Vintage Philips MC cartridges, but who built them?

After seeing them on the net, I've been curios too. This site is interesting, and they say Philips did make some. But the rest, makes me wonder, even thought I don't recall hearing one. I've had their USA products in the past ('80s), and would say they were decent. Link [http://audiotools.com/oldcart_b.html]

Ynnot:

Evidence suggests that these cartridges were designed and built by Namiki.

Although unheralded outside of Japan, I consider these cartridges (probably 1978; 1979 at the latest) to be historically important because they are the first yokeless MC designs that I am aware of.

IIRC, the original GP922 was a one-magnet design similar to the later Ortofon MC200 (Concord type), while the GP922Z was a more sensible two-magnet design along the lines of Sumiko's US patent #4675859, but predating it by perhaps 7~8 years.

hth, jonathan carr

I thought Seiji Yoshioka was the first to do the yokeless design? But then, Ive been wrong in the past. [http://www.blackbirdaudio.com/Blackbird_Audio_Gallery/Transfiguration_Main.html]

I give up. [http://www.docstoc.com/docs/45840715/Moving-Coil-Type-Pickup-Cartridge---Patent-4455639]

Philips intended to start own cart production and bought the Micro Seiki MA 505 (S) tonearm for the purpose. This tonearm was never used because this intention was never
actualize. I got this tonearm from a Philips engineer for
400 Euro. I was of course very glad with such an opportunity but also assume that Halcro will be glad to read that Philips has selected this tonearm.

Regards,

Dear Ynnot: I own two MM Philips cartridges that appears on 1981 along its 1979 MC ones ( very low output. ).

I can't speak for the LOMC. For the MM the information I readed ( on a VE thread. ) is that Empire was the manufacturer on latest Philips MM model.

I own these cartridges for years but I do not hear it yet, so I can't say nothing about its quality performance.

Philips, Luxman, Sony, Yamaha, Sumiko etc. all had yokeless cartridges in production well before Transfiguration was even founded.

Philips' GP922 and GP922Z were launched in the 1978~79 timeframe,

Yamaha's MC-1X (also from the late 1970's) used printed-circuit coils and no yokes (AFAIR),
http://vantageaudio.com/spec/yamahamc1x.htm

Sony got involved with the early-to-mid-80's XL-MC** series
http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-XL-MC1.html

Luxman's LMC-1 and LMC-2 designs were from 1980~1981
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LUXMAN-LMC-2-MC-Cartridge-Moving-coil-Cartridge-Tonearm-/250837671162?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a67171cfa

Ortofon's MC-200 was also from the early 1980's
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Ortofon-MC-200-moving-coil-cartridge-/320731534643?pt=AU_Electronics_Home_Audio_Turntables&hash=item4aad16d533

Sumko's Talisman cartridges were from the mid-late 1980's.

These were all yokeless cartridges that were in production before Transfiguration was even founded.

FWIW, I believe that the Transfiguration designs were a spin-out from Supex - when we (Lyra) were still working together with Supex (early-to-mid 1980's). I knew that Asakura (Supex owner) was working on a yokeless cartridge design.

At the time, Yoshioka was working for a large trading company called Ohsawa Shokai. In addition to his normal import and export work, Yoshioka was an audiophile, and was fairly close to Asakura. Yoshioka had Supex OEM a line of MC cartridges which were branded as Ohsawa and exported.

In a few years, Asakura's health began failing and he retired to the countryside, but I heard that the yokeless MC project was kept alive and Yoshioka subsequently took over the business.

hth, jonathan carr

I used to go through cartridges like water in the '70s and '80s. I also used to keep up with the designers then. Changing them sounded as different as changing speakers sometimes. Then I lost track of them, mostly do to trying to live with the CD takeover in the US. In the '80s I walked into the record shop to buy a couple of albums, and when I looked around, I thought they were going out of business. It turned out they changed over to all CD's in a couple of weeks. It looked bare (small jewel boxes), and I didn't even own a CD player yet. All the other record shops did the same. Then the CD age headaches started.......

@ All, thank you for your responses.

With respect to the Ortofon (T)MC200, I did once dismantle a broken one.
(one channel was dead) The generator inside looks very much like the generator
in the "Cantata" series, and the one in the A-90.

I still have another needle-less MC200 waiting for an occasional retip.

Best regards, L.

By the way, did anyone ever hear one of these?

Information on Yamaha MC-1S translated from Japanese
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://audio-heritage.jp/YAMAHA/etc/mc-1x.html&ei=i3UwTofGL6jkiAKx6M2pBg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://audio-heritage.jp/YAMAHA/etc/mc-1x.html%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3Di2q%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Divns

I own this cartridge and regard it very high.

Here is Phillips cartridge line in 1981.
http://philips.pytalhost.com/philips81/philips81-35.jpg

Check also the line of JVC (Victor) cartridges such as MC-L1000, MC-L10, MC-1, MC-2E. They are highly sought after.