Description
Oriole maintains the tonally balanced, refined & fatigueless character for which Sumiko is globally regarded. Enhanced with a high-efficiency, low-impedance generator as well as a nude Shibata line-contact stylus, Oriole confidently asserts itself as a meaningful upgrade from Songbird that approaches the performance of our venerable Starling. The stylus and generator deliver impeccable detail retrieval, emotionally captivating dynamics, speedy attack and sweet resolution. Deeply musical and endlessly listenable, Oriole is alluring in its wholly analog-sounding character. It portrays musical material in natural balance with its surrounding ambience, and with life-like nuance. Silent in the groove, music blossoms from a jet-black background and invites you into the most intimate spaces of a keenly-rendered soundstage.
Our Reference Series Open-Body MCs
Our Reference Series open-architecture cartridges minimize the potential for coloration and distortion due to energy buildup that is sometimes propagated by the conventional cartridge body. Internal resonance is damped within the generator while remaining resonance travels up through the bonded mounting plate & headblock, then down the tonearm where it is dissipated harmlessly. The PEEK generator mounting plate provides the utmost stability and energy transfer while the stiff alloy headblock is the conduit through which that energy exits the cartridge. The generator itself minimizes distortion and losses through the implementation of pure metals and intelligent orientation of the same. The performance of this sophisticated generator is bolstered by our multi-faceted approach to resonance control, precipitating to clean, musical, and highly listenable sonics.
Hand-Assembled in Japan
Oriole is made with the finest materials Japan hasto offer, and by the most skilled of craftsmen at Excel Sound in Yokohama–a relationship we’ve proudly maintained for nearly four decades.
High-Purity Copper
The coils are wound with specially selected high-purity copper that carries signal with minimal loss and distortion, also lending to the smooth and richsonic character of the cartridge.
Nude Shibata Line-Contact Stylus
The stylus takes a rich, even-handed approach to detail retrieval that avoids analytical tendencies. The single-piece nude diamond reduces moving mass for heightened fidelity and responds with hig haccuracy to very finegroove undulations.
Low Internal Impedance
Fewer coil turns of low-impedance copper reduces moving mass, shortens the signal path and drastically reduces internal impedance. This means faster attack, improved resolution, more detail and improved dynamics.
Reinforced Cantilever
The alloy-reinforced hollow aluminum cantilever is both high in rigidity and low in mass, responding with great speed and accuracy to convey the finest movement of the stylus to the moving coil assembly.
Purpose-Selected MC Damper
We use a special synthetic rubber compound tocontrol resonance, minimize distortion and enabletop-tier tracking
Individually Wound Cross-Coils
A critical process that requires the utmost patience and precision by a skilled technician for clean and balanced signal transfer.
High-Efficiency Magnetic Circuit
The warm, smooth-sounding Alnico magnet works with pure iron yokes and pole. Pure materials areoriented with expertise to minimize distortion and losses while achieving low magnetic saturation and high-efficiency energy capture
