Daniel J SaitLaunched officially at High End Munich 2025, the range-topping MP-700 Moving Permalloy cartridge honours Nagaoka’s 85-year commitment to precision and quality.
UK distributor Sound Design Distribution joins Nagaoka in welcoming the debut of the flagship MP-700 Moving Permalloy cartridge. Celebrating NAGAOKA’s 85th Anniversary and launching at High End Munich 25, the MP-700 has been engineered for ever more refined and accurate sound reproduction, bringing listeners closer to the original performance.
Compared with the conventional Moving Magnet (MM) type, Nagaoka’s signature Moving Permalloy (MP) design utilises a lightweight permalloy piece attached to the cantilever, significantly reducing mass, while allowing the stylus to move with greater freedom and precision.
The new MP cartridge employs a boron cantilever paired with a new micro-ridge nude diamond stylus measuring 0.12 x 0.3 mil. This precisely crafted combination enhances sound accuracy, ensuring strong detail retrieval from vinyl grooves. The MP-700 also incorporates the softest damper, allowing the boron cantilever and micro-ridge stylus to perform at their best. Its design includes a newly integrated suspension wire in the pivot system, which effectively controls the movement of both the cantilever and stylus, providing stability with enhanced separation and clarity across all frequencies to deliver the accurate representation of treble, bass tones and timbre for a more vivid and lifelike listening experience.
The MP-700 features a shielded case and cartridge frame crafted from ultra-duralumin, enhanced with a three-layer surface treatment involving nickel plating, black tin plating, and an insulating coating, which minimises static interference, improves heat and wear resistance, and preserves the exterior’s longevity.
Specifications:
Output Voltage (1kHz, 5cm/sec): 4 mV
Frequency Response: 20-27,000 Hz
Channel Separation (1kHz): 30 dB
Channel Balance (1kHz): 1.0 dB or less
Recommended Load Impedance: 47 KΩ
Recommended Load Capacitance: 100 pF
Vertical Tracking Force: 1.4 g
Cantilever: Boron
Stylus Tip: Micro-ridge Naked Diamond
Cartridge Weight: 8.0 g
Cartridge & Headshell Weight: 26.3 g
Replacement Stylus: JN-P700
MP-700 availability: May 2025
Typical retail prices:
MP-700H (cartridge + headshell): £1,249.00
MP-700: £1,149.00
JN-P700 (replacement stylus): £599.00