Happy Weekend! I was really glad to see this weekend arrive, as during the week I had come down with a nasty cold and had been only working half days trying to get feeling better. Ugh.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but right after co-worker Melanie gave me some Cold-EEZE lozenges to try yesterday I started perking up a bit - thanks, Melanie! 🙂

Or maybe it was the combination of the Cold-EEZE with the Macallan 12 Year Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whiskey that the good Doctor Leo had recommended to me that made me feel better.

It's a mystery, although to be accurate, the Cold-EEZE did seem to ease the cold symptoms, while the Macallan provided more of a merry attitude adjustment! Both results were welcome!

In any event, thanks to both Melanie and Leo for making my world a better place this week! 🙂

I've been listening to the Murasakino Ltd. Sumile moving-coil phonograph cartridge from Japan and am quite intrigued by what I'm hearing from it, which is a really nice combination of musicality and sonic prowess.

At this point in time my goal for the Sumile is to get some run-in time on it, and to experiment with setup in terms of cartridge adjustments, step-up transformers (SUTs), and phono cables.

At the moment I've got the Sumile mounted on my Schick graphite headshell (stock headshell wires), installed on my 12-inch Schick tonearm, running at 2 grams of tracking force, which is right in the middle of Sumile's recommended range.

Initially I was a little confused about the correct set-up for the Sumile, as I was getting significant mis-tracking on inner grooves where there were big dynamic swings.

The Sumile's tracking force is relatively light at 2 grams, compared to my Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII's 4 grams, or even my Denon DL-103's 2.5 grams, so I was considering my what my options might be.

I don't use anti-skate on my Ortofon's, EMT, or Denon, because I think they sound better without it, but I wondered if that was what the Sumile needed with it's lighter tracking force, so I got out the anti-skate counterweight for my Schick tonearm and installed it.

Problem solved. The Sumile now sailed through those inner grooves with no mis-tracking!

I checked in with Jonathan Halpern for advice, who has been listening to a Sumile at home, and who will also be importing the Sumile through Tone Imports.

Jonathan told me that as a rule-of-thumb he uses anti-skate for cartridges that have a tracking force of up to 2.5 grams or so, and no anti-skate for cartridges that track at 2.5 grams and above, like my SPU's, EMT, or Denon DL-103.

So there you have it, the Sumile is best used with some anti-skate.

Ideally one would use a step-up transformer with an impedance value that is equal to the impedance of the Sumile's coils, which is a low 1.2-Ohms.

However, I don't have a SUT like that, so for now I'm using my Auditorium 23 SUT designed by Keith Aschenbrenner that is optimized for the Denon DL-103 phono cartridge’s 40-Ohm internal impedance with the Sumile, and eventually I'll try my bespoke SUT by Dave Slagle of Intact Audio that I use for my Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII, optimized for it’s 2-Ohm internal impedance.

You'd think that the A23 would be a gross mismatch with the Sumile, but they actually sound pretty wonderful together.

I also tried a couple of different cables from the A23 SUT to my vintage McIntosh MX110Z preamplifier, the first being the Belden 8402 microphone cable (shield connected to ground at both ends).

The Belden sounded kind of 'rough' with the Sumile, so then I tried the shielded Duelund DCA16GA (shield connected at source end) that Chris at Parts ConneXion made for me, and it sounded better, but a little too vivid.

Then I tried the shielded Duelund Soft Annealed Silver Foil & Silk interconnects that Chris made up for me, and they were just right. The less vidid and more laid-back Duelund SASFS interconnects were a very nice match to the A23 SUT and Sumile combination, and the performance came together nicely.

In the photo above you'll notice that it says the shield was attached at both ends of the SASF interconnects, but I didn't like it that way, so I did a shield-ectomy at the non-source end of the interconnects, and they now have the shield connected only at the source end, which I greatly prefer for this particular set of silver interconnects.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, the Sumile is providing a very beguiling combination of musicality & sonics, and now that I have the set-up and associated equipment sorted out better, I'll look forward to sharing some initial listening impressions with you in a future post.

I have a lot more I'd like to tell you about, but I've run out of energy.

Now it's time for a little rest, some more cold meds, and perhaps a touch of Macallan, to take the edge of the remaining cold symptoms afflicting me.

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!