; backgrounds are dead
quiet (and pitch black for all your 'philes)—music and movements
simply flow like magic. Even if Mahler isn't your first stop, you owe
it to yourself to get this copy, if for not other reason than to test
your cartridge setup and revel in the shear explosiveness of this most
amazing recording. 


What The Pickup perhaps does
best is revel in the detail of a particular record without sounding
bright, shrill or spot lit on top: simply put, you get the detail
without the usually defined brightness. Midrange frequencies are
evenly
played, tracks from the likes of Dean Martin, Hank Williams, Kris
Kristofferson, carry just the right amount of weight, speed and vocal
impact. Likewise, female vocalists are equally as impressive to hear.
Case in point, a recently scored Nina Simone copy of Little Girl Blue (a

mint original Bethlehem) produced a stunning moody atmosphere with
such
incredible vocal rightness that I couldn't help but feel completely
mesmerized by her voice.


Unlike the A90 for example
(which as everyone recalls, was the defining "audiophile" cartridge for
a few years and is of course long out of production), The Pickup doesn't
seem to attract that level of surgical cleanliness at times,
which while sounding incredibly detailed on some recordings, is a
sometime distraction on many other recordings, all other things being
equal. Truth is, sometimes I just want to sit and listen to music,
not details contained within a particular recording.


EINSTEIN makes some very
fine
products that sound every bit as much as the way they look,
with great dynamics, fine resolution, superior soundstage recovery and
just plain old jamming sound. You want to search your
library to play more and more music. Inherent to our hobby then, The
Pickup does this with finesse and amazing resolve. Dynamics are
explosive—given the right recording—bass is deep, tight and well
defined with just the appropriate amount of slam and punch. No
surprises then, The Pickup fits right within EINSTEIN's range and
mission statement. In the end, it's all about the music. Highly
recommended, A+++.


PS: Arian Jansen's personal,
in home cartridge optimization setup is available to anyone—well,
technically anyone, alas, perhaps better defined as within the greater

LA area, though I have heard of Arian being given plane tickets to fly

to more remote places, so in demand is his routine—and really, I
haven't found a better way to optimize and setup your cartridges.
Various jigs and all are great starting points; seeing Arian at work
with his scope and analyzer however shows just how critical proper
alignment is. Most highly recommended!

Danny Kaey


The Pickup

Retail:
$8500



Distributer



On A Higher
Note, Philip O'Hanlon

949-612-0201



[email protected]




www.einstein-audio.de






POSITIVE FEEDBACK ONLINE © 2014 - HOME





                        
< ===================================== >









If you have questions, I can be reached in my Los Angeles Audio &
Video showroom weekdays (11-4) @ 310-472-8880 or after hours and weekends
(10-10) on my cell or call or better text @ 310-927-2260 / e-mail me @
[email protected]m

FYI:
Please visit my Audio & Video Los Angeles Showroom @ http://www.weinhartdesign.com/



Weinhart Design has
lots of other items new and used and if you’re in Los Angeles or

visiting please accept my invitation to experience our World Class Audio
Showroom and please visit our "ALL NEW" web site www.weinhartdesign.com

We
are always interested in purchasing quality Audio and Video items,

LP collections, specialists buying Audio Estates and most quality trades

are welcomed.

All sales out of California are State Sales Tax exempt. California State Sales Tax of 9.5% applies for items picked up or shipped to a California address.

Weinhart Design accepts payments by Bank Wire Transfers without fees and is the only

form of payment on all sales out of the U.S. and Canada. We prefer this
method of payment and also makes shipping to addresses other than
billing OK but you can call to discuss payments.

VISA, MC and Papal are gladly accepted within the U.S. and Canada as long as the charge is approved and were shipping to the BILLING ADDRESS and shipping to the billing address on record and adds a 3% fee to cover costs.

Please
call me directly in my world class showroom in Los Angeles weekdays

from 11-4PM @ 310-472-8880 or on my cell including weekends from 10-10PM

310-927-2260 and I can answer your questions and help you with all of
your new and pre owned needs.


              Making better Sound

           One system at at a time,

 

  David Weinhart
        Weinhart Design, Inc.
           President & CEO

 The Audio and Video Expert
e: [email protected]
   www.weinhartdesign.com

2337 Roscomare Road, Studio #1
  Los Angeles, California 90077
    Showroom) 310-472-8880
         Cell) 310-927-2260

No questions have been asked about this item.

Ask the seller a public question

You must log in to ask a question.

Return Policy

Return Window

Returns are not accepted on this item.