Goldring Ethos Moving Coil Cartridge - The Review

The last 12 months has been a rather unsettled time in terms of Cartridges. My beloved Kontrapunkt-b went to the great resting place in the sky after it arrived at Kilian Bakker’s Holistic Audio for the Vienna mods. Then, the replacement HA103-SEL lasted less than 7 months in the system before it went off the rails.

To my horror and with less than 24hrs to go before I unwrapped my new vinyl shaped presents (Birthday gifts) my HA103-SEL became unlistenable.

I had to make an emergency purchase and with no delivery time available to enable me to make a purchase on the used market and bring the joy of vinyl to take place on my birthday, I needed to make a decision and the only way to make anything happen was to use a dreaded DEALER!

Up stepped Audio Affair in Birmingham.

And to be honest, they totally stepped up. “No collections, no store visits without an appointment” greeted me on the website. However the call i gave them proved fruitful and they agreed that i could collect any cartridge i chose from their warehouse if i followed strict Covid-19 measures. Obviously, I did not object.

The Goldring Ethos was not a cartridge I had been looking for. In fact, the last Goldring I owned was a 2100 Moving Magnet back in my dark days of belt driven, Rega motored Inspire Quest Turntables. It wasn’t really dark...it was a fantastic combo in all honesty. Seriously, I loved it. Just prior to sending my Kb to Kilian I had seen a Goldrng legacy being sold off relatively cheaply. £500 vs the original RRP of £900

I didn't think too much of it at the time, but in my hour of need I had a quick scout to see if they were still available but found the Legacy had been replaced by the Ethos…..and Audio Affair had them in stock.

I took one home………

Installation was very straightforward. Captive threads make life SO easy but Azimuth proved a bit trickier as the bottom of the cartridge is rounded with only 5mm of flat surface at the bottom to work with. However, after 2 days of fettling, I finally got everything spot on….i think.

0 - 10 hours:

Things actually started off pretty well. The GR obviously sounded leaner, maybe lightweight in comparison to the HA103, but not so far as to cause instant buyer regret. But soon things took a turn….The very small rations of bottom end this cart was delivering suddenly vanished and things got very lean and toppy. I won’t lie, i was worried.

I know cartridges sometimes do this and my past experiences have taught me not to panic, but at 9 hours in….i was panicking. So much so that i revisited the setup. I readjusted the Azimuth slightly and WHAM….i must have lucked out and hit the sweet spot as the mid came back in minutes. Odd, but that's what happened.

10 - 25hrs

With the Mids now sounding slightly fuller, but still WAY off being fleshy, i was wracking my brains as to what else i could change/try to flesh things out a bit. I regretted selling my Spotfire Speaker Cables…...Then I recalled I had some Telefunken PCC88’s in the drawer. Proper Berlin made ones rather than the Siemens made ones i had been using. I put one in and had a listen. Huge improvement to Timbre and tonal accuracy. There was a richening of tone which move the cartridge much closer to believability. It needed this.

The GR had from the very beginning shown all the intention it had of being a detailed and totally transparent performer, but it had lacked a little communication. Unable to convey those little bits of magic that make you do involuntary “OH!” or “hmm” noises when something hits a note in your soul. At about 20hrs in, and in the middle of Hans Theessink’s “Build Myself a home” it felt like something had changed.

The guitars started to pop and twang, the vocals started to resonate with me and the harmonic frequencies that were entwined between he and Terry’s vocals started to move towards a more throaty sound. Gruff and low, detailed but highlighted as separate entities.

The GR was now not only detailed, it was getting emotive. Poking at the strings in my heart.

Excellent i thought…..now i can see what it’s made of.

25hrs - Onward

I started to move through my collection of favourites and on pretty much everything, it sounded utterly neutral. Sometimes that had me hankering for the HA103-SEL, other times it had me thinking the HA103-SEL had over egged the pudding so much it became scrambled eggs. I decided to try a few different LP’s and in particular Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the moon.

I like this album, rather than love it but it had something I could never fix…. Distortion at the end of both sides of the LP. A poor pressing, I had no doubt.

No cartridge I have ever had here has managed to navigate the “wailing wench” (as I call her) without making me want to pull my ears off. This i thought would see how bad i can make the GR sound……..wrong.

Landing like a kick in the knackers from an angry mule came the realisation that the GR was not sounding distorted. In fact I played Side B about 5 times and at every listen I couldn't hear any difference in sound quality from the first track to last. I was quite puzzled. I played side A and again…..it remained consistent from start to finish. This led a crazed attack on every “poor pressing” i thought i owned and guess what…..the GR just cruised across the surface. Completely unfazed by anything I threw at it. It’s a tracking demon! I am pretty sure it would stay in the groove if i turned the SP10 upside down! (i jest of course)

So how important is the sound quality Vs doing the job it was supposed to do?

This posed a serious question I had never asked of myself. What sacrifices would one be willing to make in order to have this level of distortion free playback?

Well, as I continue to listen on, it seems like the sacrifices are diminishing. Sure, I can't claim to instantly have loved what the GR did in my system. The jump from the HA103-SEL to the GR was like a leap from the hot tub into an ice bath. The contrasts were quite stark in truth, but giving the GR time to bed in and listening to it so as to unravel what it can do is proving to be a wise decision.

The GR is mega detailed. Possibly more detailed than anything i have heard previously. Tonally, it's just starting to get it right. The sort of music i like most is all about the little textures, details and acoustic space. This is now pretty much nailing it. Throwing on some Thin Lizzy shows that it's very immediate and fast sounding. The vital-line stylus is extremely quiet in the grove and this makes the soundstage (the limited soundstage i have) seem more expansive. There is less bleed into other sections of the performance. I am confident that the GR is entirely accurate. I can't’ hear any embellishment or “extra fullness” being added and due to this it could be described as sounding quite dry, but I would disagree with that. It’s ultra clean and precise. A trait I really like.

It's not a hard hitter. Drums don't fly out of the speaker with dangerous intent etc, but it's all a lot cleaner. Attack and decay is superb.

Channel separation is very deliberate too. Only a couple of cartridges have been here and managed to match its veiled free presentation and they are both considerably more money and one is unobtainium. This is a grown up’s cartridge. There is a sophistication...a maturity and professionalism about the sound quality. Refinement and finesse in bucket loads. If you want to know what is hidden in your grooves, you could do a lot worse than this cartridge, for a lot more money.

I really rate this cartridge extremely highly.

In comparison to the HA103-SEL, it’s a different world in terms of tonal richness etc. The HA103-SEL had all the heft and beef of a standard 103, lumps of bass and midrange warmth but with a lot more refinement and detail thanks to the Ogura stylus and Kilian’s trade secrets.

Some may suggest the GR’s ability to dig out swathes of detail I haven't heard before make it a true High End cartridge, I would absolutely agree but you need to be slightly cautious.

If the GR goes into an overly lean system your ears may dislodge themselves, but if you have a well balanced system and are willing to wait out the early listening, this cartridge would not disgrace itself at any price I feel.

What it will do is give you a barrier free listening experience, and if one makes it into your system you can rest knowing it’s not going to be the weak link in the chain.

At twice the price, it’s undervalued IMO.