SAEC XC-11 Moving Coil Cartridge

The XC-11 is the second release in SAEC's 50th anniversary series, and it is a genuinely unusual cartridge. Two engineering decisions define it. First, the coils. The generator coils in an MC cartridge are where mechanical energy becomes your music signal, and the XC-11 is the first cartridge anywhere to wind them in PC-Triple C, the forged continuous crystal copper that SAEC brought to the audio world. Copper in which the crystal boundaries have been aligned along the signal path. Second, the magnetic circuit. Most MC cartridges run a yoke and magnet arrangement around the coils. The XC-11 uses a ring magnet system instead, with the coils suspended directly inside the neodymium magnet's field. It is far harder to build, but conversion efficiency is high enough that SAEC could cut the coil windings to the limit. Result: internal impedance of 2 ohms, far below normal, and linearity that low impedance buys you. Around that: line contact diamond (30μm x 3μm) on a solid 0.3mm boron cantilever, extra super duralumin body, phosphor bronze gold plated pins, 6.2g. Frequency response 10Hz to 45kHz, crosstalk better than 30dB, channel balance within 0.5dB.

Audio Union's Tokyo staff heard the demo unit: "It delivers everything a modern MC should, and on top of that the Triple C conductor and ring magnet generation give it an excellent sense of air. You feel the height of a church space."