Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Sumiko Blackbird Phono Cartridge by Frank

Model:	Blackbird
Category:	Phono Cartridge
Suggested Retail Price:	$750
Description:	Sumiko Blackbird MC
Manufacturer URL:	Sumiko
Model Picture:	View

Review by Frank_Locke ( A ) on January 05, 2005 at 10:22:14
IP Address: 165.247.44.139

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Since Iâ€™ve posted some number of times over the last few months about my experiences with the Sumiko Blackbird and its integration into my system, rather than write a standard review I thought it would be fun to gather all my posts together into a kind of "Dear Diary" review. In rereading them I noticed that I covered pretty much everything that would be covered in a formal review, from set up to tweaking to cost to sound to technical specs. It was also fun to relive how my enjoyment of the Blackbird has grown as it has broken in.
My reasons for buying the Blackbird were fairly mundane. It got a good review from Michael Fremer. It was within my budget. It works well with my tonearm in terms of compliance. It has sufficient output for my pre-amp/phono section, which is not adjustable at 48.5 db gain, 47k Ohms.
Youâ€™ll note that my initial impression was negative after hearing it in a friendâ€™s system. But after further research and consideration I decided to buy it anyway. Iâ€™m glad I did.
+++++++++++++++++++
January 11, 2004
A few nights ago I listened to [the Blackbird] in a friend's system. It had maybe 50 hours on it so I'm not sure if you'd call that completely broken in.
My friend and I listened to Billy Cobham's fusion classic Spectrum, the recent reissue of Back In Black by AC/DC, the MoFi Let It Be and a British first pressing of Yes' Going For The One .
My friend has a Linn 'table and arm, a DIY tube pre-amp, a $10,000 pair of monoblocks (can't remember the brand, but not known to me) and a pair of Sonus Faber floor standers. Not sure about interconnects etc. Bad listening space. Pretty nice system overall.
Anyway, through this system I heard tremendous extension on top and amazing transient response (as they say.) Very deep bass but no "slam". Fantastic detail. Midrange was very dry and taught. Not warm in any sense.
Zero soundstage and zero imaging. The sound appeared to come directly from the speakers.
There was zero surface noise and the cart tracked very well from what I heard. The sound was quite bright and, at the volume we were listening, definitely could induce a little pain on treble heavy passages.
My friend is a recording and mastering engineer so the kind of hyper detail I heard is right up his alley.
This is very near the opposite of my system sound, which is very warm and liquid.
Michael Fremer found it to be a great soundstager so what I heard could be due in large part to my friend's room and/or other components.
What I heard was not my cup of tea but I would hate to discourage you from hearing it based on this less than perfect listening session in a less than perfect listening environment.
November 09, 2004
Today my Sumiko Blackbird arrived. After work, I installed it with a little bit of fuss, sat down and went through about 8 sides.
Wow!
The booklet that it comes with says to set it up, give it about 20 hours to break in, then recheck and fine tune its set up. Man, if it sounds this good now, what to expect in 20 hours! Or 200!!
The most noticeable thing so far is the absolutely huge soundstage it creates and it reveals more detail than I was getting from the Grado Reference Sonata.
Just wanted to post quickly. Now I'm going back to play some more records. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off!!
November 10, 2004
Hi,
Well, after all of 5 hours of playtime, the Blackbird is obviously nowhere near broken in; but I'm perfectly comfortable with the sound so far after having loved the Grado Ref Sonata for the last 2 years.
Let me not launch into a full review, but ...
I've played some small group jazz, some '70s rock and some orchestral music thus far.
Bass is tight and full, more well-resolved than with the Grado. One gets a better sense of what the word "slam" refers to with the Blackbird than with the Grado. The Blackbird is not brighter, per se. A bit more extended on top, though, definitely. I would never think to call the Blackbird "hyperdetailed," but then there's nothing in my system that would make any cart sound hyper- anything. For me, soundstaging and tonal accuracy trump detail anyway. So far, so good.
What I'm not getting so far is the gorgeous midrange warmth that the Grado had. Acoustic guitars and harmonized vocals don't have the same "melt in your mouth" quality the Grado gave them. But is there a cart that does midrange as sweetly as a Grado? Many would say no. I'm also not getting the holographic imaging the Grado gave me. It's a clichÃ©, but I really did often have the sense that the musicians were "in the room" playing LPs with the Ref Sonata.
I'm also hearing slightly less surface noise, pops and clicks than I had gotten used to with the Ref Sonata.
But it's early days yet. I will write a full review of the cart after 100 hours or so, maybe three or fours months down the road. But so far, I could not be happier with every aspect of the Blackbird.
November 16, 2004
Hi,
I just added [the Blackbird] to my system and it is wowing me on a nightly basis.
It meets your criteria for the most part, though it costs $749 and only has an output of 2.5mV.
It is an awesome tracker, all but eliminates surface noise, eliminates inner groove distortion, lessens pops & ticks, ploughs quite well through groove damage, has great air/treble extension and thrilling bass, even with my speakers that are only good to 60Hz. It also creates a big soundstage and images well.
I just played Led Zep IV, about as classic rock as you can get, and it really got my heart racing.
It's a winner!
November 17, 2004
Hi,
I used a Grado Reference Sonata (1.5mV output) for 2 years and recently moved to the Sumiko Blackbird. Mine now has about 25 hours on it so I hesitate to say it's completely broken in.
I loved the Ref Sonata despite its finicky character. The sound was gorgeous! Let me repeat that: The sound was gorgeous! As the Grado is known for, it has the most beautiful mid range you can imagine. Acoustic guitars, cellos, female vocals all could make you weep. It also created a cinematic soundstage, wide, tall & deep, and gave me the sense that musical performers were in the room every time I listened to it.
On the down side, the Grado was extremely difficult to optimize. It never sounded like it was set up entirely correctly. It was an awkward tracker (I experienced the Grado dance with maybe 1% of my LPs) and inner groove distortion was a relentless problem.
As I posted below, so far the Blackbird has been, as far as tracking is concerned, everything the Sonata was not. It lives to track through difficult LPs. The sound is more detailed than the sound of the Sonata. Better resolution, airier highs and more well focused bass.
It does not soundstage as well as the Sonata nor does it create that spooky the-singer-is-in-room sensation. Or at least not so far. As I said, mine is quite literally brand new. I'm giving it time before I render a verdict via a formal review.
So there you have it. Both are excellent, though in different ways.
November 24, 2004
Hi,
I've now got about 50 or so hours on the new Sumiko Blackbird. Break in has really gone smoothly. I'm really starting to sense some very nice holographic imaging as well as hear a generally larger soundstage. As I've posted before, one thing I'm loving about this cart is its ability to track. Inner groove distortion seems to be gone completely.
Anyway, today I decided to run through some tests, just for the heck of it. I cued up the torture tracks on the Hi-Fi News Test LP - the last 4 tracks on side 1.
Track 6 was no problem. Track 7 was distorted, though the cart was able to track all of it. On track 8 the Blackbird was thrown from the groove almost immediately. Likewise with track 9.
I pulled out my protractor and made sure everything was aligned properly. It was.
I played through a number of LPs tonight, all jazz, some mono, some stereo, some quite old, some fairly new, and the sound was fantastic. The Blackbird really rocked with Dexter Gordon's Our Man in Paris on Blue Note. The drums were fierce! Surface noise, pops & clicks were minimal and there was not one bit of distortion, top to bottom, from the first few seconds of music to the last.
So I guess that the Hi-Fi News LP's torture tracks are not the end all & be all when it comes to accessing a cart's performance.
Good to know.
November 24, 2004
Hi,
I battled with inner groove distortion quite a bit with my last cartridge, a Grado Ref. Sonata.
While [itâ€™s true] that improper cart alignment is usually the cause of inner groove distortion there can be other reasons too.
o It may be that the cart is beginning to wear out. This was the cause of my problems vis a vis distortion with the Grado. I tried to squeeze too many hours of listening out of it.
o It may also be an incompatibility between cart and arm or cart and phono stage.
o It may also be groove damage caused by an LPâ€™s previous owners or play with an arm that was too heavy.
I recently switched to a Sumiko Blackbird and I am now hearing noâ€”zero, nadaâ€”inner groove distortion. It's so much more enjoyable now that I'm not afraid of what the last minute of an LP side will sound like.
December 19, 2004
Hi,
I'm running a high-output MC, the Sumiko Blackbird.
At the end of every listening session I quietly play a few minutes of each of the pink noise tracks on side 2 of the Cardas sweeps LP. I read on this board that this is a less aggressive, safe way to demagnetize an MC cart.
Once a week I run the frequency sweep side of the Cardas LP.
All this keeps the high end of my LPs sounding open and fully extended.
December 11, 2004
Hi,
I'm using my first nude cartridge currently, a Sumiko Blackbird. There is definitely a degree to which the cantilever sticks out and could be broken if you are 1) really clumsy or 2) buzzed. Or if there are people around your â€˜table who are 1) really clumsy or 2) buzzed.
It is by no means a fragile thing; the cantilever is intensely rigid, as I've noticed while cleaning the stylus. I think you'd really have to hit it hard to break it off.
I know many have posted about problems with the Blue Point Special and, in fact, a good friend of mine snapped off the cantilever of his. But then he only plays records when he is high. So what do you know?
Installation was slightly tricky because the 'bird has no stylus guard. I by no means have the steadiest hands in the world but, with proper light and full concentration, I managed to get the thing on the arm without a $750 catastrophe.
So I'd say be alert when handling your nude cart and there shouldn't be a problem.
January 04, 2005
Hi,
Iâ€™ve actually been keeping track of the number of LP sides Iâ€™ve played with the Blackbird. Iâ€™m now at about 111 hours.
I really love the cartridge and donâ€™t regret the switch from the Grado Ref Sonata. While my partially informed opinion is that nothing can touch a wood-bodied Grado for that orgasmic midrange magic, overall I like the Blackbird more. There have been one or two times that Iâ€™ve felt slightly nostalgic for the Sonata, like when listening to a particular LP that sounded absolutely perfect with it. But the Blackbird gives me better bass, a more even sound, better detail, better tracking ability and is overall less finicky. It has also breathed life into many LPs I have that sounded kind of dead, sonically, with the Sonata. An example would be I Robot by Alan Parsons which Iâ€™ve listened to over and over again since installing the Blackbird.
(As an aside, the Blackbird is also more compatible with the peripheral ring clamp I use. The slim, "nude" design gives me more room to accurately drop the needle in the run-in groove without it being nudged by the peripheral clamp. This had become a problem with the wider-bodied Sonata.)
The instruction book that came with the Blackbird said to set it with 2 grams of VTF for the first 20 hours, then increase it to 2.2 grams. This is what I did. I didnâ€™t notice any particular break-in characteristics; I thought it sounded great right out of the box though now it sounds even better. One of the most captivating characteristics of the Blackbird is that it creates a real, holographic center image, particularly with vocalists, though it can and often does create the same effect with horn soloists. At louder volumes the 3-D, holographic effect can get pretty intense. I can see how some people might think it sounds a little cold but only in comparison to the decidedly warm Sonata. And, despite the minor chill, it offers so many other things that it seems to me like a small trade off. At $750, I guess trade-offs must be made.
In terms of VTA, I set it level to begin and remember making a very minor adjustment to it once. Since then I have not adjusted VTA nor have I felt the urge to do so.
So, as I said, I really love the Blackbird and am probably enjoying listening to my records more with it than I did with the Sonata. Both are to my liking but the hassle-free nature of the Blackbird lets me focus more on the music. With the Sonata, I always felt a nagging sense that I was hearing distortion or that there was some mistracking going on.
Hope this helps give you a sense of what the Blackbird sounds like.

Product Weakness: Might sound a little chilly to some ears. "Nude" design might leave cantilever too exposed for some.
Product Strengths: Taught & deep bass, very detailed, great tracking ability, fantastic packaging & set up info

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	McCormack DNA 125
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Conrad Johnson PV10b w/ phono stage
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	VPI Scout (w/upgraded Steel & Delrin record clamp) / JMW 9 arm w/ JMW dropped counterweight
Speakers:	Epos M12s & Target stands (filled with sand).
Cables/Interconnects:	Wasatch, StraightWire, MapleShade, Organic Cable
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	allsorts
Room Size (LxWxH):	12 x 15 x 12
Room Comments/Treatments:	acoustic foam, various DIY
Time Period/Length of Audition:	115 hours (2 and a half months)
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	2x PS Audio Ultimate Outlet
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Might sound a little chilly to some ears. "Nude" design might leave cantilever too exposed for some.
Product Strengths:	Taught & deep bass, very detailed, great tracking ability, fantastic packaging & set up info