Thales Xquisite MC Cartridge

Xquisite At A Glance

• Reference moving-coil cartridge with patented monobloc ceramic transducer
• Ironless coil construction
• Three coil-material choices: Copper, Silver, Gold
• Three body-material choices: Aluminum, Titanium, Bronze
• Output: 0.25 mV (Gold) or 0.30 mV (Copper, Silver) at 5 cm/s
• Internal impedance: 20 Ω (Silver) or 24 Ω (Copper, Gold)
• Body weight: 14.8 g (Aluminum), 16.6 g (Titanium), 20.8 g (Bronze)
• Color options vary by body material (Silver, Gold, Titan, Fire)
• Designed and manufactured by Thales in Winterthur, Switzerland

The Xquisite is the cartridge family that completes the Thales front end. It evolved out of the acclaimed X-Quisite design Micha Huber engineered earlier in his career and is now built and voiced under the Thales name. Every Xquisite is built around the same patented monobloc ceramic transducer and the same ironless coil construction. The customer's job — and the showroom's — is to specify the coil material and the body material that match the rest of the system. Thales documents the choices openly, in engineering language. They are real, audible, and worth taking seriously.

The transducer, first. The monobloc ceramic transducer at the heart of every Xquisite is patented and built in-house. It allows an unusually rigid, unusually quiet mechanical reference for the generator to work against — the structural baseline a moving-coil cartridge needs in order to recover the lowest-level information in the groove. The coil is wound without an iron core, eliminating the magnetic non-linearity an iron-cored coil introduces in the recovered signal. The result is the resolution and naturalness the Xquisite has been recognized for since the X-Quisite originals.

Coil material — Copper, Silver, or Gold. The coil-wire choice is a tonal and electrical decision the customer makes against the rest of the phono chain. Copper (C) is the dynamic, most balanced option — recommended for tube preamplifiers and step-up transformers wound with copper wire; output 0.30 mV, impedance 24 Ω. Silver (S) is the refined, most involving option — recommended for step-up transformers wound with silver wire; output 0.30 mV, impedance 20 Ω. Gold (G) is the rich, colourful option, output 0.25 mV at 24 Ω — recommended for high-quality solid-state phono stages, including the Thales Magnifier.

Body material — Aluminum, Titanium, or Bronze. The body chassis is the second specification. Aluminum (A) is sized for tonearms with gimbal bearings and an effective mass in the 10–30 g range, in combination with a low- or medium-mass turntable platform; Thales recommends it specifically for the Simplicity tonearm and the Elegance turntable. Body weight is 14.8 g. Titanium (T) suits the same gimbal-bearing arms but is tuned for the high-mass platform; Thales recommends it for the Statement tonearm and the Reference turntable. Body weight is 16.6 g. Bronze (B) is the body for non-cardanic bearings — uni-pivots, knife-edges — on a high-mass turntable. Body weight is 20.8 g.

Body colour — chosen against the plinth. Within each body material, the customer specifies the finish that complements the rest of the deck. Aluminum and Bronze bodies are offered in Silver or Gold. Titanium bodies are offered in Titan, Gold, or Fire — a deep red anodization developed for the Reference platform. The colour is the last decision, made after the engineering matches are settled.

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