MoFi UltraGold

MoFi's first moving-coil offering, the UltraGold's recipe of nude Shibata stylus, boron cantilever, neodymium magnet and PC-OCC wiring could just as easily be used to describe a cartridge costing somewhere in the £5,000 range. And no seasoned audiophile would blink.

MoFi has fitted this to an ultra-low resonance aluminium/brass extrusion. The body is threaded so there's no fiddling with nuts and bolts and we manage to mount it in seconds. Blessed, too, are the widely spaced, colour-coded pins.

Sound quality

First off the shelf is a 45rpm, 12in single of the Traveling Wilburys' Handle With Care. The UltraGold proves its worth by revealing the distinctive textures, breathing and phrasing with a facility one can only define as 'vivid'. The voices mesh with such mutual support, while maintaining each individual character, we can't resist spinning more LPs just to confirm the repeatability of the experience.

The UltraGold is midband-dominant in a good way. It quite clearly adores and cossets the human voice. Is there a price to pay for this? The upper registers match the midband for authority and there's plenty of moving-coil warmth, but some listeners may find themselves searching for a touch more slam at the extreme bottom end.