
MY SONIC LAB, “Matsudaira’s dream“
The “My” in the name refers to the initials of its designer: Mr. Y. Matsudaira who founded the company after an illustrious career spanning over forty years designing cartridges, phono stages and tonearms .
He started at Tokyo Sound Co. in 1959 and moved to Supex Co in 1967. In the 70’s, he was invited to be part of an independent development team for masterpieces by the top-brand phono cartridges like Koetsu, Miyabi etc. He joined Audio Craft Co in 1981 as chief engineer and presented such exquisite works as the AC-3 stereo cartridge, the AC-3300/4400 tonearms, the AR-110/110L turntables, the TS-200 MC transformer, the PE-6000 Signature phono amp.
Mr. Matsudaira realised his long cherished dream, when he formed “My Sonic Lab” in 2003, and introduced the EMINENT high-output, low-impedance MC cartridge and the matching MC transformer Stage 202.
With My Sonic Lab, Mr. Matsudaira has fulfilled his design goals of producing a moving coil cartridge with very low internal impedance. With this design, Mr. Matsudaira feels that the energy producing potential of an MC cartridge is fully realised.
Mr. Matsudaira uses an ultra high-μ material that he has named SH-μX. This material allows My Sonic Lab to significantly reduce the amount of coil wire required to give a decent output level. With the reduction in the amount of coil wire comes greater low-level resolution.
My Sonic Lab cartridges achieve their reputation as absolute reference standard components because of their ability to excel in all aspects of analogue sound reproduction and audiophiles often describe them as having that elusive “magic”. It’s all there …energy, dynamics, detail, nuance, liquidity. Once you have heard one of these in a well set-up system, you will realise that only someone of Mr. Matsudaira’s experience and heritage can produce something this special.
Further Reading

EMINENT EX

Historically there has been a trade off between higher output cartridges (e.g. 0.3mV to 0.7mV) which yield less resolution and low level detail, compared to those with an output of 0.1mV to 0.25mV. With the limitations of most of today’s phono stages the trend has been to use higher output MC cartridges at the expense of ultimate resolution.
Utilising Mr. Matsudaira’s vast experience, MSL has solved this problem by producing a cartridge with minimal coil windings (for high resolution) yet with high output gains of 0.3mV to 0.5mV, thus unleashing the musical energy during playback, yet retaining the subtle nuances and resolution. Neodymium magnets have improved this situation but MSL have also designed a high efficiency magnetic circuit, achieving their goal in the MSL Eminent EX with it’s very low internal impedance of 0.9 Ω yet with a higher output of 0.4mV.
Body: Aluminium
Cantilever: Super duralumin
Stylus: Semi-line contact (3μmx 30μm) Coils/Core: Magnet: Neodymium # 50
Terminal pins: Polished Rhodium-plated
Weight: 10.5g
Electrical:
Output Voltage: 0.4 mV / 1 kHz / 5cm / sec DC resistance 1 ohm (DCR)
Internal Impedance: 0.9 ohm (DCR)
Frequency Response: 10 ~ 50kHz
Channel Balance: < 0.5dB (1kHz)
Channel Separation: > 30dB (1kHz)
Dynamic:
Tracking ability: @315Hz at 2g tracking force
Dynamic Compliance: 10 μm / mN
Set Up:
Recommended loading: > 100 ohms
Recommended tracking force: 1.9 ~ 2.2g
HYPER EMINENT

This material was originally produced for aeronautics where emphasis was placed on resistance so could not be lacquered. As surface treatments are difficult to achieve causing a high failure rate, an exclusive ion-bonding process that achieves surface rigidity of over 1500 hp. was introduced to obtain the sound quality required for Hyper Eminent.
Despite a time-intensive process, the housing was changed to improve the anti-vibration system, resulting in a high quality product, regardless of cost.
Body:
Cantilever: Ultra duralumin (A7075).
Stylus: Semi-line contact (3μmx 30μm)
Coils/Core: SH-μX
Magnet: Neodymium #50
Terminal pins: Polished Rhodium-plated
Weight: 9.5g
Electrical:
Output Voltage: 0.5mV at 1kHz
Internal Impedance: 1.8 ohm (DCR)
Frequency Response: 10 ~ 50kHz
Channel Balance: < 0.5dB (1kHz)
Channel Separation: > 30dB (1kHz)
Dynamic:
Tracking ability: @315Hz at 2g tracking force
Dynamic Compliance:
Set Up:
Recommended loading: 100 – 800Ω (specifically, about 400Ω is recommended)
Recommended tracking force: 1.9 ~ 2.2g
SIGNATURE GOLD

In terms of construction, the MSL Signature Gold damper system has been updated, with a larger core creating a generator with a much higher efficiency.
It is a step up from the Ultra Eminent with improved sonic qualities presenting outstanding dynamics, naturalness, transparency because of it’s ability to extract the huge amount of information that lays within the vinyl surface thus imbuing the listener with an emotional connection to the music.
Features:
- SH-µX core having intrinsic ultra Hi-Bs & Hi-µ: An astounding high-efficiency output 0.5mV with 1.4O ohm internal impedance was created thanks to the elaborate high-efficiency magnetic circuitry composed of their exclusive core with minimal windings of the coil wire.
- Semi-line contact stylus: Outstanding trackability, without tracking distortion by means of microscopic 0.1mm-square diamond tip of 3 x 30µmm semi-line contact.
- Ultra-hard cantilever: A specially hardened duralmin pipe is employed to reproduce powerful yet minute and delicate nuances of musical expression
- The hyper-solid duralmin base makes the cartridge totally variation-proof and free from resonances.
- Dramatically reinforced magnetism was obtained by means of a refined core whose cross-sectional dimensions are enlarged by as much as 10%, compared to the current versions, at the cross-sectional dimensions.
Body:
Cantilever: Double super-duraluminum.
Stylus: Semi-line contact (3μmx 30μm)
Coils/Core:
Magnet: Neodymium #50
Terminal pins: Polished Rhodium-plated
Weight: 10g
Electrical:
Output Voltage: 0.5mV at 1kHz
Internal Impedance: 1.4 ohm (DCR)
Frequency Response: 10 ~ 50kHz
Channel Balance: < 0.5dB (1kHz)
Channel Separation: > 30dB (1kHz)
Dynamic:
Tracking ability @315Hz at 2g tracking force
Dynamic Compliance:
Set Up:
Recommended loading: > 10 ohms
Recommended tracking force: 1.9 ~ 2.2g
SIGNATURE PLATINUM

This has been achieved by employing a harder titanium high strength base (surface hardened even further by Black IP processing) together with a lightweight but stiffer boron cantilever.
The boron cantilever offers faster energy/sound transfer which renders a more precise reproduction.
The sound provides pure emotion, outstanding fine-tuning, authority, balance and transparency with ease which will delight the listener and distinguish this pickup as one of the finest in the world.
Body: Titanium
Cantilever: Boron.
Stylus: Semi-line contact (3μmx 30μm)
Coils/Core: Magnet: Neodymium magnet with special pure copper core (SH-μX)
Terminal pins: Polished Rhodium-plated
Weight: 10g
Electrical:
Output Voltage: 0.5mV at 1kHz
Internal Impedance: 1.4 ohm (DCR)
Frequency Response: 10 ~ 50kHz
Channel Balance: < 0.5dB (1kHz)
Channel Separation: > 30dB (1kHz)
Dynamic:
Tracking ability: @315Hz at 2g tracking force
Dynamic Compliance: 10 μm / mN
Set Up:
Recommended loading: > 100 ohms
Recommended tracking force: 1.9 ~ 2.2g
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