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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.
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rauliruegas
13,005 posts
 
Dear friends: Diamond cantilever vintage cartridge designs performs really good even the ones that are not one piece cantilever/stylus and one example about is the Audio Technica AT-1000 that edgewear already experienced.

I think that the diamond cantilever cartridges performs as it performs by its overall design and its quality levels of excecution of that design and not because the diamong per sé.
 I think too that we never know how those diamond designs could performs with boron cantilevers.

Now if you want other, not named here, very good quality performer diamond cantilever vintage cartridge  ( between others. ) that I own look for the Fulton RSD, in 1982 this Fulton item had a price tag of 1.650K and maybe the more expensive cartridge in those times into USA market. Very good performer.

R.


edgewear
543 posts
 
@rauliruegas there are cases where identical cartridges are offered with either boron or diamond cantilevers, like Ortofon MC Anna, Transfiguration Proteus and the gemstone Koetsu's. So direct comparisons are possible to judge the added value (sonic, not monetary) that diamond cantilevers might bring.

My own experience is limited to the Matsudaira designed Entré EC-30 (boron cantilever) and Soltear II (diamond cantilever), both sharing the same specs and the same integrated headshell. Although the Soltear performs on a higher level, it's not a big difference.

Never heard of the Fulton RSD, thanks for mentioning.

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rauliruegas
13,005 posts
 
edgewear : I was talking more of vintage cartridges than today ones.

In those old times in Japan existed a " savage " competition between cartridge designs and obviously to take higher part of the market with top designs. Tha's why existed so many diamond cantilever designs from well regarded manufacturers. The benefits were for the customers.

One manufacturer told me and it's my take that speaking of diamond cantilever top of the line model the overall build of those cartridges is a lot more " accurated " than with the non diamond cantilevers. Example: estrictc hand selected parts as the cantilever it self the stylus condition/polished, extreme tigth tolerances in the coils, cartridge body construction, kind of dampers,  estrict voicing, tight measurements and everything need it for a finished cartridge.
The manufacturer has to do it to put a high price tag, so for me all those is a difference against the " normal " boron cantilever same models.

Diamond as Boron or other cantilever material has its own signature and for unknow to me reasons manufacturers like Dynavector did not choosed diamond cantilever in its today top of the line models neither Lyra and many others.

It's the sum of the parts ( how the manufacturer take care about. ) and not only the diamond cantilever what could make that " not big difference ".

In the other side we audiophiles when bougth a top of the line diamond cantilever at high $$$$ we are biased to think it will performs excellent and better than the non diamond cantilever model, so more or less we are " conditionned " in that way.

The same question that mijos did it to JC I did it in the past too. Could be important  and this is for sure that JC can gives to all of us his expert opinion. Maybe his next move could be a diamond cantilver Lyra design. or maybe he knows that diamond can't gives an advantage over his today top Lamda series.

R.
edgewear
543 posts
 
@rauliruegas interesting point to suggest that some manufacturers reserve the use of a diamond cantilever for samples with the most stringently selected parts. In that case the diamond is 'the icing in the cake' and the extra charge not just for the higher cost of the diamond material, but also reflecting the value of the higher quality samples, which obviously translates to better performance.

I hope you are correct, but I have my doubts as there are huge differences in the way manufacturers offer the 'diamond option'. Ortofon charges around $1500 extra for the Anna Diamond (mostly reflecting the extra material cost), whereas Koetsu charges something like $4000. Call me cynical, but I can't shake the feeling that the market demand for 'trophies for the rich' has something to do with it as well. Perhaps snob appeal was also the reason these vintage diamond cantilever cartridges were produced, but somehow I doubt that. As you suggest, competition back than was probably more driven by performance than by marketing. 
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Hi @edgewear 
Yoshihisa Mori was close friends with Kanemori Takai, and after Mori left Sony, he was involved in a variety of projects, one of which would have been the creation of a cartridge production line inside Final.

FWIW, Final was originally formed by two brothers with the family name of Kitamura; I was friends with them before Takai-san acquired the brand and merged it with his own Takai Laboratory.

Due to Mori-san's friendship with Takai-san, and his high-ranking position within the Sony corporate organization, I believe that Mori was able to obtain special dispensation for Takai-san to use the XL-88D design and suitable components from Sony's parts-bins.

Since Sony by that time was so heavily focused on digital (eventually Mori became the head of Sony's SACD division, and came to be called "Mr. SACD"), the cartridge IP was no longer of much value to Sony.

As you write, the body is that of an XL-44 (the XL-55 looks similar but has a different finger-lift design, among other detail differences). Small scratches reveal the underlying plastic to be of a different color than the metal-blue surface, therefore the color was painted onto the plastic rather than being molded into it (as would have been done for real bespoke production).

The coils appears to be of the coreless figure-8 type, which was the final coil design that Mori-san settled on for its MC designs.

I can't comment about the damper choice, as this is not visible from the photos. However, the damper-to-cantilever matching is one of the key aspects which can make or break a cartridge's sound, and given the size and production volume of Sony's cartridges division, they would have possessed a range of different rubber compounds and shapes. Therefore it wouldn't be a surprise if Takai-san chose a different set of dampers to the XL-88D, and if so, the sound wouldn't have been the same.

Again as you write, the joint-pipe is long and the one-piece stylus-and-cantilever diamond section short on this sample, showing that this used the standard XL-88D configuration rather than following the extreme and costly Custom.

Finally, since the body is of the integrated-shell variety, this cartridge must be used with a universal-type tonearm. The universal headshell connector, although widely adopted for its convenience, has a number of fundamental design flaws will most likely limit the performance level that can be extracted from this cartridge.

Still, this could have been a very interesting purchase. The screwed-on copper top was most likely added to make working on it easier than the molded-and-glued-shut Sony originals.

Too bad the auction seems to have ended (wonder what it ultimately sold for).

kind regards, jonathan

Amazing! I've seen this cartridge before several times, but the full story is awesome. Thanks Jonathan. 
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