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Hear my Cartridges....🎶

Many Forums have a 'Show your Turntables' Thread or 'Show your Cartridges' Thread but that's just 'eye-candy'.... These days, it's possible to see and HEAR your turntables/arms and cartridges via YouTube videos.
Peter Breuninger does it on his AV Showrooms Site and Michael Fremer does it with high-res digital files made from his analogue front ends.
Now Fremer claims that the 'sound' on his high-res digital files captures the complex, ephemeral nuances and differences that he hears directly from the analogue equipment in his room.
That may well be....when he plays it through the rest of his high-end setup 😎
But when I play his files through my humble iMac speakers or even worse.....my iPad speakers.....they sound no more convincing than the YouTube videos produced by Breuninger.
Of course YouTube videos struggle to capture 'soundstage' (side to side and front to back) and obviously can't reproduce the effects of the lowest octaves out of subwoofers.....but.....they can sometimes give a reasonably accurate IMPRESSION of the overall sound of a system.

With that in mind.....see if any of you can distinguish the differences between some of my vintage (and modern) cartridges.
VICTOR X1
This cartridge is the pinnacle of the Victor MM designs and has a Shibata stylus on a beryllium cantilever. Almost impossible to find these days with its original Victor stylus assembly but if you are lucky enough to do so.....be prepared to pay over US$1000.....🤪
VICTOR 4MD-X1
This cartridge is down the ladder from the X1 but still has a Shibata stylus (don't know if the cantilever is beryllium?)
This cartridge was designed for 4-Channel reproduction and so has a wide frequency response 10Hz-60KHz.
Easier to find than the X1 but a lot cheaper (I got this one for US$130).
AUDIO TECHNICA AT ML180 OCC
Top of the line MM cartridge from Audio Technica with Microline Stylus on Gold-Plated Boron Tube cantilever.
Expensive if you can find one....think US$1000.

I will be interested if people can hear any differences in these three vintage MM cartridges....
Then I might post some vintage MMs against vintage and MODERN LOMC cartridges.....🤗
128x128halcro
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
There were mainly two high-end cartridges that Sony were renowned for in the 80s and both were LOMCs.
The XL-55 is perhaps the best known although the XL-88 and XL-88D (with one-piece diamond-cantilever/stylus construction) is the better model IMO.
The XL-88D was the most expensive cartridge in the world when it was released and sold in Germany for 7500DM which was more expensive than Volkswagen in its days.
There are scant technical specs available on the XL-88 but I found these:-
Specs: 
Type: moving coil
Output Voltage: 0.4mV
Frequency Response: 10Hz - 50kHz
Tracking Force: 1.2-1.8g
Mass: 6.8g 
Channel Separation: > 33dB
The compliance is rather high for a MC at 20-6cm/Dyne and they both sport Hyper-Elliptical styli.
As the XL-55 and XL-88 appear to share much of their construction, I post it HERE as it's interesting 🤔

The Signet TK-7SU is essentially the same cartridge as the TK-7Ea and TK-7LCa except with a Shibata stylus instead of the Line Contact of the LCa.

SONY XL-88 LOMC CARTRIDGE
Mounted in vintage FR-64S (Silver-Wired) ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable.

SIGNET TK-7SU MM CARTRIDGE
Mounted in DV-507/II ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable.
Apologies for the loss of sound near the start...🤪 
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,898 posts
 
Dammit... another Audiogon post error. Lost long post @Admin
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,898 posts
 
Lost long post.
Long story short.
Sony just plays it, Signet tells the whole story. Better bass, drive, clarity, delineation, and purpose. 
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Very very interesting Noromance......🤔
frogman
7,473 posts
 
Bummer about your lost post, noromance; always interesting to read your comments and I agree with your preference for the Signet.

Great recording! For whatever it may be worth, the greatest percentage of recordings that I own which I consider the best as concerns sonics are Deccas.

Three different Signets on three different arms playing three different recordings. My favorite sound from a Signet heard so far; and by far. “Purpose”, I like that and I agree. I don’t like how the Sony makes strings sound. Too tight and steely resulting in harshness when the going gets tough. The Signet deviates from “right” in the opposite direction, but not to the same degree and, overall, I much prefer the Signet.  The bass region is powerful, but doesn’t sound overblown as with the previous Signet.  It does a great job with massed strings letting one hear that there are many individual instruments playing.  Very full and opulent sound that sounds very realistic in many ways in spite of the slightly “gray” character that I hear with most MM’s.  

At the risk of being presumptuous I wonder if it might be possible to hear this same recording with the Decca and on the same Dynavector arm? I would love to hear this recording on the Decca and it would put some of my impressions in better perspective and answer some questions that I have. Thanks!
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