[Listening test] A comparative review of two different cartridges, the Gold Note Vasari Gold and Donatello Gold

Product: Gold Note Vasari Gold (MM) and Donatello Gold (MC) cartridges
Manufacturer: Gold Note - Italy
Approx. retail price: $630 CDN/€400 (Vasari Gold) & $1650 CDN/€1100 (Donatello Gold)
Test sample kindly supplied by: Tri-cell Enterprises - Canada
Author: Henry Venema - TNT-Audio Canada
Published: May, 2024

I'm relatively new to vinyl. I waited for years to find a decent used turntable, all the while collecting records. I finally found one: a Maplenoll air bearing turntable. A fantastic table but a bit of a pain adjusting the VTA, and the auto arm lift mechanism is fussy and constantly needs adjustment. Nevertheless, the table is dead quiet. The air pump is hidden in my garage with about 100 ft of air hose which fills a pressure tank in the crawl space. From there two quarter inch lines attach to the turntable: one for the platter, the other for the linear tonearm. The table came with a Monster Alpha Genesis 500 cartridge, which I replaced with a Benz Micro Glider low output cartridge. The improvement was significant, but not perfect. Nevertheless, the Glider ($1380 CDN) is my reference for this review.

In a conversation with Vince of Tri-cell Enterprises, he mentioned that Gold Note of Italy makes some great cartridges. He suggested I review a couple of them. Soon the Vasari Gold moving magnet cartridge ($630 CDN) (here a review of the Vasari Red on TNT-Audio) and a moving coil cartridge, the Donatello Gold ($1650 CDN) arrived in the mail. What a great opportunity I thought but it came with about 175 hours of burn-in time for both cartridges. 500 plus sides of a LP is a lot of time. A Purist Audio Designs burn-in LP was a huge help in the process. It took so long for the burn-in these cartridges I thought that I might have damaged them. The wait was well worth the reward.

I had just received a copy of the highly acclaimed LP Kirsten Edkins Shapes and Sound and decided to use it as my primary reference recording for this review. The recording is fantastic and opens with a saxophone that prior to burn-in of both cartridges couldn't get this to sound right. Was it a defective recording? I just about sent the LP back to my retailer, but then something amazing happened. Some where around 175 hours (I lost count), both cartridges changed, they opened up the soundstage, and Edkins saxophone became sweet all the while keeping its complexity and tone. Despite the long burn-in, both cartridges sounded good after about 20 hours and they got better from then on. It just took the top end a long time to settle in place.

Set up was easy. I like to keep the linear tonearm parallel with the record surface. This position turned out to be the best VTA adjustment with both Gold Note cartridges as well as the Benz Glider. I played with the VTA a bit, which is a total pain as the adjustment screw has been partially stripped. However, the parallel position turned out to be the best vertical tracking setting.

Right away the Vasari Gold MM grabbed my attention. I have been told that MM cartridges excel in rhythm and pace, and this was true for the Vasari. With a wide soundstage and clearly delineated instrument position, it had my son dancing and my head bopping. As the cartridge burned in its musicality increased with better definition. Listening to the live recording of Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker's Carnegie Hall Concert, the sound stage was three-dimensional and brought the musicians into my listening room. I could I feel the air vibrate with the music flow. It digs deeps and pulls bass notes into a clear position in the soundstage, neither with too much bloom or too little.

As the Vasari burned in there was a noticeable increase in the decay of musical notes. Trailing edges began to hang in the air longer and more precisely. It became more musical and let me move from listening to music to being-in-music. I could now climb inside and lose myself in the flow. Images were in a perfect arrangement in the space completely behind my speakers. Listening to Neil Young's Harvest, his harmonica had rich soul, whereas the Benz had a more precise and analytic sound. With the Vasari the harmonica had the just right amount of bite without hardness. On Old Man the drum kit came alive. The drums were dynamic and totally controlled, set within a very convincing sound stage.

Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull was another recording I used to measure the burn-in progress. At first Anderson's voice was too thick with bad over-tones. After burn-in, his voice was much clearer. The same was true of his flute playing. At first it was ragged, then each note became sweet and hung in precise space. Now I could hear the flute and his breath blowing over the tone hole. Of the three cartridges the Vasari made Ian Anderson sound just right. Without bloat or excess of bloom the Vasari got the bass tone right.

Switching from the Vasari MM to the Donatello MC produced a significant improvement in terms of depth of soundstage and refinement of inner detail. The Donatello has warmer sound compared with the Benz and the Vasari. However, the Benz is more “accurate” with greater delineation and precision of instrument position in the soundstage. Without hardness at the top end, the Donatello had a very natural note decay. While softer in the overall sound presentation, it didn't lack dynamic impact. With a uniformity or coherence from top to bottom, no frequency seemed to dominate or beam.

Overall smoothness and lack of compression is the Donatello's strength. On Edkin's LP her saxophone was slightly more forward in the soundstage than the Vasari and the Benz. Yet the smoothness of sound reigned supreme. For example, Ian Anderson's flute can sound a bit too precise with the Benz. Not so with the Donatello. But there is a trade off here. The Benz's more precise and crystalline treble can be extraordinarily beautiful at times but at the expense of some warmth. With a very slight roll off in the treble the Donatello is sweeter sounding. It can on occasion be a touch too thick in the midrange. However, compared with the Vasari, voices with the Donatello are more fleshed out and refined.

Compared with the Donatello the Vasari has more swing but less detail. While both cartridges are smooth, the Donatello has a more precise image position. Bass is tighter and clearly defined. With the Vasari bass is somewhat looser but never gets in the way the music. The Donatello removed a slight veil hanging over the Vasari. The treble clarity of the Benz can be breathtaking, but it comes with a price: overall sound from top to bottom is thinner and drier than both the Vasari and Donatello.

The clear winner in terms of value is the Vasari. The winner in terms of performance will depend on your system. To bright and thin sounding, the Donatello wins; too warm the Benz claims first prize. If you have the patience to endure 150-200 hours burn-in time, you will have a surplus of excellent sound with all three cartridges.

A special thanks to Vince at Tri-cell Enterprises for loaning me two Gold Note cartridges.

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Gold Note Vasari Gold and Donatello Gold - phono cartridges

Excess of good sound