Phasemation PP-500
The PP-500 brings vinyl alive with rich tonal colour, a three-dimensional soundstage and firm, focused bass. Fidelity Magazine admired its immersive atmosphere, rhythmic precision and assured tracking, while Positive Feedback found exceptional midrange presence, transparency and dynamic poise. This is a deeply musical MC cartridge for carefully matched medium-to-heavy arms.
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Deliciously Crispy
Sound Quality
94/100
Build Quality
89/100
Features Usability
78/100
Value for Money
94/100
Pros
Colourful, expressive midrange with convincing tonal richness and no tendency toward brightness.
Expansive, convincingly three-dimensional imaging with tangible instrument placement and room-filling scale.
Strong tracking, focused bass control and confident rhythmic drive, including on demanding passages.
Performs credibly in systems above its price class when partnered with a quiet, capable phono stage.
Cons
Sacrifices a little ultimate air, transient quickness and instrumental delicacy compared with the finest cartridges.
Low compliance favours medium-heavy to heavy tonearms, limiting universal arm compatibility.
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What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 94/100
Reviewers portray the PP-500 as an unusually musical and expressive moving-coil cartridge, combining tonal colour, control and strong dynamic drive with a notably convincing sense of recorded space. Its presentation is not entirely without compromise at the very highest level of air and transient effortlessness, but the listening accounts are emphatically positive.
Overall Sound
94/100
Positive Feedback calls the PP-500 “extremely musical” and says its overall performance transcends its identifiable sonic character. The midrange receives particularly strong praise for complex tonal palettes and freedom from brightness, while bass remains controlled and dynamics stay convincing when the music gets demanding.
Tracking Retrieval
93/100
Fidelity Magazine reports exceptionally composed groove tracing, saying the tonearm ran smoother than rarely encountered and tracked “like an unshakable ocean liner.” Reviewers also hear high transparency, low apparent noise and newly revealed timbres, with fast hi-hat and cymbal work benefiting from its assured timing.
Soundstage Imaging
94/100
The PP-500 is repeatedly praised for large-scale, three-dimensional spatial presentation, including wall-to-wall and front-to-back sound. Instruments are described as realistically sized and vividly placed, with solid central images and a persuasive in-room presence; one review notes a slight reduction in air and ultimate quickness on some material.
FEATURES USABILITY PERFORMANCE 78/100
Tonearm compatibility / system fit.
Tonearm Compatibility
78/100
Its low compliance means the PP-500 is best suited to medium-heavy and especially heavy tonearms, as Fidelity Magazine explicitly advises. The 0.3mV low-output MC design also calls for a suitably quiet, capable MC phono stage, making this a cartridge for carefully matched systems rather than universal fit.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
89/100
The PP-500 uses a machined duralumin body and base with DLC treatment, along with a boron cantilever, line-contact diamond and samarium-cobalt magnet system. Fidelity Magazine specifically notes the distinctive feel of the DLC-treated body, though the reviews offer little direct comment on long-term durability or assembly tolerances.
Value for Money
94/100
At its approximately $2,295–$3,995 asking range, the PP-500 is presented as an unusually ambitious performer. Positive Feedback says it can readily find a place in systems well above its pay grade, directly supporting its reputation as a particularly compelling premium-cartridge purchase.
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Specifications
- Power Generation Method
- Moving Coil Type
- Impedance
- 4 Ohm
- Applicable Stylus Force
- 1.7 to 2.0g
- Output Voltage
- 0.3mV (horizontal direction of 1kHz 50mm/s)
- Compliance
- 8.0 µm/mN (8.0x10(-6) cm/dyne)
- Playing Frequency Range
- 10Hz to 30kHz
- Separation
- 30dB or more (1kHz)
- Channel Balance
- Within 1dB (1kHz)
- Tare
- 11.3g
- Stylus Chip
- Diamond(line contact / curvature 0.03×0.003mm)
- Cantilever
- Pure Boron φ0.26
- Magnet
- Samarium Cobalt Magnet
- Magnetic Circuit Composition Material
- Permendur
- Base
- Machined duralumin (Diamond Like Carbon processing)
- Body
- Machined Duralumin (Diamond Like Carbon processing)
Manufacturer's Description — Phasemation
We proudly release the new product PP-500, which is produced by our all efforts, accurately inheriting the lineage of Phasemation's flagship cartridge PP-2000 achieving popularity after releasing it at the end of 2015.
While reducing the cost, we have ensured the PP-2000's fundamental performances such as the auditory lateralization, spatial reproducibility, medium-higher tone having high freshness, and lower tone resonance.
Main feature
New design of a magnetic circuit
The technology of the flagship model PP-2000 is applied for this magnetic circuit structure. Therefore, just like PP-2000, we have achieved for this product to provide an excellent magnetic field having high efficiency and uniformity.
Consequently the output is increased without making the vibration system heavier.
Improving the trackability by readjusting the vibration system
In order to aim for the best balance of optimum sound quality in this class, we improved the PP-300's vibration system, adopting the base made of duralumin and tuned this vibration system exclusively for PP-500.
Consequently it is achieved that the powerful sound quality and realistic sensation can be expressed.
Inheriting the high quality materials for audio sound
High quality materials for audio sound verified in PP-2000 and other models are inherited and they are well-acknowledged until now for the following parts: cantilever made of pure boron material, magneto coil made of 6N oxygen-free copper wire, pure iron coil bobbin, damper, and so forth.
For the body, the well-acknowledged DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) * coating has been adopted continuously.The unclouded sound quality being well suited for the rigidity and vibration-damping properties have been realized.
*DLC（Diamond Like Carbon）is a generic name of a carbon film to be produced with vapor phase synthesis utilizing ion processing and the high rigidity and high electric insulation similar to a diamond are provided for it.
Verified Dealers
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Authorized dealers for Phasemation PP-500
- Resolution A/V — in-store — New York City, New York, United States (website)
- American Sound — in-store — Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada (website)
- Ammonite Audio — online and in-store — Norwich, England, United Kingdom (website)
- Ana Mighty Sound — online and in-store — Paris, Île-de-France, France (website)
- Ars Antiqua Audio — online and in-store — Boadilla del Monte, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain (website)
- Audio Creativ — in-store — Riedenburg, Bayern, Germany (website)
- Audio Solutions - AU — online and in-store — Mascot, New South Wales, Australia (website)
- Don Better Audio — online and in-store — Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States (website)
- Exception Audio — in-store — Antibes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France (website)
- Hifi Gear - HK — in-store — Kowloon, Hong Kong (website)
and 23 more verified dealers