Goldring 1006 MM Phono Cartrige Review by Planet of Sound - Best under $500

The Goldring 1006 is the next step up from the much loved Goldring E3. While the E3 is a taste of the high end, the 1006 is more of a bite of the high end. Whenever we bring in a new cartridge we mount it on our reference turntable and record it with the same record so we can compare directly to all the cartridges we’ve had before. This eliminates memory bias and allows us to quantitatively compare the exact same recordings. When we listened to the 1006 we were shocked, not by any overt difference in the tonality compared to E3. The 1006 is better of course, a little more linear, but generally the same extended and even frequency response. However, it was the immediate improvement in soundstage that jumped out at us. This cart is, without question, the soundstage leader at this price. It has a cavernous front to back staging where you can hear the reverberation of the room a record was recorded in. This is especially noticeable on good recordings, however it is surprising how much information is lost with other cartridges even on average records. Take a listen to Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Chile slight return as an example. With the 1006 you can definitely feel where each musician is in the room whereas with a lesser cartridge it just sounds flatter. This is an improvement across all genres of music, but in particular if you have a lot of classical or older jazz records, the increased dimension and spatiality you will experience is reason enough to buy this cartridge.