Shibata Stylus

Oh, I jest ye not. I have been pondering just such an adventure. As it happens, I have an old Sony CD-4 decoder and a Tate/Fosgate SQ decoder. Have been thinking of putting together a table for fun that runs quad (for kicks, you know, man). Trouble would seem to be in finding a quad cartridge these days that isn't spent.

Oh, I'd like to give a spin to those DBX'ers - they may have been just about to get things right (or as right as they could) with DBX before the bottom fell out of the quad market. OTOH, I have heard some old SQ tapes thorough the Tate/Fosgate that sound pretty damn good.

Would you like that in DUAL MC or DUAL MM? :>)

http://www.audio-technica.com/guide/other/styli/cart.html#AT440ML

Check out "MicroLine", and let me know where to send those DBX LPs.

BTW 4yanx. I was just trying to figure out what I was using back then as quad decoder/amp. The decoder was some kind of Dynaco, but I forget which model. The amp was a "Lafayette Radio Electronics" 60 watt x4. (it was probably more like 18 watts x 4 @ 5% THD.)

The turntable was a Phillips "212 Electronic" with a Shure "M91QD" quad cartridge. It's dampening/isolation was so horrible that when the cat would walk across the room, it would send 20hz transients through the whole house. Speakers of choice were BIC "Venturi's". If I remember correctly, they were 10" 3 way's. They were cool too. I remember using ELPs "Lucky Man" to make the system feedback until the amp used to go into "protect". That was really cool too.

Man, I was a f***ing idiot.

If you interested I found a link to the Shibata Stylus type patent through Vinyl Asylum go to www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html which is the search engine page for U.S patents.Do a number search as follows Shibata 3774918,Van Den Hul 4416005,Gyger 4855989,Ogura 4105212,Namiki 4521877 You might need to add a plug-in for viewing which is available as a link from the site,the Shibata one needs it for it's drawings.Anyway you see the different styluses properly drawn and described-highly informative.

Yeah, I have about 50 old quad LP's. Not sure if I am bragging or complaining but I bought them all when new and, needless to say, they haven't been played very much. Most are still perfect. Some of the SQ's don't sound half bad in 2-channel. The CD-4's sound thin, though.

The quad Audio Technica cartridge I had looked similar to that AT440ML. Mine was paired with a Pioneer direct-drive PL-55DX. I saw a mint one go on E-Bay for like $280 awhile back and I about crapped my drawers. I had a Pioneer 747 receiver and, later, a Marantz 4400. I bought mine with the Marantz SQ decoder, which SUCKED. The Sony CD-4 decoder leaves something to be desired but the Tate/Fosgate is really one nice piece.

When in 2-channel mode, I used a pair of Ohm C2's which I still own. I completely refinished the SUPER nice walnut with a family secret powder and oil process two years ago and had the woofers re-coned.

In four-channel, I had a set of ESS speakers that were called Satellite 4's. I have yet to meet anyone else who remembers them (partially with good reason). They had four small 6" satellite speakers and a big 12" "bass-reflex" speaker (all dressed up in ZEBRAWOOD!!!) - and all run through an outboard crossover box. I still have two of the satellites and the bass-reflex (the cone is SHOT). The crossover box got swiped and I gave two of the satellites to a friend. I'd like to put that set back together for old time's sake some day.

The idea of going multi-channel with old equipment is certainly suprassed by the surround stuff one can get today. But, as Sammy Davis, Jr. might have said - "It's just for kicks, man!"

Sorry, this is all way off topic.....