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Who owns/owned a Fidelity Research FR1 MK3F & what is similar but better

To say that I love, love, love this cartridge is a gross understatement. In fact I love it so much I now own 2 - one I had rebuilt and one I just bought which is virtually unused.

The sweet tone of the music and the life like performance of both instruments and vocals is outstanding. The delivery of music is totally immersive and mesmerizing. Whilst the high frequencies are detailed yet silky smooth and the bass is low reaching but solid, it is the midrange where everything comes alive.

It is in this midrange zone that the voices of Nancy Wilson, Jacintha, Vanessa Fernandez, amongst others, become incredibly real, intoxicating and seductive. It is also in this range where trumpets, saxophones, snare drums, bass guitar & piano sound so palpable you feel like you can reach out and touch them.

To give the above statements some context I should point out that I have owned and / or demo'd some reasonably desirable cartridges such as Technics EPC-310MC, Audio Technica OC9 III, AT 32e II, AT 150 MLX, Denon 103 with aluminum body and soundsmith rebuild, Signet TK 100LC, Linn Adikt & Grado F1+, and I can honestly say that based on my taste, none of these cartridges come anywhere close to providing the sheer enjoyment I get from the Fidelity Research.

So what do I do now??? Have I reached vinyl nirvana???? In the short to medium term I say yes wholeheartedly and I am content to focus my $$$ on expanding my record collection with a massive smile on my face.

However, and there is always a "however", what happens when I am ready to consider going to the next level or I get that itch that we all get no matter how high up the food chain we get. What cartridge, (vintage preferably), would offer a similar sonic flavor but provide a little more of everything I love about this magical cart.

This request for information is purely out of curiosity at this stage as I have no desire to spend more $$$, but I am keen hear from those members who have owned the F version of this cartridge and find out what they did to take it to the next level. 

Thanks in advance for any observations y'all may have.


 
ateal
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
It is in this midrange zone that the voices of Nancy Wilson, amongst others, become incredibly real, intoxicating and seductive. It is also in this range where trumpets, saxophones, snare drums, bass guitar & piano sound so palpable you feel like you can reach out and touch them.


Believe it or not, but i have the same feeling with my Fidelity Research FR-5E (low inductance MM cartridge designed by Ikeda San). Jonathan Carr was right about this forgotten gem when recommended to try it. This is my first experience with FR cartridges, but very unique experience compared to more expensive vintage MM cartridges i’ve tried/owned before. I will keep my eye on FR products from the past.
andremusik
2 posts
 
In fact, I also own a FR-Mk3f thanks to Nandric, which sees regular action on a Micro Seiki BL-91 with a Fidelity Research FR-64S and can truly confirm your statements, ateal. I recently purchased a NOS John Marovski Mirror Image Transducer MIT-1 cartridge (essentially a "tuned" Coral MC cart with a Van den Hul diamond) from Nandric as well, which was striking in its display of music and possibly even more detailed in the treble than the FR-1, but the FR-1 struck me as being more live-like in the sense of sounding more natural and it was clearly more detailed in the mids than the MIT. That said and to be fair, I only test-ran the MIT and it has not seen any play-in time yet, so this comparison is likely premature.

I have not heard any other upward comparisons yet, only downwards to my parents Dual 505-4 with Ortonfon OMB-10 MM cartridge, which it clearly beats in terms of resolution and clarity across the entire spectrum.

Do you play your FR-1 using a Step-UP Transformer? If not and you think it's great already, just wait till you hear it using e.g. the simple Fidelity Research FRT-3 SUT and watch how it comes alive... THEN you've got your step-up improvement and you need no more :-) no pun intended, but still befitting.
ateal OP
97 posts
 
Thanks guys for your feedback. That FR7f does look interesting to try or even get a listen to but it won't work for me as I use an Oracle SME 345 tonearm and Oracle Delphi MK III TT. 

The FR5e also looks interesting for a MM.

andremusik, Glad to hear that someone else shares my observations of this magnificent cart and yes I do use and prefer SUT's as they are absolutely magical with LOMC's.

My current SUT is the Audio Technica AT 700T which houses two large toroidal transformers. This was 75,000 yen back in the day so it was up there with the quality of the top Ortofon and Fidelity Research models.

In fact I did own a beautiful condition Fidelity Research FRT-4 SUT which I used briefly with the FR-1 but whilst the playback was very detailed, it was not as rich and engaging as it is with the AT 700T.

I am currently on the hunt for the limited edition AT 1000T SUT which is a beast of thing at 10kg's. If I can snag one for around $800 i will be a happy man. 


nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Our versatile old member Dertonarm beloging to the so called ''German

group'' (Syntax and Thuchan) was/is a big admirer of Ikeda san and

his products. In particular the FR-64/66 tonearms and series FR-7 carts.

which he used as his reference till he designed and produced his own.

tonearms and carts. But to me the best tribute to Ikeda san is writen

by our member ddriveman in his post ''mini-shootout '' with comparison

between SPU, Koetsu, Fidelity Research and Ikeda 9 (the catileverless

cart) . Alas I can only provide the date of his contribution in the MM

thread (09-28-2014). The remarcable outcome of this ''shootout'' is

the undecided ranking between an +30 years old cart (FR-7 fz) and

the modern Koetsu Coral stone (2 : 2  votes from the participants

in this experiment). My own ''vote'' is FR-7fz= Ikeda 9 C; I wish I

could afford the Koetsu even without diamond cantilever (grin).

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I wonder, does the modern Miyajima Kansui or Miyajima Madake easily fills this category of the top Japanese cartridges with this kind of "real" peresentation?

Another one is old Miyabi Standard (aka Krell) or earlier Miyabi MCA ...


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