ZEN cartridge ?

@chakster, thanks for pointing this out. The owner’s manual and specs are all in Japanese and I just assumed the cantilever would be aluminum. But upon closer inspection it looks to be a solid rod of a brighter metal. So you could be correct that the MC-L1000 is also beryllium.

@best-groove, I agree that both cartridges may have been OEM from another manufacturer (or an artisan one man operation, as the case might be). JVC Victor may have been a large corporation at the time, but it was not particularly known for phono cartridges.

I don’t have much information on the designer apart from his name, but Kanno San currently does the design work for Phasemation. Perhaps he had and still has his own workshop? Like Takeda San when he was OEM for Levinson, Cello, Krell, MoFi and 47Labs before setting up his own Miyabi brand. Or Matsudaira San as OEM for Air Tight, TechDas, Accuphase, etc. next to his own MSL brand.

Like Takeda San when he was OEM for Levinson, Cello, Krell, MoFi and 47Labs before setting up his own Miyabi brand.

47Labs was last destination of Takeda-San, he retired then.

Miyabi was before 47Labs, luckily I managed to get Standard and MCA models.

JVC Victor may have been a large corporation at the time, but it was not particularly known for phono cartridges.

I think they made millions of MM cartridges (maybe less MC) and Shibata stylus was their patent. Here is a list of Victor products.

Construction of the MC1 printed coil is here.

Construction of MC-L10 coil is here.

And BTW what Audio-Technica made in 21st century ( ART-1000 ) is just Victor MC-L1000 principle. 

"New" is not always new :))

You can translate any language right from the image using Google Translate App on your smartphone. It’s pure magic, but also can be funny.