MoFi MasterTracker MM cartridge

The MoFi MasterTracker MM cartridge is the US manufacturer's top-of-the-line model. It was designed jointly with Allen Perkins, founder and chief engineer of the famous brand Spiral Groove. Like the two other cartridges marketed by MoFi (StudioTracker and UltraTracker), built by a famous Japanese manufacturer. The design is exclusive and to specifications.

The housing of the MasterTracker cartridge is made of 6061 black aluminium. It is an aluminium alloy with great deformation capabilities. Further to adding rigidity, it increases the cartridge mass from 6.4 g (e.g. StudioTracker cartridge) to 9.7 g! The housing has threaded inserts to facilitate assembly and get rid (with great relief) of the lock nut. The gold-plated connectors are of high quality and provide perfect contact.

The stylus has a very high quality micro-linear profile. This profile is very similar to the shape of the original cutting lathe. It provides better tracking and extracts as much information as possible, without producing any surface noise. Its frequency response is wide and realistic (20 Hz - 25 kHz), without any distortion. The stylus has a life of around 1,000 hours! The generator uses two powerful and lightweight magnets (per channel) aligned with great precision. The coils have been optimised with an OCC copper conductor. It is much purer than traditional OFC. This layout provides greater transparency and a subtler and more vibrant reproduction.

The MoFi phono cartridges have a unique design that completely departs from the competition. Mind you, this can be a drawback because, owing to its design with no parallel lines, it makes it more difficult to adjust. But no worries, with a good protractor and a bit of elbow grease, it's not as bad as it seems!

First of all, you have to make sure that the tonearm of your turntable will withstand a mass of 10 g. The MasterTracker was definitely designed to be paired with good tonearms and turntables.

It is ambitious for MoFi to offer an MM cartridge for this price! It actually makes sense, because many audiophiles own an MM phono input… This cartridge is amazingly silent and generates no surface noise. This immediately brings to life all the details in the music. You won't miss the great dynamics across the frequency response. The timbre is amazingly precise with obvious presence and neutrality. The bass quality is amazingly deep, subtle and punchy!

This MoFi MasterTracker cartridge is a true and safe alternative to high-end benchmark cartridges like Ortofon 2M Black, Audio Technica VM 760 SLC and Nagaoka MP500. Highly recommended!