Who needs a Diamond Cantilever...? 💍


So suddenly, there seems to be a trend for Uber-LOMC cartridges released with Diamond Cantilevers...😱
As if the High-End MC cartridges were not already overpriced....?!
Orofon have released the MC-ANNA-DIAMOND after previously releasing the Limited Edition MC-CENTURY...also with Diamond Cantilever.
Then there’s the KOETSU BLOODSTONE PLATINUM and DYNAVECTOR KARAT 17D2 and ZYX ULTIMATE DIAMOND and probably several more.

But way back in 1980....Sony released a Diamond-Cantilevered version of its fine XL-88 LOMC Cartridge.
Imaginatively....they named this model the XL-88D and, because it was the most expensive phono cartridge in the world (costing 7500DM which was more expensive than a Volkswagen at the time)....Sony, cleverly disguised this rare beast to look EXACTLY like its ’cheap’ brother with its complex hybrid cantilever of "special light metal held by a carbon-fibre pipe both being held again by a rigid aluminium pipe".
The DIAMOND CANTILEVER on the 88D however......was a thing of BEAUTY and technological achievement, being formed from ONE PIECE OF DIAMOND including the stylus 🤯🙏🏽

I’ve owned the XL-88 for many years and recently discovered that it was my best (and favourite) cartridge when mounted in the heavy Fidelity Research S-3 Headshell on the SAEC WE-8000/ST 12" Tonearm around my VICTOR TT-101 TURNTABLE.
Without knowing this in advance.....I would not have been prepared to bid the extraordinary prices (at a Japanese Auction Site) that these rare cartridges keep commanding.
To find one in such STUNNING CONDITION with virtually no visible wear was beyond my expectations 😃

So how does it sound.....?
Is there a difference to the standard XL-88?
Is the Diamond Cantilever worth the huge price differential?
Is the Pope a Catholic....?

This cartridge simply ’blows my mind’...which is hard to do when I’ve had over 80 cartridges on 10 different arms mounted on two different turntables 🤯
As Syntax said on another Thread:-
When you have 2 identical carts, one regular cantilever and the other one with diamond cantilever (Koetsu Stones for example), the one with diamond cantilever shows more details, is a bit sharper in focus and the soundstage is a bit deeper and wider. They can sound a bit more detailed overall with improved dynamics
I’ll leave it at that for the time being. I will soon upload to YouTube, the sound comparisons between the two Sony versions on my HEAR MY CARTRIDGES THREAD.

But now I’ve bought myself a nightmarish scenario.......
There is no replacement stylus for this cartridge!
There is no replacement cantilever for this cartridge!
Each time I play records with it, I am ’killing’ it a bit more 🥴😥
If I knew how long I had left to live......I could program my ’listening sessions’ 🤪
But failing this.....I can’t help but feel slightly uncomfortable listening to this amazing machine.
128x128halcro
I think the Kiseki Lapis Lazuli had a white sapphire cantilever. I have a Kiseki Purple Heart Sapphire that also has the sapphire cantilever.

EMT also makes a cartridge with a white sapphire cantilever
Dear @halcro : Who needs...?

As a fact no one. Diamond or Ruby per sé does makes better cartridges at any price.

Dyna is an example of that because Dyna today top of the line models just does not use diamond.

"""  and technological achievement,... "", well Sony was not alone, I owned the MC1000 by AT that came exactly the same: cantilever and stylus in one piece.

Regarding the " statement " you pasted about the Koetsu stones  and that's your way of thinking too is not true/wrong.

The Ortofon Anna Diamond is not exactly the Anna as are not the K siamond stones or any other very high price today diamond cantilever cartridges.

Its very high price comes because the diamond models ( like the Anna or whatever. ) even that looks similiar but the cantilever to its " top little brothers " are manufactured with extremely tigth tolerances than the other models even in the cartridge bodies ( sometimes reinforced for less body developed vibrations. ), choosed by hand the best stylus tips ( in the Ortofon the Replicant: they choose the more accurated . ).
Same grade of tigth tolerances and accuracy about cartridge suspension, coils and electrical parameters. The cartridge overall equilibrium is way better than the non diamond cantilever similar models. 

I took those information directkly from AST engineers years ago when ask for the high price in my AT sample.

In the other side: """  it was the most expensive phono cartridge in the world ...""", well this tstatement unfortunatelly is untrue too.

In those times the Sony had a price of 150K Yens when my AT was 200K but the AT was not the only cartridge more expensive than the Sony you own, the following top of the line were more expensive too: Supex D for 270K Yens, Highphonic for 158K, Jeweltone for 200K, Physics for 250K, Final for 230K, the Dyna at similar price than the Sony and the Sonovox for only 330K !

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
was this the recent Yahoo auction? If so, you overbid me (and others of course).
Dear Edgewear..I trust that you weren't the 'underbidder' at that auction, for if you were.....I hate you with a vengeance 😛
It was a five-day auction and there were a half dozen bidders slowly increasing the price till it was $600 on the last day.
I waited till there was 20 minutes left and hit it.....every previous bidder folded at $1000 until there was five minutes to go.
Suddenly a new bidder arrived who exceeded my maximum bid and pushed it to $1700.
I reassessed...and increased my max. to $1900 but he topped that.
I had one last go increasing my max to $2100 and his top was $2000 🥳
Had he known I was 'maxed out'...the cartridge would have been his for $2150 🥵
But had he not appeared at the last minute....I would have had it for $1000.....😎
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