Fidelity Research cartridges

parrotbee, I am not pedantic but one need to discriminate between
FR-64 and FR-64 S.''S'' standing for ''steel''. FR-64 , to be recognised
by round lateral balans,  has aluminum ( arm) wands. The 231.5 pivot to spindle distance change original Stivenson geometry to Bearwald.  The eff. length then become  246 mm. I ordered Mint
tractor for my FR-64 S despite the fact that I can adjust eff. length
with an (plastic!) caliper. 

It’s the fr64s

@edgwear

I’d be interested to know if the cartridges Takeda built for other brands like Mark Levinson, Cello, Red Rose an Krell are identical to either of these three he produced under his own Miyabi banner.

I own the Mark Levinson MLC-1, which as far as I know was the first cartridge he made (at least of the ones mentioned here). It is a magnificent performer and certainly one of the most musical cartridges I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. But I can’t help wondering if any of the later models are even better. Did anyone here ever compare them?

Red Rose, Krell, Cello, Mark Levinson = Miyabi Standard. It is basically the same cartridge. There was one more incarnation of this model, i forgot the name.

Miyabi MCA is different model from the same era, it is a vintage Miyabi handmade by Takeda San in Japan. This is obscure model !

Later he made Miyabi 47 exclussively for 47 Labs aka Sakura Systems, this model is different from earlier Miyabi MCA.

I have only Miyabi Standard and Miyabi MCA in my collection.

Thanks for sharing your observations! I assumed these were all technically identical to the Miyabi Standard. But I did notice that  Krell had two different model numbers, which suggests there might have been some slight sonic differences. I also noticed that the shape of the body of the various Levinson brands is slightly different than the body of the Krell models and the Miyabi Standard. But I guess these were all just variations on the same theme. And what a theme......

As for other versions, I remember there was also one with a carbon fiber body made for Mobile Fidelity. I'd be curious to hear the influence of the different body material. One reviewer also mentions Klipsch as one of the incarnations, but this is incorrect.

I've seen pictures of the 47Labs model, but that's a rather ugly plastic job compared to the others. The rare Ivory on the other hand looks gorgeous. Apparently this was the first Miyabi model. 

Probably the closest one can get to the sound of the Miyabi Standard from a new cartridge is the Fuuga, a concious attempt to resurrect Takeda's creation.

And here was me being complained at for comparing a Benz lps to and fr7-f to purchase 😉