EMT JSD Novel Gold Cartridge

The JSD Novel Gold is the current top of the EMT hi-fi cartridge program — the reference expression of EMT's multi-layer transducer technology in a body engineered around a pure-gold generator coil.

The transducer is EMT's multi-layer core design, introduced in 2021 and built around a cantilever assembly of sapphire and titanium — sapphire for its stiffness-to-mass ratio, titanium for its ability to carry structural load without ringing. The stylus is an MR HP diamond: a multi-radius profile, high-polish grade, chosen to keep the contact patch minimal and the retrieved information maximal at any groove diameter.

What separates the Novel Gold from every other cartridge EMT builds is the coil. Windings are pure 4N gold — a choice made not for spectacle but for tonal effect. Gold's electrical resistance and mechanical damping properties produce a sound EMT describes as rich and colourful; in the room, that reads as body without heaviness, warmth without a loss of speed. The magnet is AlNiCo, gold-plated. The body is high-density material, also gold-plated, tuned to sit acoustically inert against the tonearm headshell.

Output is 1 mV at 5 cm/s. Coil impedance is 2 × 20 Ω per channel. Recommended load is 100 to 200 ohms. Tracking force is 2.1 grams, compliance 12 µm/mN, weight 18 grams — a heavier cartridge, and one that asks for a tonearm equal to it. The EMT 909-HI or 912-HI carries it directly on the half-inch fixed-headshell mount.