Audio Note IQ 3

The IQ 3 exists to take the moving-magnet format as far as Audio Note believes it can go without giving up the practical advantages of MM ownership. It uses a more ambitious cantilever and stylus approach so that speed, tonal colour, and low-level expression arrive with greater precision and less mechanical haze.

In a sympathetic arm and phono stage, the IQ 3 sounds unusually complete for a moving-magnet cartridge. It gives records more texture and more shape, but it does so without pushing the sound forward or thinning it out. For owners who want near reference analogue performance with straightforward setup and replacement, the IQ 3 is a very mature answer.