Description
When Gold Note engineers decided to take the Vasari series to its logical maximum, the choice of diamond shape was obvious. Shibata is not a marketing name, but a specific geometry developed back in the early 1970s by JVC engineer Norio Shibata for the reproduction of four-channel quadraphonic sound. Today, this type of sharpening remains one of the most demanding and precise in the world of analog reproduction - and Gold Note has implemented it in an affordable MM cartridge with a duralumin body made in Florence.
The Shibata type sharpening is an asymmetrical development of an ellipse with additional facets that form a unique profile. Thanks to this, the contact area of the needle with the groove is significantly increased, and the specific pressure on the vinyl is, on the contrary, reduced. The practical result is twofold: firstly, the head reads information from the very bottom of the groove, where the finest details of the upper frequency range are recorded; secondly, both the record and the needle wear out more slowly than with more aggressive sharpenings. The frequency range of the Vasari Shibata has been expanded to 10–30,000 Hz, and the channel resolution exceeds 25 dB — indicators that were previously the prerogative of much more expensive heads.
The Vasari Shibata body is identical to the Vasari Gold — a solid block of 7000 series aluminum alloy, machined on a CNC machine. The high rigidity and internal damping of the material suppress parasitic resonances, preventing the body from introducing its own coloring into the signal. The aluminum cantilever is mounted directly into the metal — without intermediate connections, which increases tracking accuracy with a head weight of 9.5 g.
The Shibata profile is the choice for those who want to get the most out of their vinyl path. The head will reveal its full potential in conjunction with a high-quality mid-range or higher-end tonearm and a phono preamp with a load of 47 kOhm. The impedance of 500 Ohms (versus 1000 Ohms in the Gold model) is worth considering when choosing a phono preamp — most modern MM inputs work with this without any problems. The replaceable stylus simplifies maintenance: when the time comes, you only change the stylus, not the entire body.
Like the entire Gold Note line, the Vasari Shibata is completely designed and assembled in Italy. The brand, founded in 2012, consistently upholds the principle of local production — from the design of the body using computer modeling to the final quality control of each head.
