Goldring EROICA-LX

Goldring EROICA-LX

The Eroica LX is a true audiophile moving-coil cartridge featuring the famous Gyger II diamond stylus profile. A nude, fine-line elliptical type with a 6 µm lesser radius, it gives smooth, extended highs, low distortion and reproduces a highly detailed and dynamic sound. To take proper advantage of this, the pick-up coils are hand-wound on a pure iron armature and suspended in a magnetic circuit of advanced design featuring low mass and powerful rare earth magnets. The low output Eroica LX offers an exceptionally high standard of performance and reliability and must be used with an amplifier which features a dedicated moving coil phono input.

Efficient Magnetic Circuit
The Eroica uses a neodymium (NdFeB), rare-earth, permanent magnet; the strongest type commercially available. This gives us the opportunity to shorten the magnetic circuit in the cartridge and still achieve the required field strength in the pole shoe gap. In this way the overall mass of the cartridge has been reduced to help improve trackability and make it compatible with a wider range of tonearms.

Low Mass Pocan® Body
The Eroica uses a strong one piece body which holds the fixed parts securely in place. Made from a special type of ultra-rigid, glass reinforced polyester called Pocan®, the body can be tightly bolted to the head shell for maximum efficiency and optimum sound quality. Because Pocan® has a high strength-to-mass ratio, the overall mass of the Elite is kept below 6.0 g.

Expert Adjustment
Each Eroica cartridge is hand-built and then individually adjusted for azimuth and compliance by our experts. The correct setting of stylus azimuth (or horizontal tracking angle) is essential for the maintenance of a proper stereo sound stage. Badly adjusted azimuth can cause uneven channel balance and increased crosstalk between channels which would severely degrade the stereo image. Correct compliance ensures that the cartridge has an even frequency response within the specified limits and will be compatible with all low to medium-mass tonearms.

What is a Moving Coil Cartridge?
As its name suggests, instead of a moving magnet interacting with a stationary coil, this type of generator works the other way around. This still satisfies Faraday's Law because a conductor moving in a stationary magnetic field still experiences a changing magnetic flux. A large permanent magnet is fixed in position and creates a strong uniform magnetic field in the gap between two pole shoes attached to it. Suspended by a rubber damper in the gap is the armature which carries the generator coil and this in turn is connected to the stylus via the cantilever. As the stylus traces the record groove, the coil moves in the magnetic field and a corresponding e.m.f. is generated within it. Because its moving mass is much closer to the pivot point, inertia is reduced and so it has a superior transient response compared to MM types. At the same time it it is easier to accurately position stereo coils within the magnetic field and so there is the potential for improved channel balance and crosstalk figures.

To keep mass low, the coil contains only a few turns of wire - so it generates a much lower output than a moving magnet type (typically 0.5 mV). For this reason MC cartridges require a special high gain phono stage and a lower load impedance and so cannot be used with a normal MM phono input. Because it has both low inductance and internal resistance, the MC generator is not affected by the load capacitance presented by phono stage and interconnects, making for a flatter, more extended frequency response. MC phono stages usually offer a variety of loading options to tailor the sound of the cartridge to taste.