A natural, well-balanced moving magnet with a wide soundstage and solid, well-controlled bass, built on Sumiko's interchangeable Oyster platform.
The Moonstone shares its body and generator with the Rainier and Olympia, so the three are separated by their stylus assemblies. The Moonstone's assembly carries a finely polished 0.3 × 0.7 mil elliptical diamond on a purpose-built aluminum cantilever, paired with a smaller magnet than the less expensive models. The integrated body and generator are designed to keep internal resonance down. Output is 3 mV, lower than its siblings but still plenty for any MM input. Because the stylus is user-replaceable, you can restore or swap it later without remounting or realigning the cartridge.
SoundStage! Access found the Moonstone especially natural and well balanced, with a wide, deep soundstage, good detail, and strong, well-controlled bass. It tracked difficult passages cleanly. The reviewer called it the best overall cartridge he had heard and singled it out for transferring LPs to digital. Its one weakness was a slight emphasis on high, reedy male voices. It suits medium-mass tonearms and wants a standard 47 kΩ MM input with 100–200 pF. If you later want to move up, the Amethyst uses its own body and generator.
| Type | Moving magnet (MM), user-replaceable stylus |
| Output | 3 mV |
| Internal impedance / inductance | 1,130 Ω / 450 mH |
| Recommended load | 47 kΩ, 100–200 pF |
| Tracking force | 1.8–2.2 g (2.0 g recommended) |
| Compliance | 12 µm/mN (dynamic, lateral) |
| Tracking ability | 70 µm at 315 Hz |
| Weight | 6.5 g |
| Stylus | Elliptical diamond, 0.3 × 0.7 mil |
| Cantilever | Aluminum tube |
| Frequency response | 12 Hz – 33 kHz |
| Channel separation / balance | 30 dB at 1 kHz / 0.5 dB |
| Shares body with | Rainier, Olympia, Wellfleet (styli interchangeable) |
Pearl Audio is an authorized Sumiko dealer. Call or visit our Portland showroom to talk about matching a cartridge to your tonearm and phono stage.
