Battle of the heavyweights........
IO1 blue vs IO1 blue......
Audio Note (UK) IO 1 blue loan cartridge very happily fixed to my ARM 2 with the new pretender Audio Note (UK) IO 1 blue "improved" waiting in it's beautiful lovely smelling box to take over.
Why on earth do you have 2 IO 1 cartridges?
Back in blog #2 I was umming and aaahing over all the audiophile Audio Note eye candy and decided on purchasing the IO1 blue moving coil cartridge, despite the added interconnect cable, step up transformer and cost.
(6 month hindsight alert: Great decision, if you're in the same situation).
For those who have read all my preceding blogs, I shall refer you back to blog #5 where I visited Partridge Green, Audio Note (UK) HQ in December 2025 to collect my eagerly awaited hand built Audio Note system.
In that blog I completely by accident met Darko Greguras (Audio Note research and development engineer) in the kitchen and after that meeting, in my blog, I deliberately and as vaguely as possible wrote this:
"Darko is possibly one of the most energetic people I have ever met and having never met me before, unprompted, proceeded to get out his phone and show me pictures of new projects he'd been working on".
I obviously didn't want to "burst the bubble" and kept the lid on these exciting new developments.
One of Darkos projects was the new recently released splendid IZVOR digital to analogue converter (DAC) however one of the other projects was improvements to the entire Audio Note IO range of moving coil (MC) cartridges.
My loan IO 1 blue, on my ARM 2. I personally think it's a really, really beautiful piece of art and as always better in the flesh.
Obviously, my interest was very much piqued as I'd just purchased an IO 1 blue but had yet to collect it. Asking Micky Seaton (Audio Note UK sales manager and my excellent host), he said that Audio Note's philosophy is to constantly innovate, find better ways of improving, never staying still. (MEISHU TONMEISTER range, OTO 35th Anniversary, IZVOR DAC for example).
Darko had recently, as part of this process, made multiple incremental improvements to the ENTIRE IO MC cartridge range. He reported that the effect on the sound quality was staggering on all models.
Micky then asked me the stupidest question it is possible to ask an audiophile.... "Would you like a "breathed on" IO rather than the previous iteration, the price is the same (£3999)?"
He said I may have to wait a few months, but he would fit the current IO to my TT2 that day so I could take it home and listen to it, then change over when the new IO became available, then report on my impressions.
I thought for quite a while about this proposition, it may even have been a millisecond before I said an enthusiastic "YES" and that is why I have 2 x IO 1 blue cartridges in my house!
I know what you all want to know now......
The answer is "YES".
If you have any flavour of Audio NOTE (UK) IO MC cartridge, you CAN have it upgraded to the latest "breathed on" specification.
The cost is the same as a rebuild, so a third of the price of a new cartridge, however without spoiling what's to come in this blog, if you already own an IO you're probably going to want to consider it......
In addition, the new IO is the same price as the previous iteration, so £3999 if you were going for an IO 1 for example. More for less, who says investing in the best home audio in the world is a bad thing!
Visually the new IO is identical to the previous iteration, which is no bad thing, it's internally where they differ, having undergone small but very important changes.
The hall in my house, March 2026, 1x OTO PHONO SE Silver Signature 35th Anniversary and 1x IO1 blue, just arrived, extremely well packed.
So the previous IO 1 was bad then? Glad I didn't get one...
Aaaah....not quite.
You see the problem lies with the fact that after I drove back from Audio Note (UK) HQ on 17th December 2025 until the time the above pictures were taken in March 2026 I listened to the IO 1... a lot. It was musical, delicate, magnificent. Started very good, then after 10 hours improved again and was jaw dropping after 50 hours, it had north of 100 hours when I RELUCTANTLY sent it back. I'd fallen a bit in love with it, truth be told.
You see in early February 2026 I had unexpectedly developed an unusual but very enviable "problem". I knew a new "improved" IO 1 blue was being built for me, hand crafted and reportedly far better than what I was listening to. I knew my time with the loan IO 1 was coming to an end, BUT I DIDN'T WANT IT!
There I said it. It's written down, out in the public domain.
I went to the Bristol Hifi show in February 2026 having rehearsed a mini apologetic "speech" to Micky (Audio Note (UK) sales manager) who I knew would be there, apologising for wasting his time with the new IO 1, sure someone else would have it, I'll just keep this one, very happy, sorry, sorry, mumble, mumble....etc.
But I didn't.
I kept my mouth shut. At that point I was not sure I was doing the right thing, my music at home with loan OTO PHONO SE Silver Signature, loan IO 1 was perfect, I couldn't imagine things could sound any better. There, I'm happy leave me alone, thank you for all your help.
I still kept my mouth shut, why? When I was happy with what I had? Was I really determined to upset the applecart?
2 words: CURIOSITY and TRUST.
I was curious...could I improve on the magnificence I was currently listening to? For no extra money? Trust...Micky and Darko's words going around in my head about how much better it was. Surely if anyone knows their Audio Note onions, it's them...
I then decided to uproot my system, hand the loan OTO back (kept the IO 1 as my new one wasn't quite ready) and in March 2026 accept the improvements. Trust the Audio Note continuous improvement process.
"Loan" IO1 cartridge giving BAUHAUS "The sky's gone out" a run for it's money.
Go on, was the new IO any better?
If you've gathered any knowledge about me over the last 10 blogs, you'll know nothing is ever easy!
I put the new OTO PHONO SE Silver Signature 35th Anniversary on it's shelf, plugged everything in AND....... left the new IO 1 in its box for a few weeks.
A couple of reasons:
1) The 35th Anniversary OTO had a significant revision to it's phono stage, (I quote from the OTO SE product page on the Audio Note (UK) website):
"The phono stage has also been improved, increasing its sensitivity and, together with the new power amplifier board, it means the additional line stage that was necessary in the old Phono version can be removed. This retains phase integrity and reduces noise".
I wanted to hear and record this improvement on the IO 1 that I knew so well.
(It unsurprisingly was substantially better. There was more slam, body, space, air on all LPs, there was also more gain, on the previous OTO there was a noticeable volume difference between CD and PHONO inputs, on this, only a little, which is appreciated).
2) I bottled it. (UK saying meaning any courage or resolve I had remaining in dealing with the IO 1 changeover had evaporated completely).
This situation was taken out of my hands when I received a kind but enquiring email from Micky asking for the IO 1 back.
Now the decision was out of my hands, in one afternoon, I swapped the cartridges over, went to the Post Office and dragging my feet, sent my beloved IO 1 blue back to it's rightful owner.
First LP I tried, 1944 mono Shelly Manne & Co...here we go
Bam...
Oh my god, the difference was literally night and day. Prior to changing over the cartridges, the last LP I listened to was a jazz 1944 mono Shelly Manne & Co, so I made it the first I listened to. Bought a couple of months ago from ebay for a tenner, I had been really enjoying the small-scale, close-in, highly foot-tapping recording, a current favourite. With the new IO 1, the small scale expanded like it had been expanded with bellows, room filling, same foot tapping, but I had now moved from the middle of the audience to the front. Shelly's drums had more weight, the tenor saxophone projected right into my lap with a real "husk" to its tone. I listened straight away to both sides, attention rapt, enthralled.
Damn...why hadn't I changed over sooner?!
The difference was so marked, if you'd blindfolded me and said "You're now listening to the next model up, the IO 2, would you like to pay the difference?"
I'd have got my debit card out immediately, then worried about how I could afford it later. This was also cold, straight out of the box with zero hours under its belt, now it has approaching 100 hours and has loosened up even more, become much freer sounding, starting and stopping on a dime.
Now for a favourite album, DECCAs World of Ballet Vol 3 from 1971, once again a cheap eBay purchase. It's a tour de force, I highly recommend you spend a tenner to have this in your life. Verdi's AIDA Act 2 Dance of the Moorish Slaves hit like a sledgehammer, the new IO 1 clearly in it's element, I played the whole album, both sides back to back, ROSSINIs Act 3 Soldier's dance pressurised the room and I was literally left thrilled and breathless. I could actually feel the impact of the instruments and the volume wasn't THAT neighbour unfriendly, 60-70 db by my decibel meter. Put it this way the cat slept through it all, yet I literally marvelled at the crystal clear but in no way harsh, high notes and room filling sound, soundstage well, well outside the speakers.
I know this music really pretty well and the new IO 1 scaled the performance up significantly over it's predecessor.
Next up, a half speed master of Burning by Bob Marley and the Wailers, the new IO 1 clearly digging out a controlled but deep bass, Bobs voice full of presence, suspended dead centre with all the individual musicians clearly separated in their own space. Comparing my notes from before the cartridge change, the new IO is a MORE cartridge. You like soundstage size? No problems, have more. You want everything beautifully projected and hanging in space? No problems, have more. You want gorgeous rolling textured bass? No problems, have more.
I sat down with a beer and fully enjoyed living in Bobs world for 40 minutes. What a great album, perfectly designed for my Audio Note system.
I found I couldn't put music on fast enough, but once I'd put on an LP I had to listen all the way through enjoying fully what the musicians had to offer.
Time Life "The Swing Era" collection.....holy moly what a fantastic experience.
A couple of weeks ago a video appeared in my YouTube algorithms by The Hifi Five. I saw it had Peter Qvortrup featured in the cast and the subject was field coil loudspeakers. I watched it as 1) I find the subject very interesting and 2) anything with Peter in it is usually fine entertainment (click link HERE if you haven't seen it yet).
At the conclusion of the video the host Ron Resnik asked Peter if he had a music recommendation. Peter recommended the above series of 15 boxes with 3 LPs in each box (45 LPs in total!) and a handy hardback informational book with each set of 3 LPs. I could only get 12 but the completionist in me will get the last 3 separately. (I still have 36 to listen to so don't consider myself hard done by!) Peter stated these are the finest recordings of Big Band music and beat any of the comparable audiophile recordings of the same ilk.
Challenge duly set! Interest more than piqued I emailed Peter and a very short while later he emailed back with an eBay link to a very cheap set of 12 which I purchased. He also asked me to play the above LP track 4: Big Noise from Winnetka and let him know what I thought.
A week later an 18 kg box arrived (sorry postie I feel for you!).
I played track no 4 then both sides, awestruck. Track 4 is simple, drumming, a bassist and occasional whistling. Sounds awful? Not a bit of it. The new IO 1 dredged out the deepest bass, it was foot tapping, hypnotic and totally realistic. When the double bass solo started you could actually feel and almost see the fingers playing.
I was thinking If there's any other audio system more capable than this, how? There's levels 3,4, 5 and now 6 within Audio Note (UK)s stellar line up, mine is in the scheme of things ok...but not top notch. I replayed it again, resisted the urge to call my family up to witness this glory unfolding in front (and around) me.
Apart from the cat. She's not talking. However, she didn't walk out like she does with metal so I think we can say that's a feline "paws up!" from her too as my only other living witness.
Peter was absolutely right. 100%. The recording quality was uncanny. I have never, ever experienced music presented in such a "they're in the room with you" manner. This Swing Era series could make the very worst and ill matched system sound great, through my all Audio Note system, music has never sounded better. If I had to use one word, HOLOGRAPHIC would be my word of choice.
Is Big Band my no 1 choice of listening? Before this? no chance, now, absolutely.
I can't wait to get back to my music room, get the cat on my lap and get transported away to 1930's Chicago! If you buy this set you won't regret your purchase for one second. Guaranteed.
Tilly my listening partner, I think this picture says it all......
Rule 1) No metal
Rule 2) Plenty of strokes
Rule 3) see rules 1 + 2
So, it's good then?
Of course it is. It's more than good, it's stratospherically good. The combination of the new IO 1 blue with the OTO PHONO SE Silver Signature 35th Anniversary with its updated phono stage is a SIGNIFICANT improvement in all aural and musical aspects over the combination I was happily listening to prior to the changeover.
I'll try to explain: I get far more "jump shocks" now than I did before. You know, you're listening to a quiet passage, then a crescendo hits you and literally half scares you to death, it's thrilling and terrifying all at the same moment. You shake your head in disbelief, then lift the needle up, pop it back a centimetre to experience it again as you literally can't believe just how good it is.
As I said earlier, this update definitely is a MORE update. Whatever Darko did in the inner workings, the Audio Note sound is completely unchanged, you just get MORE of all the good bits you like. Oh yes, it tracks like a demon too, very low surface noise from my questionable cheap eBay purchases.
I can only say that if you don't own an IO of any flavour, but are in the market for a moving coil cartridge, then deeply consider the purchase (remembering to factor in an Audio Note step-up transformer and interconnect), at least do yourself a favour and listen to one. If you DO own an IO, then deeply consider a rebuild to the latest iteration. Me? I'll carry on exploring the remaining 35 1/2 LPs in the set.....
You owe it to yourself.....
What's in blog # 11?
This blog is a journey. My system is now complete. All the components and cabling are installed and running in. For example my AN K speakers now have 550 hours under their belts, the CD3.1x/ii 400 hours so it's ticking over nicely.
As I have to plan this blog a few months in advance, I contacted Micky a while ago with some ideas to move it forward. I was wondering the effects a smallish upgrade would have, so Micky very kindly sent me a pair of 1 metre AN V silver interconnect cables on loan to replace my totally excellent ISIS top of the line copper interconnect cables.
Top level 3 copper vs top level 3 silver! What's not to like!
I'm looking forward to it, hope you are too, see you then and Happy Listening!