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Contact Us LP Gear BIN 323 SLC phono cartridge
BIN323
"The LP Gear BIN 323 is a most exceptional cartridge. Easily affordable, it offers music-making capabilities so good that I can make no criticism.
Its ultimate resolution is so high that ascertaining its limits proved inconclusive: it just kept sounding better and better as
playback components improved. The 323 is a break-through phono cartridge, easily the most complete sound-and-music affordable
cartridge I’ve ever heard. It challenges cartridges at multiples of its price. Heady heights here, to be sure, but I find
the BIN 323 impossible not to love. The cartridge is simply a must-listen and a must-buy. An instant classic."1
Even compared to my HANA SL and Hana ML cartridge, this 323 holds its own and sounds quite exciting! While the HANA cartridges sound
relaxed and smooth, this 323 adds a bit of excitement to the audio. ...I'm as happy as a Pig in a Wallow finding this cartridge!
- From a verified buyer.
"Flat in frequency response from Earth moving low frequency content all the way to the last shimmer of a brush on a cymbal."
"I liken the BIN 323 to two other cartridges. One is the Grace F9E, with its glorious soundstage and ability to eke every detail of information from the groove. The other cartridge I consider similar to the BIN 323 is the Dynavector Karat Diamond 17D3."
- Product Info
LP GEAR BIN 323 SLC PHONO CARTRIDGE - HIGH OUTPUT MC 1.7 mV
- Music played royally, majestically, and magnificently.Note (8/11/2024): Introductory priced at $329, it was a bargain intended to attract customers and accolades. It did but at an unsustainable cost of losing money on every sale. Now it is priced realistically, considering supply chain scarcity and signifucant rise in the cost of original materials and SLC tips. It still remains significantly better priced and superior in sound quality (SQ) than its Stereophile Class B peers.
The BIN 323 is a product of serendipity and universal auspiciousness. For decades we had aspired for a Moving Coil cartridge that is unpretentiously musical - just like the Small and Large Advent Speakers2 in the Seventies that became standards of high excellence despite their very modest price. On my meager part-time job, I was able to set aside and afford them as a student at DePaul University in Chicago. The BIN 323 was conceived and designed during the pinnacle age of phono cartridges and is thus founded on the exuberance, best practices and exclusive knowledge of that golden and fertile time. Revived with additional learning, select newer parts, tight tolerances and old world craftsmanship, the BIN 323 like vintage years of superior wine has improved with age to become the best in doing what it does - nothing at all but sweet authentic music extracted from the grooves!
Serendipity and auspiciousness are courtesy of Sugano San. He introduced me to Masao Okada-San, the cartridge grand master of Excel Sound fame, the well-spring of many highly regarded cartridges. With the BIN cartridges, Okada-San had full control of product development. We wanted the BIN to be his best signature work at a world-class High-Output MC cartridge. We wanted a MC product that MM users could easily, and without encumbrance transition to and enjoy MC sound quality. Its sound quality thus bears Okada-San's DNA as can be heard in his later works with their HANA cartridges.
LP GEAR BIN 323 SLC Musically
The BIN 323 plays glowingly with flowing musical ease and refinement that takes your breath away - it's like the mind knows when music is real.2 The BIN 323 offers harmonic and spectral richness, flowing musicality - harmonic notes, transients and counterpoints flow cascading and colliding cohesively from start to fading end. Your ears will hear the delightful delicacy, natural sound quality and timbre left unextracted by other cartridges from the grooves.LP GEAR BIN 323 SLC Specifications
○ Tonearm mount: 1/2 inch
○ Type: Moving coil (MC), high output
○ Output voltage at 1kHz, 3.54 cm/sec: 1.7 mV
○ Frequency response: 15 - 40,000 Hz
○ Load impedance: 47 kΩ
○ Channel separation at 1 kHz: 25 dB
○ Output balance at 1 kHz: <1.0 dB
○ Tracking force range: 2.0 - 2.3 g (2.0 g recommended)
○ Coil inductance at 1kHz: 630 μH
○ Static compliance: 15 x 10-6 cm/dyne
○ Dynamic compliance: 10 x 10-6 cm/dyne
○ Stylus: Nude Square Super Line Contact
○ Stylus shape: 5 x 20 µm
○ Cantilever: Special aluminum alloy
○ Vertical tracking angle: 23°
○ Dimensions: 17(H) × 17(W) × 24.7(D) mm
○ Weight: 4.0 g (5.6 g with brass mounting hardware and shim)
○ Accessories included: Stylus protector (x 1), Brass screws (x 2), Brass nuts (x 2), Alignment Protractor, LP Gear 1.2 g ShimNote: Specifications are subject to change without notice.
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1 Paul Szabady, "LP Gear BIN 323 MC Phono CartridgeMay, 2018.
2 J. Gordon Holt, "The Advent Loudspeaker," Stereophile, Jan 1, 1971.
2 Music listening equipment: Graham Slee Reflex M phono preamp, Graham Slee Elevator EXP headamp, Denon AU-300LC Step-up transformer, Graham Slee Proprius mono amps, Electronic Visionary Systems Ultimate Attenuators Passive Preamp, Odyssey Kismet Reference Amp, Quicksilver Silver 88 mono amps, Roadrunner Digital Turntable Tachometer, Sota Sapphire turntable, Supex SD 901 Super cartridge, Denon DL-103 cartridge, Denon DL-110 cartridge, Grace F-9E cartridge, Audience SE Phono Cable, Audience Ohno speaker cables, Rogers LS3/5A speakers, Audience ClairAudient 1+1 Loudspeakers, Krell LAT 2 speakers, Yamaha NS1000M speakers.
