Sonus SPM4 cartridge

[morris_minor]

Everyone loves a bargain, and when I came across a Swedish retailer selling Sonus cartridges - including Gold Blues - and they had some p-mounts for £30 (or thereabouts) I had to try a couple. Since getting two Technics parallel trackers I've become slightly obsessed with finding cartridges for them (just as a backup of course :rolleyes:).

Anyhow, these two Sonus carts (SPM1 and SPM4) are at opposite ends of the range - almost, there was a 5). The 1 has an elliptical stylus, the 4 a line contact.

That they both work well in a p-mount arm is no surprise, the 4 scoring over the 1 with more detail and "air". Both are on the warmer side of the fence with great depth. Since there was an adaptor with them for normal arms I thought it'd be rude not to try the 4 at least in my Sony PS-X600 Biotracer.

Previous attempts with other adaptors hadn't been very successful as the arm, for all its electronic wizardry, has no VTA adjustment. However the Sonus adaptor has a slightly slimmer mounting plate, and to my surprise the 4 performs very well. It only looses out slightly to the SAE1000E HOMC I normally run, and is on a par with say a Pickering XV15-625E, Ortofon OM40, ADC SER III (especially the latter - weren't there connections between Sonus and ADC?).

For £30 plus shipping this is a steal. Gold Blues are only £50 too . . .

Anyone tempted, have a look here (http://www.hifikit.se/varumarken/sonus/pickuper), and order via email as the shopping cart only does shipping in Sweden.

http://p-mount.net84.net/sony_ps-x600/IMG_6547.jpg

[Rare Bird]

Yes Peter Prichard ADC later Sonus

[morris_minor]

Yes Peter Prichard ADC later Sonus
That explains the similarities then . . :)

[Rare Bird]

I forget when abouts he went to form Sonus be about 1976ish! The design of an arm with wooden arm toobe in the 60's called the Audio Dynamics Prichard Arm to use with the 'ADC-1' stereo cartridge, a tremendous designer, i mean cartridge tracking back then at less that a gramme was amazing.

[morris_minor]

Have just been Googling Peter Pritchard - a very talented guy and a bit of a pioneer it seems . . .

[Rare Bird]

O yes High Compliance a go-go.. Those ADC Block carts were one of the greatest MM carts ever made imho..

[walpurgis]

Always fancied trying a Sonus, but I've already got probably too many ADCs, so I may not get around to it. I bought an allegedly mint Sonus Blue off eBay a couple years ago but it never arrived. Some git down the local sorting office probably stuck it in his jacket. Got a refund though.

[DSJR]

The Sonus 1/2" models at least, and unlike the distantly related ADC's of the same era, suffered from a MASSIVE tip resonance just over 20kHz of several db, yet were perfectly behaved in-band. IF your phono amp can take this peak without nasties, the sonics of these are excellent and with good groove-tracing. If the phono stage has a marginal overload, especially at very high frequencies, the end result will be a disaster in terms of treble clarity in-band and surface noise reproduction will be adversely affected, so please be warned :)

Andr'e, the Gold in a Formula 4 was THE combination of choice at KJ before "we" took on Linn and all the "stuff" that came with it.....

[Rare Bird]

Andr'e, the Gold in a Formula 4 was THE combination of choice at KJ before "we" took on Linn and all the "stuff" that came with it.....

I used to own the Sonus Formula IV tonearm with Sonus Blue at one point, that was good. Same as the one pictured below.

[walpurgis]

Well my Sonus Silver E arrived today, with a twisted stylus!

It was about 10 degrees off vertical, so as it was only a 'cheapie' I had a bash at repositioning it. With some very gentle tweaking with a pair of tweezers I've managed to rotate it vertical and all looks fine, no marks on the cantilever tube. Hope it stays in position and doesn't become loose in its suspension.

I'll give it a whirl in the next few days.

[DSJR]

This was a problem with ADC's as well and my first replacement Shure M75-ED stylus was bent to one side and unlike the ADC's, impossible to re-align.

I think modern computer-led mass-assembly has helped no end :)

[Audio Al]

Are these carts MM or MC ?

I had a look on the web site but its all in something other than ENGLISH :)

[Rare Bird]

They are Induced Magnetic Cartridges