Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Shelter cartridges are the brainchild of vinyl addict Yasuo Ozawa, who was fully immersed in the Japanese high-end hi-fi scene from an early age. At school he designed his own valve amplifiers, going on to study electrical engineering at degree level. In 1982 he joined respected Japanese tonearm and cartridge specialist Fidelity Research, diving in at the deep end as a cartridge designer. Partly responsible for the well-reviewed MCX-3 and MCX-5 models, he began to make a name for himself in the industry and duly launched Shelter Inc. in 1986, on the back of his reputation.

Ozawa's first solo design was the 701E, with the higher output ES and lightweight beryllium variants following soon after. The latter sold until 1996, joined by the Model 501 in 1990. This proved the staple of the Shelter range, winning various awards from the Japanese hi-fi press. It offered a high output for its time – 0.4mV – but the Model 9000 [tested here] which followed in 2005 was higher still at 0.65mV. This became the company's flagship until it was usurped by the Harmony in 2008.