Glanz moving magnet cartridges


Hi,

I have just acquired an old Glanz G5 moving magnet cartridge. However, I cannot find out any details about this or the Glanz range or, even the company and its history.

Can anyone out there assist me in starting to piece together a full picture?

Any experiences with this or other Glanz's; web links; set up information etc would be warmly received. Surely someone knows something!

Thanks in hope
dgob

Dear Chakster, There is, alas, just one word in English for

both : printer copy and hand writen copy. The later is my

copy of the Glanz 61 specs which I have posted already.

@nandric well, it's static compliance of Glanz 61 you have posted from your manual then? Do you know dynamic compliance of MFG 61? Thanks! 

Hi Chakster, Either the MFG 61 manual deed not mention the

dynamic complience or I overlooked this parameter. That is

why I discriminate between a copy made on a printer and

hand writen one. To put it otherwise: I have no idea sbout

dynamic complience of MFG 61.

I took some nice pictures of my Glanz MFG-31L and MFG-71L before they went to happy customers. I decided to keep Glanz 61 as this is clearly the best Glanz i have owned (beats everything else).

When i put micro lens on my iphone i’m happy with this kind of pictures i can take, never expected this effect (no filters) under the sun (from my window). It’s like a Space Odyssey of the Glanz.

BTW Axel did a great job repaired suspension on NOS Glanz 71L. When i tried the original the suspension was dead (but the diamond was NOS), after Axel's treatment it's like new again. 




As promised in another thread @harold-not-the-barrel @lewm @halcro @travbrow ... i will make my revision on Glanz/Astatic/Jamo/Azzurra manufactured in Japan by Mitachi Corporation. Now with exclussive pictures of my MFG-61 (i hope you will check all of them below, click on the links).

3 years ago i’ve sold all my Glanz cartridges to keep just one.

It’s time to spread the light on some of the very best Moving Flux cartridge made by Mitachi Corporation in Japan. This cartridge is the Glanz MFG-61 with Boron Cantilever and special design "PH" stylus tip.

This is not a typical vintage MM/MI or MC, the patent for unique Moving Flux technology belog to Mr Tsugikuma Minamizono (Japan). Mitachi Corporation made some very nice MF cartridges in the 70s/80s for US/Canadian brand Astatic, for Danish Jamo and for Italian Azzurra.

But ONLY for domestic Japanese brand, technical engineers of Mitachi Corporation designed the ultimate Moving Flux model in 1982. The Glanz MFG-61 is stand alone cartridge!

From the original manual: "MFG-61, as the most prestige model among Glanz MF cartridges, employs BORON cantilever in order to achieve maximum efficiency at the electro-magnetic mechanism, where characterized most advanced feature of MF cartridge, when the energy is converted from mechanical vibration system to electric vibration system. BORON is considered as an ideal material of cantilever in its character that transmits sound to fast as 7 times than Aluminum, due to its large young rate and small specific gravity. With use of Boron cantilever, the signal picked up from disc to specially designed PH stylus tip is faithfully transfered to the conversion system, and hi-fidelity sound reproduced."

The rest of the MF cartridges made by Mitachi Corporation for other brands does not have such cantilever and diamond. This fact makes the Glanz MFG-61 highly collectible and much better sounding.

1) From the printed Glanz MF-61 manual:

-Output Voltage: 3.5 mV
-Output Channel Balance: 1.0 or less
-Inductance: 120
-Tracking force 1.5 (+/- 0.25)
-Stylus tip: SPECIAL DESIGN "PH" TIP
-Cantilever: BORON

I’m wondering why the frequency response specified as 20-20000 only, in fact this cartridge has extended frequency response that easily compete with my ex Technics 205c mk4 with 5-100000 range specified in the manual. So i think the frequency response measurement on paper is pretty concervative at Mitachi. I have the same spects for my Garrott P77.

Some other Mitachi cartridges that does not come even close to the sound of this rare MFG-61 is Glanz MFG-31L, Astatic MF-200, Glanz MFG-71L, Astatic MF-100 and Azzurra Esoter. In the next posts i will add more pictures, so anyone could compare cantilevers of them all.

In my opinion US/Canada Astatic loose the contest, because their MF-2500 has Aluminum cantilever and LineContact stylus. As we can see the rest of the models does not have even Nude Diamonds, they are all bonded on Astatic cartridges. Being an old brand the Astatic has never designed MF cartridges, they bought them from Mitachi to sell under Astatic brand, the US patent for MF cartridges belong to Mitachi. Even the paper printed in Japan.

2) From the printed Astatic MF-2500 manual:

-Output Voltage: 3 mV
-Output Channel Balance: 1.0 or less
-Inductance: 120
-Tracking force 1.25 (+/- 0.25)
-Stylus tip: Solid Diamond LineContact
-Weight 5g

Astatic really did nothing about the design of the generator or stylus/cantilever, what they did is their own distribution/sales in US and Canada. BTW Astatic own MM cartridges are crap, and probably low price even for MF carts they got from Mitachi was much more important for them than to ask for some exotic cantilevers.

While the Glanz was a Japanese brand and goes deeper to utilize superior (and much more expensive) cantilever and stylus for their top of the line model made by Mitachi. Technology came from Japan and domestic brand received them faster.

The manufacturer clearly said the Glanz MFG-61 is most prestige model among Moving Flux cartridges . The date on in the Bruel & Kjaer individual test is 1982.07.04

Who is Glanz you ask? Nowadays the Glanz is back in business with High-End tonearms. Glanz tonearms are manufactured by Hamada Electric in Shizuoka, Japan and exported by Sibatech Inc.

Mitachi Acoustics for whom Mr. Hamada developed various analog products was founded in 1951 under the brand name Glanz and closed in 2003. In 1980 Hamada-San established Hamada Electric and secured the Glanz brand license from the Mitachi family in 2008. To quote from the advertising literature: "Beyond time Glanz’s legend has been revived. Many long-established audio manufacturers have vanished since analog audio entered its glacial epoch with the advent of digital. Against this tide Glanz issued products such as tone arms and phono cartridges favored by audiophiles to survive with its ingenious technology. The birth of an ultimate tone arm—the Glanz—proves the real advantage of analog audio and talks of its regeneration."

P.S. Special thanks to Elli who emailed me the original printed manual for Astatic MF-2500 and Glanz MFG-61 that i have compiled with my own pictures of the cartridge/cantilever and my ZYX LIVE-18 headshell.

More to follow ....