Audio-Technica AT33xMLB — Moving coil cartridge with nude Microlinear stylus and boron cantilever

The AT33xMLB is the top step of the AT33x series, the thorough revision of Audio-Technica's long-running AT33. Each channel has its own PCOCC copper coil — continuous-cast pure copper — placed at the cantilever's fulcrum, which keeps separation at 27 dB and stops one channel's signal bleeding into the other. The magnet is neodymium and the yoke permendur, a combination that yields a strong, stable magnetic field in a compact generator.

The stylus is a nude Microlinear on a solid boron tapered cantilever, the stiffest in the family, and the assembly sits on a die-cast zinc base used here for the first time to damp body resonance and give midrange and bass more body. Response reaches 45 kHz, output is 0.42 mV and internal impedance 12 ohms with 26 µH inductance: figures that call for a medium-to-high gain MC stage.

At 10.1 grams with M2.6 threaded holes, it mounts with two screws either to a headshell or straight onto an integrated arm, and its 1.8 to 2.2 g tracking force — 2.0 g as reference — makes it stable on medium-mass arms. This is a cartridge for demanding records: large orchestras, late-seventies pressings and recordings with plenty of information at the top end. The stylus is not user-replaceable; Audio-Technica runs a moving coil exchange programme.

Technical specifications:

• Type: stereo dual moving coil (MC)
• Stylus: nude Microlinear · 2.2 × 0.12 mil
• Cantilever: solid boron, tapered
• Coils: independent PCOCC per channel
• Magnet: neodymium · yoke: permendur
• Base: die-cast zinc
• Frequency response: 20 Hz – 45,000 Hz
• Channel separation: 27 dB at 1 kHz
• Output voltage: 0.42 mV (1 kHz, 5 cm/s)
• Coil impedance: 12 ohms (1 kHz) · DC resistance: 12 ohms
• Inductance: 26 µH (1 kHz)
• Recommended load: ≥ 100 ohms
• Tracking force: 1.8 – 2.2 g (2.0 g standard)
• Compliance: 19 × 10⁻⁶ cm/dyne static · 6 × 10⁻⁶ cm/dyne dynamic (100 Hz)
• Vertical tracking angle: 19°
• Mounting: half-inch, M2.6 × 2 threaded holes
• Weight: 10.1 g · dimensions: 16.0 × 16.6 × 26.1 mm
• Accessories: brush, 2 washers, M2.6 screws in 8, 10 and 13 mm