Fun and affordable; what’s not to like?
Sumiko knows plenty about cartridge manufacturing. The company was founded in 1982 and continues to build all of its cartridges in Japan to this day. The Rainier moving magnet sits at the more affordable end of the company’s Oyster range and looks to be a good choice for those itching for that first upgrade to their turntable.
Nicely made and easy to fit
This is a nicely made unit, with a body designed to support the internal generator assembly rigidly while minimising unwanted internal resonances. There’s nothing particularly fancy about the elliptical stylus, but it works well enough, helping the Rainier track securely at the recommended 2.0g tracking force. As always, there is no harm in trying different tracking weights between the recommended 1.8-2.2g to optimise the results for your deck and tastes.
This Sumiko is a thoughtful design that is easy to fit thanks to captive nuts inset into the body and sensibly squared off edges that make fitting and alignment a breeze. An output of 5mV is pretty normal and so shouldn’t pose any issues with the kind of phono stage this cartridge is likely to be partnered with.
We try the Rainier on a Rega Planar 2 as well as our reference Technics SL-1000R turntable and it impresses regardless. Obviously, a high-end deck such as the Technics (which costs around 100 times the price of the cartridge) is about as far from a typical partner for the Sumiko as you can get, but it does help us put a spotlight on the Rainier’s performance and therefore is a useful combination to try.
The rest of our set-up is the Naim SuperNait 3 integrated amplifier driving KEF LS50 Meta speakers, plus our usual high-end reference system of the Cyrus Phono Signature/PSX-R2 phono stage, Burmester 088/911 Mk3 pre/power and ATC SCM50 speakers.
Musical and engaging
We wouldn’t judge this cartridge on the first listen. Do that and you will find it’s a little coarse, cluttered and tonally grey. However, get in some hours of use and the presentation blooms into something that’s surprisingly musical and engaging. The sound gains notably in refinement, becoming smoother and more fluid. Listening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, we can’t help but be impressed by the cartridge’s robust character a
