http://www.kvglabs.com/kermit/PDF/AT440 ... Review.pdf
LISTENING IMPRESSIONS
The cartridge exhibits a tendency toward excessive brightness with most preamplifiers, emphasizing harshness of violins and vocal siblilance at levels of =6 dB. Spatial imaging is detailed and accurate. Overall, the cartridge is crisp, detailed and and enjoyably listenable once the excessive brightness is tamed. The cartridge’s sonic character is more suited to popular music than it is to classical music, having a characterisitc that is aggressive and forward, evidenced by exaggerated screechiness of violins and increased sibilance in vocals recorded with condenser microphones. When playing LPs recorded within RIAA-defined modulation limits these adverse characteristics are not glaringly obvious, but supercut LPs quickly expose the cartridge’s limitation. The cartridge is a very good match to the Dual 1249 and other Dual 1200 series turntables.