My Personal Journey with My Sonic Lab: Four Years with the Signature Gold and Two Weeks with the Signature Platinum
Before sharing my experiences with the My Sonic Lab Signature Gold and Signature Platinum, I want to extend a sincere thank-you to
@shakti for starting this terrific thread, “My personal journey to MY SONIC LAB.” His insights and enthusiasm were a big part of what encouraged me to pursue MSL in the first place, and this thread has become one of the most informative and inspiring discussions on My Sonic Lab cartridges.
I also want to thank
@PeterA, who sold me my first MSL cartridge — the Signature Gold — back in 2021. Peter was an absolutely outstanding seller: honest, communicative, transparent, and genuinely kind throughout the entire process. That experience set the tone for everything that followed in my MSL journey.
And finally, a heartfelt thank-you to all the members who have contributed to this thread over the years. Your collective expertise, listening impressions, system configurations, and thoughtful observations have made this a truly valuable resource. What follows is my contribution to that ongoing conversation.
Four Years with the MSL Signature Gold
I lived with the My Sonic Lab Signature Gold for nearly four years, putting roughly 1,700–2,000 hours on it, and it was one of the most musically satisfying components I’ve ever owned. The Gold always had this ability to pull me into the music with a presentation that was both high in energy and yet warm, dimensional, and beautifully fluid. It never sounded etched or analytical — just natural, engaging, and extremely easy to listen to for long sessions.
Throughout that time, I paired the Gold with a Music First Audio SUT, and the synergy was remarkable. With the cartridge’s 1.4Ω DCR and the SUT’s 1.3Ω primary coil impedance, the electrical matching was nearly perfect. Most discussion around MC/SUT pairing focuses on voltage gain and loading, but the often-overlooked X-factor is the relationship between the cartridge’s internal impedance and the SUT’s primary coil impedance. This single ratio affects bandwidth, transient behavior, noise floor, and energy transfer — and the Japanese have respected this principle for decades.
This perfect electrical match is fed directly into my Decware ZP3, a phono stage that plays a significant role in the system’s overall transparency and musical immediacy. The ZP3 uses a split passive RIAA network with no negative feedback, and its tube-rectified, tube-regulated power supply with DC heaters contributes greatly to its purity and liquidity.
I also personally modified my ZP3 circuit to allow the use of 12AT7 and E80CC tubes in the V1 gain position. These tubes handle a 10mV input signal extremely well — with the 20× gain of the Music First SUT — and they maintain composure, headroom, and harmonic integrity. This modification gave the ZP3 a more robust dynamic envelope and a cleaner presentation with high-output SUT-fed signals, pairing remarkably well with both the Signature Gold and Signature Platinum.
The first time I heard the Gold through the Music First SUT at 20× (resulting in ~10mV into the modified ZP3), the sound was explosive and startlingly alive. The sense of dynamic energy reminded me of the scene in the original Ghostbusters film when the proton streams cross — a controlled surge of power opening another dimension. It also carried the same feeling as the Ma Liang and the Magic Paintbrush: like each stroke of the stylus was painting vivid musical images into existence.
That was the Signature Gold for me: emotional, textured, powerful, and deeply musical.
The Ogura Stylus Difference: PH (Gold) vs PA (Platinum)
A major — but often underappreciated — reason I believe the Signature Gold and Signature Platinum have different sonic personalities comes from their different Ogura Vital stylus geometries and how they are mounted.
Signature Gold
- Uses an Ogura Vital PH stylus (~35 × 8 µm) - if anyone with more stylus knowledge disagrees, please correct me if the Signature Gold uses a different Ogura stylus.
- Long vertical contact area
- Wider minor radius
- Mounted in an intentional angled orientation (~45°)
This stylus shape emphasizes:
- warm tonal density
- smooth, forgiving high frequencies
- atmospheric layering
- a weightier, more saturated presentation
Signature Platinum
- Uses an Ogura Vital PA stylus (30 × 3 µm)
- Extremely fine minor radius
- Short, highly precise contact line
- Mounted perfectly straight, perpendicular to the groove
This stylus shape delivers:
- higher resolution
- faster transient behavior
- cleaner microdynamic shading
- more holographic imaging and spatial precision
These stylus differences explain much of the familiar-but-elevated character the Platinum exhibits compared with the Gold.
Two Weeks with the Signature Platinum — The Gold, Elevated
I installed the My Sonic Lab Signature Platinum two weeks ago, and I immediately heard the same familiar MSL “house sound” I loved in the Gold — just elevated in every meaningful way. The Platinum improves each aspect of performance by roughly 10–20%, depending on the recording:
- Greater delicacy and nuance
- Stronger macro and micro-dynamics
- Higher clarity and transparency
- A larger, more holographic soundstage
- Better layering front-to-back and side-to-side
- More liquidity, smoothness, and overall musical ease
What impressed me most was how natural the improvement felt. The Platinum doesn’t change the character of the Gold — it expands and elevates it. All the warmth, dimensionality, and musical flow I loved in the Gold are preserved, but with more truth, more space, and greater emotional immediacy, without becoming analytical or sterile.
A small setup note: I settled on 2.11g VTF, which brought out ideal midrange balance and locked in the presentation.
Final Thoughts
What impresses me most is how proportional the improvement is. The Platinum costs more, but the performance gain feels fully justified. It’s not one of those upgrades where the price increases dramatically but the improvement is subtle. Instead, it delivers more of everything that made the Gold so compelling — greater refinement, dimensionality, realism, and emotional engagement.
I’m extremely happy with the cartridge. The Platinum feels like the natural evolution of everything I loved about the Gold — familiar in its musical soul, but elevated in every meaningful sonic dimension.
www.whatsbestforum.com
