Fidelity Research cartridges

Steve, Jonathan may be able to shed some light on this but as far as I know, there was no business relationship between Ikeda-san of FR and Sony Soundtec. The magnet structure is different, and I thought the XL-55 and 88 have different coil concepts than the FR-7. The XL-55 is heavy, the FR-7 is even heavier; but lucky thing is, the FR-7 and the XL-55 have the same distance from headshell mount to stylus tip, meaning the FR-7 fits perfectly on tables/arms which take the XL-55 perfectly.

FWIW, I'd be happy to send you an FR-7 in exchange for your XL-88 if you ever wanted to...

Dear Perrew: Maybe not because according with this:
http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:1fIRyl0l5NgJ:www.audioinvest.no/fr/products/frc_702.htm+fidelity+research+mc-702&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=mx

has only two magnets and usually when a designer put Alnicco use more than two.

Maybe Jcarr could have a more precise answer. Btw, why is so important to you?

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Hi Steve, the XL55 and XL88 Pro cartridges are very interesting cartridges indeed. I had 2 samples of each during the past 6 years.
However - they do have little in common with the FR-7-series ( or FR-1 MK7..... I have found the original data-sheet with exactly this destination again - will make a photo tomorrow and post it) aside from both being an integrated headshell design and both featuring comparatively wide and hefty housings.

I do have the remains of a destroyed FR-7f at hand. According to one engineer at Munich Fraunhofer Institue the magnets are Alnico indeed.
And they are VERY big compared to most other cartridges.
The FR-702 does feature a significant shorter cantilever compared to the original FR-7-versions and thus the moving mass is considerably less resulting in improved low level detail and recreation of tiny details in the sonic picture.
You should NOT interchange a FR-7 with a FR-702 WITHOUT checking the adjustment of the geometry. It may very well be the case, that now the stylus sits somewhere else as before with the FR-7..........
VERY similar in sound and output (despite the claim that it had the very same output voltage in the data-sheets, I found on the 4-5 samples I had that the output was rather 0.15mV ) to the FR-7f.
Cheers,
D.
Cheers,
D.

Cheers,
D.

As I have used the FR-7f, I have come to appreciate it a fair bit more than the FR-7. Better treble and far better transient response in my set-up. In fact, it is one of the better carts I have ever tried for listening to jazz.

Furthermore, the other interesting news is that I have just picked up a Sony XL-88D (thanks Jonathan for pointing it out - I ended up picking it up). I am anxiously awaiting delivery and will report back.

T-bone, if you use your FR-7f in a FR-66s connecting it with a good phono silver cable (not the Kondo one but maybe the Crystal Cable Dreamline) and put it through a Kondo KSL transformer you will end up with a fantastic result.

Also the Titan i and the Olympos match very good with this "old Ikeda tonearm". I would say those are some of the best modern designs, the FR-7f is in my ears the "best old cartidge".