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What modern cartridge sounds most like asak?

rhgbristol

rhgbristol

pfm Member
I am in the process of building a retro LP12, to as closely as possible match the sound of one i used to listen to a lot in the early 1980s and grew to love.

The spec of that deck was 1980 sondek with big red button psu, ittok and asak.

I have an equivalent lp12, an ittok, but now wish to locate a suitable cartridge.

What modern cartridge would sound and perform as near as possible to the asak?
 
That's a bit of a tricky ask there, I do have an Asak in need of a re tip if that's of any help.

I wouldn't rule out a Denon 103, it's hardly a modern cart but still made today and sound very good for sensible money.
 
What was the order and ranking of linn's mc cartridges after the asak?

I recollect there being an asaka, troika, karma, arkiv, arkiva and akiva - can definately recall the asak and latterly the akiva, but lost touch 'in the middle' when house/wife/family took my attention and spend away from hifi.
 
rhgbristol said:
What modern cartridge would sound and perform as near as possible to the asak?
Click to expand...

This might sound a little unlikely (it surprised me) but try the Goldring Elite MC.

It does that growling, sinewy bass thing that marked out the old Supex built early Linns, and has some spotlighting in the mid to push forward leading edges.
Will be a fine mechanical match to the Ittok, and the stylus gives very clean tracing. Tracks better than the Asak, but that's a good thing :)

Shop around and you can find them for £350.
 
Goldring also do a re-tip service and for the same price - £250 (they used to do it for Linn).

I recently had one of my Troika's rebuilt by them - but with the extra addition of a ruby cantilever and Geiger S stylus - am very happy indeed with the results.

the order of rank went Asak to Asaka to Karma to Troika
 
Don't know how close the Asak was to the Asaka, but I moved from Asaka to Klyde and while differences these were broadly similar.
 
YNWOAN said:
Goldring also do a re-tip service and for the same price - £250 (they used to do it for Linn).

I recently had one of my Troika's rebuilt by them - but with the extra addition of a ruby cantilever and Geiger S stylus - am very happy indeed with the results.

the order of rank went Asak to Asaka to Karma to Troika
Click to expand...
How much did the Troika refurb cost?
 
YNWOAN said:
Goldring also do a re-tip service and for the same price - £250 (they used to do it for Linn).

I recently had one of my Troika's rebuilt by them - but with the extra addition of a ruby cantilever and Geiger S stylus - am very happy indeed with the results.

the order of rank went Asak to Asaka to Karma to Troika
Click to expand...

Goldring have done some good work on Linn carts that I've heard about, that was indeed the pecking order.

For those interested I will put a bunch of Linn carts needing rebuilds up in the classifieds.
 
The Karma that is on eBay is, in my opinion, over priced.

I would wait for Gaius (Mark) to advertise the cartridges he has - then buy an Asaka, Karma or Troika and send it to be re-tipped - who you use to do the work is up to you. In the UK the three main candidates are ' the expert stylus company (ESCo)', 'Dominic Harper of Northwest Analogue' and 'David at Goldring'. Of those three I have used ESCo and Goldring - whoever you use it will cost £250 to £350 depending on the level of rebuild. If you go with ESCo it will take three to four months for them to do it and they will fit their own 'Paratrace' stylus. Goldring are hugely quicker and have many more options to choose from personally I went for a Ruby Cantilever and Fritz-Gyger S stylus. The Gyger S is much better with surface noise than the Paratrace.
 
What is the general consensus on the Klyde - I understood this to be Linn's 'budget' (??!!) grade moving coil cartridge in the time of Arkive / Akiva - but how does it compare with the Asak / Asaka / Karma - anyone ave any direct experience of the two together?
 
Klyde is made by Goldring, Akiva by Lyra. Karma and Asaka from the Supex era.

I'd have a Karma or Asaka in front of a Klyde and a Klyde in front of an Asak.

I know them all very well.
 
I have an Asaka that I have just replaced with a new Dynavector. The Asaka sounded fantastic on my 1980s LP12 with Ittok, but it's tracking ability was not great on older LPs, I suspect it needs some attention. It worked perfectly on new LPs and older LPs that hadn't seen excessive use. You can have it for a nominal sum if you would like to get it looked at - I'm sure the problem is fixable.

Lawrence
 
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