Shelter Japan

The Accord MC phono cartridge is a magnificent composite of intricately layered, ultra-dense, dry-carbon fiber and titanium. The dry-carbon fiber has a remarkable 60 ton compression ratio of hardness and is precision CNC machined. This forms the mounting base plate and attached to it is a CNC machined titanium housing creating a unique marriage of materials. The exceptionally hard aluminum alloy cantilever is the same one used in the acclaimed Harmony cartridge from Shelter.

The ACCORD‘s exquisite character is accomplished by precisely integrating the stylus into the tip of the cantilever. This combination of carbon fiber and titanium materials, the incorporated an elliptical needle (0.3 x 0.7 mil) and precisely wound coil assembly is a testimony to this masterpiece of a cartridge. The body is light, strong, and incredibly rigid and possesses outstanding internal damping qualities that make it an ideal mounting platform for the cartridge‘s motor mechanism. The result is a phono cartridge of remarkable character, warmth, quietness, and sonic integrity for it‘s cost and performance.

Shelter‘s flagship model, the Harmony, employs dry carbon fiber (CFRP) for the body shell. CFRP delivers a superb acoustic characteristic and is an ideal match with the newly designed motor assembly. This combination is capable of delivering a great musical reproduction even on records with less than optimal recordings.

Dry carbon, unlike wet carbon, is designed in layers and unique molding. Harmony, utilizing the CFRP, has a compression rating of 60-tons whereas the conventional process is only 24-tons. The benefit is that the resonant frequency of CFRP is outside of any audible frequency. In addition, it provides a high degree of internal damping along with superb isolation characteristics that protects the body from extraneous vibration and noise.

Each of these design features ensure that the Harmony produces no coloration, and is whisper quiet and is extraordinarily sensitive to even the most demanding and subtle musical passages. The motor assembly is an all-new design using hard aluminum cantilever and OFC wiring. Hard aluminum allows us to firmly affix the diamond stylus tip to a rigid, yet responsive bass. This allows the stylus to receive and reproduce every bit of information within the grooves of your favorite recordings. The length of the cantilever is slightly shorter than typical to increase the strength to output voltage ratio. Normal aluminum cantilevers often develop a tendency to make the playback sound slightly bigger, but the stylus chip is designed to line-contact with its curvature radius to 1.6 x 0.3mil (0.04 x 0.007mm) to achieve the best balance and increased tracking capability at the same time.