There seems to be an interesting MC between his work for FR and starting Shelter. Apparently he released some cartridges under his own name somewhere in the 80's. I own the Ozawa OS-70L, which was part of a three model series with different cantilevers (aluminum, boron and ruby). This is one of those Japanese mystery MC's of which there's hardly any info. From what I've gathered these were built by Supex to Ozawa's specification. Fact or speculation I'm not sure, but it's a really nice sounding cartridge with more than a little resemblance to the Shelter 701, the first Shelter model. Coincidence?
Fidelity Research cartridges
Any FR cartridge experts out there? Raul? Dertonarm? Syntax?
I have had an FR-7 which I bought a while ago. I tried it ever so briefly when I got it on an arm I now recognize as not being able to handle that weight (close, but no cigar). I just now pulled it out for kicks and after getting it adjusted with the big counterweight, I am VERY pleasantly surprised. Actually, I'm feeling kind of bubbly. It does not dig out the utmost in detail, but it just sounds very right.
Are there any other FR carts out there which are real steals if still in good condition? I know the MC-702 and the FR-1Mk2 and Mk3f by name, with good reps being assigned to the Mk3 and the MC-702. Given that the MC-702 and the FR-7 look quite similar, and they were offered at about the same time, what is different? And is the FR-7 just an integrated headshell version of the FR-1Mk3?
I have had an FR-7 which I bought a while ago. I tried it ever so briefly when I got it on an arm I now recognize as not being able to handle that weight (close, but no cigar). I just now pulled it out for kicks and after getting it adjusted with the big counterweight, I am VERY pleasantly surprised. Actually, I'm feeling kind of bubbly. It does not dig out the utmost in detail, but it just sounds very right.
Are there any other FR carts out there which are real steals if still in good condition? I know the MC-702 and the FR-1Mk2 and Mk3f by name, with good reps being assigned to the Mk3 and the MC-702. Given that the MC-702 and the FR-7 look quite similar, and they were offered at about the same time, what is different? And is the FR-7 just an integrated headshell version of the FR-1Mk3?
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This is somewhat speculative, but my guess is that most of these 1980’s cartridges were designed and ’voiced’ with the use of step up transformers, being more common than MC phono stages (called ’head amps’ in those days). And in Japan they were always more popular than active devices , even to this day. Most of these vintage MC cartridges will sound great using a modern high quality phono stage, provided you have some flexibility for setting impedance load and gain. But in my experience the low output low impedance types - like most of the FR models - give their best using a dedicated SUT. |
was it pre-amp and step up? if so which pre-amp? It’s an interesting question, probably the SUT was connected to those big oldschool receivers (MM input), there are many of them. I’m not expert in vintage phono stages, but something like Pioneer Exclussive system was very expensive in the 80’s, looks cute and still popular. The headamp for MC in "Z system" looks like this. Preamp with MM input is C-Z1. And the power amps (monoblocks) from this series is here. Kind of a cute little system for a very high price @parrotbee I think in the USA at that time all those SUTs were connected to big and expensive Levinson and Krell preamps. If you will look at the FR catalof from the 80's you will see only this stuff. |
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