For the past five years, I’ve lived with an excellent “true” mono cartridge (a single coil with sufficient vertical compliance to play both “modern” mono reissues and pre-1967 mono originals)—the hand-made Miyajima Labs Infinity Monaural MC Phono Cartridge (USD 3375). It performed its unique duties extremely well until the diamond stylus fell off the cantilever somewhere along the way.

The Miyajima Labs’ US importer quoted me USD 2220 to retip (66% of the price of the otherwise perfect cartridge). So, I sent it off to “Groovetickler” on Instagram (thanks, Michael Trochalakis, for the lead), a highly regarded artisan who asked all the right questions before he began work on the cart. The price? USD 300, but at the cost of no more warranty support, etc.

In the meantime, David Jensen from Red Leaf Audio, who read about my mono stylus plight on social media, sent me an email—he’s the Canadian IKEDA Sound Labs importer from whom I just purchased the IKEDA Kai MC Phono Cartridge (USD 9600). “Would you like to hear the IKEDA 9mono (USD 4900)? It’s a great cartridge”. Well, you know what that means—get it into my system, and the damn thing won’t be leaving. Smart salesman, that David!

So, thank you, David, for shipping the 9mono across the country at what felt like supersonic speed!

My Use

My standard analog setup was used for the review, including the Phasemation EA-350 Phono Amplifier, MBL N51 Integrated Amplifier, and my mono rig, the Pure Fidelity Harmony Mk2 Turntable with 9.25” Origin Live Enterprise MK4 Tonearm: notice, no IKEDA SUT. For the 9mono, the phono stage is switched to MC and a mono curve/mono switch, so the SUT does not come into play.

History

Jensen was kind enough to provide some background information about the cartridge:

Since the inception of the Ikeda cartridges, there has always been a purpose-built mono cartridge. The 9mono is an improved version of an older mono cartridge introduced along with the 9TS and the 9TT some 10 to 15 years ago. The 9 series took advantage of the multiple-layer bodies from more expensive models. These multi-layered bodies render Ikeda cartridge bodies essentially inert. This allows the music's layers, colours and textures to flow much easier without being affected by resonances. The multi-layer body now spans the entire range of Ikeda cartridges except the SAI, an SPU-style cartridge with an integrated headshell whose body is circular and made from wood.

Specifications

Output Voltage: 0.22mVrms (1kHz 50mm/sec. Peak)

Coil Impedance: 2.0 Ohms (1kHz)

Stylus Force: 1.8 Grams ±0.2 Grams

Frequency Response: 10Hz - 45kHz

Channel Balance: Within 0.5 dB (1kHz)

Stylus: Oval-shaped diamond

Cantilever: Dual-structure duralumin pipe

Weight: 10 Grams

Compliance: 7 × 10-6cm/dyne

Sound

The 9mono, at USD 4900, is considerably more than my Miyajima Infinity and in a different league price-wise than my Audio-Technica AT33MONO MC Phono Cartridge (USD 299). The IKEDA is far more refined than the AT and gives a more sophisticated sound than the beefy Infinity. So, if ultimate mono refinement is what you are after, the IKEDA is your guy. But if you are one of the many audiophiles just getting into mono, the AT is a good, inexpensive choice.

My comparison notes to the Miyajima Infinity are before its retip.

When the diamond stylus dropped off the Miyajima cantilever, I subbed in the bargain AT mono while the Miyajima was in the cartridge hospital. It was an excellent-sounding cart with many attributes an audiophile will listen for in a quality mono cartridge but for an entry-level price. If that’s your budget, I encourage you to purchase one to complete your vinyl front end.

The IKEDA 9Mono is a different animal. It's expensive at USD 4900 and a considerable investment in your mono setup. It was designed by Osamu Ikeda of IKEDA Sound Labs, the godfather of high-end Japanese phono cartridges.

“Designed from the ground up as a mono cartridge, the 9 Mono has two independent coils—right and left, located separately in the housing to isolate the electrical circuit. Two low-resistance coils have vertical winding. A high-efficiency permalloy core generates power only in horizontal motion. This architecture eliminates extraneous hum”

As such, no matter whether a stereo lathe cut your mono reissues/originals or are pre-1967 mono-cut originals, the IKEDA created the same exceptional results. In that, the image was perfectly stable between the speakers no matter the instrumentation or complexity. The stylus gave a beautiful bloom within the recording soundstage, with none of the constricted image that occurs in many originals, especially large-scale orchestral music. If the engineer was on his game, the topology exhibited by the IKEDA will give you his maximum effort.

The cartridge sounded refined and dynamic out of the box, but frequency shouts during the first few hours suggested it needed a break-in of some sort. About ten hours in, I heard no dissenting voices. Like most carts, it’ll continue to surprise as the hours tick by.

The clarity exhibited on Recital by Oscar Peterson (a 1977 Japanese pressing of the 1954 original) set the stage for how the 9mono performs. The LP had so much more life and colour than the AT playback and eclipsed the Miyajima in subtlety and sparkling top end. The bass authority on the mono cart was also the best I’ve heard in my system—Peterson’s thunder of a left hand was captured with all its might by the 9mono. As for resolution and detail, I had never heard Peterson’s humming either on the AT or Infinity.

The recent Tone Poet Herbie Nichols Trio release explodes with clean energy on the opening track. The IKEDA tracked it perfectly while keeping the sound utterly coherent. No ragged edges on the soundstage or forced timbral accuracy. It was dynamic and very musical (smooth instrumental tone with each player’s character easy to hear). And like most left/right jazz LP sound staging from the 50s and 60s (Rudy Van Gelder), the 9mono’s imaging of this recording style was natural and layered.

The 9mono tracks superbly, with visceral treble energy from Nichols’ unique stabbing style presenting no challenge. The drums of Max Roach also have great power on this Tone Poet. More importantly, the timbral accuracy and ambiance on this modern reissue mono is second to none in my mono jazz collection. You’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this under the IKEDA and a rich-sounding stereo pressing.

After Nichols’ hurly-burly, I wanted some late-night reflection with Walter Gieseking Plays Debussy—Préludes Book 1, a legendary 1954 Columbia. There’s no better practitioner of Debussy’s piano music (the Préludes described by the composer as “terrifying your fingers) than the great French-born German pianist Walter Gieseking.

My Columbia original has silent surfaces, so each time Gieseking plays the myriad of upward flourishes so beautifully voiced by Debussy, the musical and aural rush creates a stunning effect. One of the reasons his Debussy and Ravel are so highly regarded is his crystalline touch. It makes Debussy sound mesmeric, icy and mysterious—all captured beautifully by the 9mono.

In the final 3 bars of *Prélude No. 5*, “Les Collines D'Anacapri,” we get a famous test phrase. ff then *fff* then *fff* accented way up to the 85th note of the piano compass, an A, almost in the C8 stratosphere. Once again, no problems in tracking or timbral execution. Shockingly good.

Other than explosive dynamics, the IKEDA excels at deciphering complex timbral cues. The cartridge captures the great outbursts of tone and touch like you’re in a good stalls seat. Remarkable tonal fluency for all of Debussy’s myriad of colours.

What struck me about the Vienna Philharmonic “New Year” Concert, Decca 1955 and conducted by Clemens Krauss, was the tonal lustre of the strings. Of course, the VPO is famous for producing that type of string sound, but it was especially beautiful on the opening track ”Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb’ un Lust” by Josef Strauss. Sometimes, the limited soundstages of mono orchestral records dilute the tutti sound. Not here, also, the octaves played quietly by flutes and oboes were very clear with pinpoint Musikverien imaging. All this on a $2 mono cleaned on my Degritter Mark II.

The final test record was Lonely Girl, featuring the beautiful voice of Julie London. Her voice was modelled perfectly in the centre of the soundstage, with tactile vowels and sexy consonants. So her husky mezzo sounded perfectly natural with no affectation. A beautiful set with the tasteful accompaniment of guitarist Al Viola.

Summary

The high-end audio axiom of “you get what you pay for” certainly applies here, but the price of luxury handmade Japanese phono cartridges is through the roof. And the huge investment, especially if you play a lot of records, lasts only 1000 or so hours until you need to send it off for a retip. And if you want to maintain warranty support or even use the name of the cartridge for resale, you have to send it to the factory. Most factory retips are in the 40 to 50% of the cartridge’s original MSRP. The investment continues.

The last three stereo carts I’ve reviewed have a combined value of over USD 40,000! Insanity. But as my friend Adrian says, “You gotta pay to play.” That’s our world. For sure, there are some value-added cartridges for much less than the IKEDA 9mono’s USD 4900 (looking at you, Audio-Technica), but once we hear these sonic marvels, the nuances, the tactile sound, the dynamics, the subtlety, the timbral accuracy, sound staging, layering and imaging, well, we’re hooked.

Just so with the 9mono. It’s a wonderful cartridge. I knew I was going to purchase it by the end of the first LP (Oscar). It had vibrancy, life and energy with a very refined mono sound. Yes, it’s better than my Infinity, but at a USD 1500 premium. Worth it? Yes. Very highly recommended.

Further information: IKEDA Sound Labs