R100 Review - Audio Note Singapore

Scot Markwell 

Equipment Review 

Analog Capsules: 

Two great analog overachievers 

ZYX R100H Moving-Coil Phonograph Cartridge 

and Coph Nia MC Phono Preamplifier 

In these heady days of the best LP playback equipment that has 

ever existed on the planet, many who might otherwise want to get 

into (or re-enter) the world of vinyl are daunted or stopped cold by 

how much it costs to get really first-class sound. So many high-priced 

"The R100H renders music's foundation, 

be it orchestral, jazz, big band, or 

pop/rock, with a weight, precision, and 

realism that defies almost all others…" 

phono sections and moving-coil cartridges are now showcased so often 

in the press that you might think affordable components are in the minority 

or are hopelessly inferior to the high-priced spread. It's nice to read 

about these ambitious designs and what they can do, of course, but 

most consumers want to have their cake and eat it, too. This is a natural 

desire, but nearly impossible to attain. Nearly, I said. It 

is not completely impossible. 

Enter the Japanese ZYX R100H medium-output 

MC cartridge and the Swedish Coph Nia MC 

Phono Preamplifier. At $995 and $1295, respectively, 

these two products are placed somewhere 

in the bottom third of retail price structure for 

such devices. You can buy similar components 

for several hundred dollars less, but the pieces 

under consideration here are so good that their 

ultimate value is much higher than many similar 

components that are less expensive. In many 

respects, both of these products will not only 

keep up with much of the more expensive competition, 

but in some ways, they perform well above 

their price level, particularly the R100H cartridge. 

This cartridge initially gave me fits. I was, I must 

confess, somewhat prejudiced against it before I heard 

it, because I had not had the best of luck with its higher-priced, similarlooking 

brother, the R100 Fuji FS, in Harry Pearson's system several 

months ago. That cartridge had seemed a bit dull and lacking in focus; 

we eventually returned it. And the same thing happened with the R100Hthat 

is, the subject of this review. When I first installed it, I could get nothing 

but a rather soft and overly laid-back sound that was lacking in 

instrumental weight and body, and had not much in the way of a true 

midbass foundation. The sound was thick, slow, and veiled. 

I tried several phono sections, including the Hagerman Trumpet, 

the Coph Nia under review, the Plinius M14, the Clearaudio Balance, 

and others. Each time, I did not have the patience to wait it out to be sure 

it didn't need more running in; I simply removed it and substituted another 

MC that I had on hand at the time. Finally I recognized that I was not 

giving the cartridge a fair chance. Others whose ears I trust report it as 

very good, indeed. So I put it into the system once more, this time in a 

true balanced configuration into Ralph Karsten's stunningly good 

AtmaSphere MP-1 all-differential, all-tube, full-function preamplifier. 

Well, I was stunned as soon as I set the needle down on the first 

record. I could not believe what I was hearing; I pretty much still do not. 

I know what you are thinking: that the AtmaSphere is a much better a 

phono section than the others, and therein lies the difference. It's true 

that the MP-1 is a superb preamplifier, but ultimately, this is a tale of 

proper adjustment and (unexpectedly long) cartridge break in. 

At .34 mV output, the R100H has enough signal capability so that it 

will exhibit a better overall signal-to-noise ratio in an MC phono stage than 

cartridges of lower output. But make no mistake-this is still a puny signal, 

in this era of line-level outputs of several volts. An illustrative story: The 

MP-1 I alluded to above, while sounding gloriously lifelike in many ways 

(and with over 60dB of overall gain for phono reproduction), nevertheless 

has audible tube rush discernable from the listening position at even medium 

playback volumes. Some will find this level of noise unacceptable. I 

decry it intellectually, but in practice, though it is a bit of a nuisance, I do 

not find it overly obtrusive. Not any more, any way. I remember being really 

irritated one day and complaining to Karsten about 

the hiss level. He didn't bat an eye, just asked me 

if the residual noise floor of the record was 

louder, at its softest point, than the tube hiss. 

I said that 95% of the time it was, and he pointed 

out that the tube hiss did not, therefore, 

make any real difference. My brain has trouble 

with this, but my ears are so entranced by 

the sound that I am no longer annoyed. I 

thought that this rather high noise level, to 

one accustomed to the almost-silent background 

of the solid-state Plinius M14 phono 

stage, would be an impediment to the recovery 

of fine detail from my records, but it turns out that 

that was not the case at all. The resolution of the 

system shone through the hiss of the tubes as if it 

was not there. 

How then, does this transparent (as in see-through acrylic body) 

little wonder of a cartridge sound? The best description I can summon is 

that it gives me more of a true sense of the music, its essence, if you will, 

"…if the recording is up the task, you 

will hear, with the R100H, a greater 

fidelity to violins, bass guitars, violas—the 

whole lot—than with almost 

any other MC I have experienced.” 

than anything else I have used in the past several years. To drive this 

point home, I want to reiterate that not only was I predisposed to dislike 

this cartridge, but it actually did sound decidedly less than impressive 

the first few times out. The difference, I remind you, lies in the fact that 

it has been played enough to be truly run-in, as well as being partnered 

with a superior phono stage—and I am referring not just to the expen- 

© Copyright 2004, Absolute Multimedia AVguide Monthly 

11


sive AtmaSphere, but to the little Coph Nia, priced most reasonably, discussed 

below. 

Dynamic contrasts, in particular, are rendered in such a manner as 

to suggest real instruments and musicians, especially with the best 

Direct-to-Disc recordings, such as those from Sheffield Lad and Crystal 

Clear. The Sheffield Lab Prokofiev Excerpts D-to-D LP sounds so 

open and alive with the R100H as to start to suggest the presence 

of the orchestra and the sonically amazing MGM 

soundstage it was recorded on, warts and all. I 

have also been listening to several 

Japanese D-to-D recordings manufactured 

by Toshiba/EMI, and they are stunning 

in their transient impact, transparency, 

and faithfulness to the real thing. Take 

the "A" Train by The Third is a good 

example. The musicianship is a bit hokey, 

but all the various percussion and wind 

instruments sound alive and are possessed of a 

high degree of "snap" and a rightness to leading-edge transients 

that makes the music sound closer to live. Natural hall ambience 

is rendered with an ease and bloom that allows the instruments to 

bask in their own glow. If you are playing a pop/rock album, or anything 

recorded in a deadish studio environment, you can easily hear the artificial 

reverb that has been applied to the recording, especially if it is one 

of the old plate reverb units that have such wonderful trailing-edge signatures. 

There is less of a residual 

mechanical quality to the R100H than 

many of its MC brethren, including 

some that cost many, many times 

more. Music through this transducer 

has a presence and a vivacity that is 

neither unnaturally bright nor unnaturally 

projected; it is merely realistic 

and engrossing in the same manner 

as real music. While the R100H will never be described as a detailfreak's 

cartridge, it nevertheless manages to elicit enough information 

from the grooves that I do not cry for more. I do feel that I may be missing 

the very last word in resolution here, but the net effect is so well balanced 

that I can easily and willingly live with it. 

The R100H renders music's foundation, be it orchestral, jazz, big 

band, or pop/rock, with a weight, precision, and realism that defies 

almost all others, save the 47 Lab Miyabi, and that is four times the modest 

cost of the R100H. Along with this 

impressive reproduction of the lower 

frequencies comes a delicate balancing 

act with the rest of the musical spectrum 

in the sense that the R100H is 

never upset into intermodulation distortions 

when playing strong bass lines, as 

when reproducing a chorus singing at 

full tilt while deep and loud organ pedals 

are being played and held. The 

voices and the pedals both sound 

super-clean and remain correctly separated 

in the spatial and textural planes. 

There is a sweetness to massed 

strings that I have truly never heard rendered as well in my system. Not 

sugar-sweet, as if the notes had been dripped in honey, but with the natural 

rosin-y intensity of real music. Mind you, this quality is almost wholly 

dependant on the recording, rather than being a featured "sound" of 

the R100H, and if the record in question has poorly-recorded string 

instruments, then you will get that, no veiling or sugar-coating. However, 

if the recording is up the task, you will hear, with the R100H, a greater 

fidelity to violins, bass guitars, violas—the whole lot—than with almost 

any other MC I have experienced. 

Oh, I almost forgot: I tried this cartridge with a 

variety of resistive loads on both the 

AtmaSphere MP-1 and the Coph 

Nia, and I always liked 47K/ohms 

best. Your response, based on your 

taste and system balance, may be 

different, but I felt that this "wideopen" 

loading brought out the cartridge's 

best performance in 

dynamics and treble extension, 

without imparting any overly-etched 

quality to the upper midrange. 

You may now be wondering 

where the Coph Nia MC phono 

section figures in all of this. I did not intend this review to 

partner these two pieces as a front-end system, though they do sound 

exceptionally well in such a configuration. Rather, I have put the two 

products together to illustrate the fact that there exists, in a lower price 

structure than is the norm for such quality, both a modern MC cartridge 

and MC phono section of some distinction. 

That being said, the 

"This phono stage is so quiet, and 

blessed with such a see-through quality, 

that it manages to retrieve every 

nuance of a cartridge's performance 

envelope and paint a different sonic 

palette for each one." 

Coph Nia, when partnered 

with the R100H (or any 

other MC that I tried it with), 

was as silent as a tomb. It 

does not sound quite as 

good as the AtmaSphere 

MP-1, but at just over 

1/10th the price of that twopiece 

tubed unit, this slim and tidy solid-state phono stage is way better 

than 1/10th as good. Used with the R100, the Coph easily allowed the 

musicality and transparency of the cartridge to come through. 

So, yes, this MC stage is another reasonably priced gem. It is good 

enough to use with your choice of an MC cartridge, and you can upgrade 

to even more expensive ones and still get good results from the Coph 

Nia. It is transparent enough to easily pass on a given transducer's sonic 

signature. And that is, in fact, the hallmark of the Coph Nia: transparency. 

This phono stage is so quiet, and blessed with such a see-through 

quality, that it manages to 

retrieve every nuance of a cartridge's 

performance envelope 

and paint a different sonic 

palette for each one. It is also 

almost overly sweet in the 

upper midrange and lower treble, 

to the point of seductiveness 

and at the slight expense 

of accuracy. But in many systems, 

especially those built at 

this price point (say around 

$7000-$9000 for a full system 

including a decent CD player), 

this quality will seem a natural 

balm to many recordings. 

Especially crystalline and grainless 

in the extreme highs, if 

ever-so-slightly soft, the Coph Nia falls down in comparison to the very 

best only in its rendition of the highest musical harmonics and its slight 

lack of weight in the mid- and lower bass. 

These are not serious failings. To put things in perspective, if you 


12


listen to the Coph Nia in Harry Pearson's reference system, you can 

easily hear that is a tad light in the bass and that it is not as harmonically 

developed as, say, the Groove+ (which sells for almost five times as 

much), or the AtmaSphere MP-1 in my system. On the other hand, in a 

bit more modest system, the Coph Nia acquits itself well, indeed, with a 

lightness and deftness of touch that brings natural detail to the fore and 

then integrates it into the overall sonic cloth without calling undue attention 

to any part of the frequency or spatial spectra. It is more of a graceful 

Fred Astaire dancer with the music, if you will, than a powerful Gene 

Kelly. Maybe Astaire could stand to gain a couple of pounds, but his fluidity 

and grace are unsurpassed; beside Astaire, Kelly appears almost 

clumsy and slow. The Coph Nia's tonal balance, while lean, is unfailingly 

honest and squeaky-clean; it sings with a true voice, if one perhaps 

not quite as full-blooded as some of the competition. 

The Clearaudio Balance, for instance, at almost exactly the same 

price, is another compact MC stage of solid-state origin, although it 

comes with a separate dual-mono power supply. As might be expected, 

it does hit harder in the bass and can seem to have a wider dynamic 

range than the Coph, but often at the expense of sounding, in comparison, 

a bit contrived or overdone. It can also, at times, sound more exciting 

and spectacular. Perhaps just a bit too exciting at times. The Plinius 

Jarrah, at about $800, is in between: It is not as sweet as the Coph Nia, 

but it does have more of the dynamic wallop of the Clearaudio. Yet, sideby-side 

with the Coph, it loses in terms of smoothness of the highs and 

transparency to source; the Coph Nia is a little more refined, with more 

of a see-though quality to its reproduction of the soundstage. 

So it is fully competitive in its market segment, this little phono box; 

its selection by a purchaser will be based not just on its price, but on its 

sophisticated and seductive style of phonograph-record reproduction. If 

your taste in LP reproduction leans to the side of transparency, sweetness 

of texture, low noise, a mid-hall perspective, with an overall polish 

of sophistication and lack of grain, you will find much to admire here. 

Likewise, if you place more stock in hard-hitting dynamics and a more 

spectacular and close-to presentation, then you may wish to look elsewhere. 

In the final analysis, however, the Coph Nia will leave you smiling 

and wanting more, while its rowdier stablemates may well leave you 

wanting a break. The Coph Nia is a great value for the money and a winner 

in most respects. And if you have a good subwoofer in your system, 

and know how to adjust it, then its slight lack of bass weight is easily 

compensated for. 

I remain bedazzled and amazed that we have such a plethora 

of superb phono-reproduction equipment available, and at 

almost every price range. The ZYX R100H MC cartridge and the 

Coph Nia MC phono section are by no means cheap or casual 

products. But they are both genuinely high value, in the sense 

that you are getting a whopping lot of innate goodness and musicality 

in both products. The R100H is an out-of-the-ballpark home 

run, as far as I am concerned (though its performance doubtless 

will, to some degree, vary depending on the level of the rest of 

your phono equipment; it sounds great with affordable gear and 

stellar with the best stuff), and the Coph Nia is an excellent unit 

for a refined, reasonably scaled system. You might be able to get 

both for a not-inconsiderable discount (I have seen the Coph Nia 

for less than a grand, for instance). 

High-End performance at reasonably accessible prices. 

Bread-and-butter products whose savor places them well above 

their station. 

Specifications 

ZYX R100H MC Cartridge 

Type: Moving-coil (dynamic) 

Output Voltage: 0.24mV (H = 0.48mV) [3.54cm/sec., 1kHz] or 

0.34mV (H=0.68mV) [5.0cm/sec., 1kHz] 

Frequency Response/( +/- 1dB): 10Hz ~ 80kHz (20Hz ~ 20kHz) 

10Hz~100kHz (20Hz~20kHz) 

Channel Separation > 30dB [1kHz] 

Channel Separation < 0.5dB [1kHz] 

Recommended Tracking Force: 2.0gm [20 ~ 25 degrees Celsius] 

Tracking Force Range: 1.7 ~ 2.5gm 

Compliance horizontal (vertical): 15 x 10-6 cm/dyne (12 x 10-6 

cm/dyne) 

Trackability: > 80ƒÊm/2.0gm 

Internal Impedance: 4 ohms (H = 8 ohms) 3.5 ohms (SH, H = 7.0 

ohms) 

Recommended Load Impedance: > 100 ohms 

Cantilever Material: Boron rod 0.3mm dia. 

Diamond Square Rod: 0.22mm sq. 

Stylus: Microridge Solid Diamond 0.07mm sq. 

Net Weight: R-100 4.2gm 

Coph Nia MC Phono Section 

Variable input load from 22 Ohms to 47k Ohms 

Gain: 60dB 

Features: 

Very accurate passive RIAA equalization 

Ultra low noise 

Phase correct 

Separate power supplies for each channel 

Mains filter 

Only highest quality audio capacitors 

Shielded internal signal cables 

Gold-plated RCA in and outputs 

Dimensions: W 3,5" / 9cm H 3,5" / 9cm D 12" / 30cm 

Weight: 5 lbs / 2,2kg 

Associated Equipment 

VPI HW-19 MK IV turntable w/VPI JMW Memorial 10.5 arm; Clearaudio 

Harmony Wood and Insider Master Reference Wood, Van Den Hul 

Colibri, and Madrigal Carnegie 1 MC cartridges; Plinius M-14 and 

Clearaudio Balance(SS), Hagerman Trumpet (tubed), and AtmaSphere 

MP-1 (tubed) phono sections; Plinius M-16 (SS) and AtmaSphere MP- 

1 (tubed) line stages; Ayon Audio Classic 32B, Viva 300B, and Vaic 

VV52 B SET amplifiers; Tom Evans Audio Design Soul 30 wpc Single 

Ended Tetrode (tubed) amplifier; VAC PA 100/100 tubed push-pull 

amplifier; Forsell Air-Bearing CD Transport and EAD Theatermaster 

DAC; Reference 3A Royal Virtuoso, Horning Agathon, and Living Voice 

Avatar OBX loudspeakers; Chase Technologies CH-1 passive surround 

decoder with a pair of small Radio Shack Minimus speakers for 

surround sound, SLM/Janis subwoofer with Crown Macro Reference 

amplifier; Siltech Gen III, Audio Magic, Acoustic Zen, and Stealth 

Technologies cables, Arcici Suspense Rack. 

Manufacturer Information 

Both products distributed and sold in the USA by: 

Music Direct 

318 N Laflin St., Chicago, Illinois 60607 

Phone: 800-449-8333 or 312-433-0200 

Fax: 312-433-0011 

twolff@amusicdirect.com 

www.amusicdirect.com/default.asp 

Prices: Coph Nia MC Phono Stage: $1295; ZYX R100 medium output: 

$995 

On the Web: 

ZYX cartridges 

www.bertrandaudio.com/Products/ZYXPhono/ZYXPhono.htm 

Coph Nia 

hem.fyristorg.com/cophnia 


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R100 Review - Audio Note Singapore

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