Replicant 100 stylus

In my experience with dozens of cartridges over the years, Shibata styli tend to pickup every bit of surface noise from the grooves. The Replicant 100 as used by Ortofon on their Cadenza Bronze (which btw uses a tapered aluminum cantilever) on the other hand is somehow able to avoid such surface noise to an amazing degree. On several records where I was used to hearing the surface noise with all other carts had the background become virtually silent when I switched to the Cadenza Bronze. Several friends who have also switched to the CB have had the same experience as far as how eerily quiet it is in the groove.

No mercy no wine? Oh well, life is hard and than you die!
But life’s too short for the sort of stylus naval gazing as witnessed by pindac’s link. Jeez.

identity conundrum

There are two criteria:

1. leibniz  indiscernibilis based on properties 

2. Frege's based on meaning or sense

What we can discriminate or not is not easy to say ,say one egg and the

other.

The evening star and the morning star 

Those say, names , are obviously different but both refer to the same,

uh, planet Venus. However before discovery that both stars are

the same people had the right to give them different names. Aka

geocentric world view,

Well we think that Geiger refers to something else than VDH. 

But Van den Hul invented ,uh, Geiger stylus , but with his own

patent . He even claimed that Namiki has  stolen his invention.

Aka not paid royalties. 

So it seems that our Replicant , Paratrace and Decca are

copies of Van den Hul. But which one ? Geiger I , II or S?

edgewear I am really sorry but I could not resist .

Wishful thinking is , say, general feeling. We all have some. My guess

is that Van den Hul confused patent duration with ''authors kind''. 

The later are about 70 years after authors dead. The former only

+/- 20 years. The lowest duration have trademarks ; 10 years, But

the cheapest. For +/- $700 one can get one. But who would not

long for royalties from such big company as Namiki? Only, say, 3%

and one can  compete with the new rich from Russia and Chine.

So why not try? 

The ''sense of difference'' of rights duration make no sense but this 

this is different issue. 

Yikes. There is so much crazy misinformation in this thread that it is scary. A little information is truly dangerous. First of all, Gyger is not out of business. They are a small company that has healthy sales and a niche that will keep them healthy for years. Phonograph diamonds are a tiny (no pun intended) sideline for them.

As to which diamond is what, the following is my distillation of what is found on the net and including a phone call to Mr. Wyndham Hodgson who told me he made the van den Hul diamond. Also AJ van den Hul’s own words in various interviews easily Googled.

1. AJ designed the vdH1 and vdH2 diamonds on the computer. But he still needs a partner to actually make the diamond;

2. He approaches Fritz Gyger (who else, anyway?) whose production equipment made from a “Meccano Set” according to AJ had a flaw in that it could not produce round phono diamonds. It made ovals, but AJ took advantage of this “flaw;”

3. Together Gyger and AJ developed the final version of the two diamonds, one radical asymmetrical and the other a conventional symmetrical design until it was ready for market;

4. Gyger beats van den Hul to the patent office and wins global patents for the Gyger 1 and Gyger 2;

5. AJ sues in Swiss court;

6. AJ in a compromise decision wins patent protection for all the globe except Switzerland. Gyger wins patent protection in Switzerland. Thus, the patent is SHARED. Gyger and van den Hul both may claim the design and use it as they like;

7. AJ needs someone to make his diamond. He finds Wyndham Hodgson who agrees. But Hodgson knows AJ can turn to no one else so gets a license agreement to produce the same two designs as the “Paratrace 1” and “Paratrace 2;”

8. Gyger diamonds are the one “real” versions as they are made as originally designed on the original equipment;

9. Van den Hul and Paratrace are made to the same design but are not quite “identical” to Gyger as anyone who views them under a microscope can see. They are not quite laterally symmetrical like a Gyger is, but they work and the tracing edges are where they should be;

10. Decca diamond looks like a Gyger 2, but it is a different size diamond block. It’s pretty huge in comparison to a Gyger 2, but otherwise appears to be made to the Gyger 2 formula. Could be made by Expert Stylus. Could be made by Gyger. The person to ask is John Wright if he would tell you.

11. Replicant 100 and all Ortofon Gyger diamonds are made by Fritz Gyger AG in Switzerland. Replicant 100, 110, 120 etc is all marketing bluster from Ortofon as is “FG70,” and “FG80,” etc. Gyger makes 2 diamonds with nominal dimensions. The S is 5/120 and the 2 is 5/75. As with any diamond, there are tolerances. Namiki’s dimensions for the Micro Ridge are given as r/R 2-3/70-80 microns. Gyger is likely truly the same way. Despite the specs, customers receive an assortment of sizes all compliant to a range. I suggest that all Ortofon might do is sort and grade what they get. They put the S with the 100 micron scanning edge in one pile and the 110 in another and so on. If you really believe they go through the time and expense. So a Replicant 100 is really a Gyger S with a measured scanning edge of 100 microns.

Gyger AG is not out of business. I order from them regularly.

I hope I have put some rumors to bed.

Needlestein