We’re on an analog roll here at SoundStage! Ultra. In the past couple of months, we’ve reviewed the Thales TTT-Compact II turntable system and the matching X-quisite Voro cartridge, the Musical Fidelity M8xTT and Vertere Acoustics MG-1 turntables, and the Audio-Technica AT-ART20 cartridge. I’ve kept up the pace with the first installment of my VPI Prime Signature tonearm upgrade path and thrown in some analog love from European Audio Team.
In early July, I was chatting with SoundStage! publisher Doug Schneider, and he asked me, in a tone that was equal parts admiration and concern, “Don’t you think we’ve covered enough vinyl products?”
Well yeah, I guess so. But how much is too much?
A short while back, while I was running the M8xTT through my analog obstacle course, I received an email from Bernard Li, founder of Charisma Audio, the Canadian distributor of a number of juicy, esoteric products. Back in 2011, I reviewed the Well Tempered Lab’s Amadeus turntable, a product that Li’s Toronto-based company still distributes today. I was taken aback by the Amadeus’s brilliant, quirky engineering and its equally brilliant sound quality. Over the years, I’d bump into Li at shows and we’d chat about things audiophile, but he never offered any more of his products for review.
Li’s email came out of the blue: “Would you be interested in doing a review of one of my cartridges?”
Well, I thought, recalling the fun I had with that Well Tempered ’table, what’s one more analog review?
Too much is nearly enough
After I electronically slapped Li’s hand, we did some back and forth and decided that Charisma Audio’s Signature Two cartridge would fit in well with my system. Shortly thereafter, a small, surprisingly heavy box showed up at my Toronto home, courtesy of my Canada Post mailman, who by now seems to know my name.
It turns out that Charisma Audio, which was formed in 2000, began a project to build its first cartridge back in 2013. The MC-1 was introduced in 2014. Since then, Charisma has expanded its lineup to include 11 different moving-coil cartridges, a turntable, a phono stage, a tonearm, and several accessories. According to Li, a speaker is coming down the pipe in the near future. Charisma’s cartridges are co-designed by Li and an experienced cartridge designer. The parts are sourced from multiple countries, and final assembly, testing, and packaging are done in Canada.
The $5490 Signature Two (all prices in USD) is the second from the top of Charisma Audio’s lineup. The flagship model, the YYZ, retails for $8000, while the Signature One, which sits just below the Signature Two, sells for $3990.
(At this point in the review, I’d like to alert you to the fact that YYZ is the call sign for Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, which is also the inspiration for the song “YYZ” on the Rush album Moving Pictures.)
Once the Signature Two’s stylus and/or suspension wears out, Charisma Audio will re-tip the cartridge for a very reasonable $1500, and a full rebuild—should you need it—will set you back $3000.
The Signature Two itself is a well-decked-out, ambitious moving-coil cartridge. Housed in a yellow rosewood body, the Signature Two is armed with a white ceramic cantilever that’s tipped with a microfine line-contact stylus. Weighing in at a fairly svelte 8gm, the Signature Two is built around a square iron core with wiring of an unspecified alloy. Compliance is claimed to be 10µm/mN, which points to compatibility with most modern, medium-mass tonearms. Charisma recommends a 1.8gm tracking force and a break-in period of 50 hours.
Outputting a waif-like 0.25mV, you’d think this cartridge would require a stout phono preamp with prodigious gain, but I don’t think that number tells the whole story. My Aqvox Phono 2 CI isn’t the last word in gain, but I didn’t really have to twist out the dials that much further than I did for the X-quisite Voro, which cranks out almost three times as many millivolts as the Signature Two.
Box it up
The Signature Two’s packaging deserves special mention. The cartridge is delivered in a nicely made cardboard box, which opens to reveal a beautifully machined aluminum case. The inner box is truly presentation quality. It’s perfectly anodized, rests on four cushioned feet, and is secured by a clear thermoplastic screw-on top. Supplied accessories include a high-quality hex driver and a nice bubble level.
While shooting close-up photos of the Signature Two, I found myself somewhat confounded. At first, I thought I was having trouble focusing on the cartridge body. As I zoomed in for a really close look, I noticed that the surface of the body wasn’t totally smooth. It looked to me like it was brushed to accentuate the grain. A quick email to Li elicited the explanation: “Unlike ebony, different burl woods, or other very hard woods, the Signature Two’s yellow rosewood body does not take a very fine finish due to the grain nature. Once wood wax is applied, the body will become rough again. We have already done five applications of wax to reach this finish.” Fair enough.
Mounting was trouble-free. The cartridge is supplied with an easy-in-and-out stylus guard, and the mounting holes are threaded. Sight lines are reasonable, which makes for a quick alignment.
I ran the Signature Two exclusively into my Aqvox Phono 2 CI. The Aqvox’s current-based balanced inputs meant that I didn’t have to monkey around with impedance settings. The phono cable was my Nordost Tyr 2, running from the RCA outputs of the VPI Prime Gimbal 10-3D tonearm to the balanced inputs of the Aqvox.
I gave side-eye to that 1.8gm tracking force recommendation. Charisma Audio specifies it quite clearly, with a stern addendum of ±0.1gm. As I obviously know better, I started off with 2.0gm, because, well, that’s what I’m used to. After a couple of hours, before it was even broken in, I backed it the hell off to Charisma’s recommended 1.8gm. At the lighter weight, the bass was just as potent and much tighter. Highs were open and clearer now. Again, read and follow the instructions, Thorpe.
Once it was settled in, broken in, and adjusted for the optimum tracking weight, I immediately fell in love with the Signature Two. This cartridge from Charisma Audio is the second high-end moving coil I’ve had in my system since the DS Audio W3 and DS 003 optical cartridges blew up my skirt. When I combined the DS 003 with the EMM Labs DS-EQ1 optical phono stage, I really thought I’d reached the pinnacle of my life with LPs. But cast your mind back—I said quite clearly in my review of the DS 003 cartridge that this type of sound wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Spark it up
After I’d gotten the Signature Two dialed in, the first recording that quite literally took my breath away was Astor Piazzolla’s Tango: Zero Hour (Pangaea PAN-42138). This record always captures my attention. Mostly it’s the second track, “Milonga del angel,” that gets me sideways. It’s so full of emotion that it almost makes me cry, and the rest of side 1 is equally mesmerizing. Side 2 is great also, but it gets a bit more jangly and some of the magic vaporizes.
But with the Signature Two on point, I devoured side 1 and flipped straight over to side 2, and was equally captivated. The Signature Two has a quickness to it, a sense of lithe sinuousness, that captures this album’s lightning in a bottle and disperses it in a fine mist of musical brilliance.
Okay. I’ll decode that last sentence, but please realize I wrote it as I was listening to the record. This is a quick, responsive cartridge. While it still retained much of the rich lushness that’s the hallmark of a quality MC cartridge, there was no sense of the pudding-like lethargy that can come along for the ride.
First off—that lushness thing. The violin in “Contrabajissimo” came through via the Signature Two as an organic, fully fleshed-out instrument, its granular texture occupying a discrete but substantial volume of space. The violin complemented the bowed bass—the two stringed instruments were presented with a roundness, a suppleness, that accentuated the texture of the bows rubbing on the strings.
But that effect wasn’t overdone. Riding like a carrier wave on top of the fruity sense of texture was a speedrunning way with transients. It was a B-1 bomber with an F-22 Raptor escort. The Tragically Hip’s Fully Completely is a charming record, in spite of the slightly muddy sound quality of my OG copy (MCA Records 0254704109). Listening to “Pigeon Camera” really loud was instructive here. Johnny Fay’s drums just leaped out of the speakers. From the crisp hi-hat right through the snappy snare, I found myself focusing more on the various aspects of the percussion than usual. This is a lithe, quick cartridge. Maybe it’s the light tracking weight, or maybe the stiff ceramic cantilever? Who knows? Regardless, there was a speed to its presentation that was intensely compelling.
This snappy presentation wasn’t overdone either. The Signature Two showed a fine balance between the midrange richness and the quick attack right through the entire presentation. Higher up in the audioband, the Signature Two was quick and extended, but it leaned just slightly toward the soft side. This very mild reticence made aggressive records sound a little more palatable.
On a whim, I yanked Frank Zappa’s Sleep Dirt (Discreet DSK 2292) out of my record rack and tossed it on the VPI. This album is crisply, almost aggressively recorded and full of slashing guitars, and it can be a bit much when the system leans toward the aggressive side of things. With the Signature Two in the chain, I found myself wanting to hear the whole of side 2. “The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution” has got it all—those crazy guitars, busy drums, and a fantastic bass solo. The Signature Two let me relax into this track, sink into it without being beat about the head and neck by it. All of the extension was there on the guitars, but without any grit or sharp edges.
Flipping over to side 1, the intensely atmospheric “Filthy Habits” gave me a dose of deep spatial intensity. If anything, Zappa’s guitar here is even more aggressive, with a couple of notes that made me tweak my head sideways like a dog hearing a training whistle. The Signature Two placed that guitar just above tweeter height, about six inches in front of the plane of the speakers. So specific! Yeah, damn straight. This was superb imaging, and it continued with the phasey effects on the guitar, sending trails left and right, so corporeal that I could almost see them. With the volume raised up to absurd levels, the Signature Two painted an aural picture that was intensely satisfying.
I listened to the rest of Sleep Dirt at this sizzling volume. To me, that’s the mark of an exceptional component—does it make me want to continue listening, and does it encourage me to twist the throttle?
Earlier, I said that I was skeptical about backing down the tracking force from 2.0gm to 1.8gm. My rationale was that I like bass—I cannot lie—and I’ve generally found that a higher tracking force gooses the bottom end in a way that really appeals to me. So a lighter tracking force? That’s for children and the elderly, right? So when I backed down on the VTF, I expected the bass to thin out.
That didn’t happen. The bass levels remained appropriate to the music, but the sense of impact and definition tightened up appreciably. Simple Minds’ New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (A&M SP-6-4928) is driven by Derek Forbes’s tasteful, loping bass. “Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel” takes this concept and runs with it. The Signature Two endowed this slinky bass line with an extra dose of lankness, slightly accentuating the leading edge and the thin whippy tail of notes. It seemed like the Charisma Audio cartridge was almost stretching the notes, juicing up the feeling of loping athleticism on which this song relies.
Listening to this album, I was struck by the entrance of Forbes’s bass in “Big Sleep.” It was early morning and I had just finished a croissant loaded down with my neighbor’s homemade Scotch whisky marmalade (thanks Quentin!) and this song gave me a moment. During the ebb and flow of this track, while the Signature Two seemed like it was playing with the rhythm—not quite editorializing it—riding that fine line between metering out the flow of the music and letting it pass through unchecked, it was a magic instant. The cartridge’s superb way with groove-oriented music meant that—once again—I flipped the record over and listened to the second side without interruption.
Wrap it up
After spending a whole bunch of time listening to the X-quisite Voro cartridge, and now to the Signature Two, I’m starting to think that maybe I’m coming back full circle in my analog life, and beginning to re-learn what a high-quality moving-coil cartridge can bring to the party.
Heart or brain? Love or science? Dionysus or Apollo? Unless you’re seriously rich and can afford two banger ’tables, you’ll essentially need to pick whether you want an optical or a magnetic cartridge, and then commit to the phono stage that supports the appropriate technology.
If you haven’t already, please go back and at least read the DS 003 review I linked at the end of the “Box it up” section. It’ll tell you how snappy and dynamic optical cartridges sound, and give you an idea of how much I love them. In that review, I hinted that the sound of an optical cartridge wouldn’t appeal to everyone. What I meant is that there’s a bit more soul in a moving coil. What was unsaid in my review is that those who know and love how rich, lush, and natural a good moving coil sounds might find an optical cartridge a bit too revealing.
And there’s no doubt in my mind that the Signature Two is a good moving-coil cartridge. In fact, it’s a great, silver bullet of a cartridge; one I could easily live with. Going back over this review, I noticed once again that I had listened to every record I used to assess the cartridge from start to finish. It’s been a long while since I’ve done that. As I write these final paragraphs, I’m almost through side 1 of Tom Waits’s Heartattack and Vine (Anti- 87571-1) and I’ll tell you this—right after the Signature Two’s stylus hits the end of the lead-out groove, I’m flipping the disc and listening to side 2.
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
Associated Equipment
- Analog source: VPI Prime Signature turntable; EAT Jo N°8, DS Audio DS 003 cartridges.
- Digital source: Logitech Squeezebox Touch, Meitner Audio MA3.
- Phono preamplifiers: Aqvox Phono 2 CI, iFi Audio iPhono 3 Black Label, Hegel Music Systems V10, EMM Labs DS-EQ1, Meitner DS-EQ2.
- Preamplifiers: Sonic Frontiers SFL-2, Hegel Music Systems P30A.
- Power amplifier: Hegel Music Systems H30A.
- Integrated amplifiers: Hegel Music Systems H120, Eico HF-81.
- Speakers: Focus Audio FP60 BE, Estelon YB, Aurelia Cerica XL, Totem Acoustic Sky Tower.
- Speaker cables: Audience Au24 SX, Nordost Tyr 2, Crystal Cable Art Series Monet.
- Interconnects: Audience Au24 SX, Furutech Ag-16, Nordost Tyr 2, Crystal Cable Diamond Series 2.
- Power cords: Audience FrontRow, Nordost Vishnu.
- Power conditioner: Quantum QBase QB8 Mk II.
- Accessories: Little Fwend tonearm lift, VPI Cyclone record-cleaning machine, Furutech Destat III.
Charisma Audio Signature Two Moving-Coil Phono Cartridge
Price: $5490.
Warranty: One year, parts and labor.
Charisma Audio
4261 Highway 7, Unit A14
Unionville, Ontario L3R 9W6
Canada
Phone: (905) 470-0825
Fax: (905) 470-7966
Email: charisma@rogers.com
Website: www.charismaaudio.com
