combwork
20-07-2008, 10:55
#1 Today, 11:53 AM
Combwork
AK Member Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Kirriemuir, Scotland
Posts: 898
Crystal Cartridge
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Years ago I found one of the first STEREO record players sold in the U.K. in a second hand shop. It had a Garrard autochange deck plus original cartridge. To give an idea of age, the cartridge was V shaped and held together with tiny nuts and bolts; about 10 BA or thereabouts. Style of manufacture made it look almost as if they'd started with a couple of mono cartridges and modified them. It had a 10 valve amp which a friend of mine rebuilt; part of the deal was he fitted a 'modern' crystal cartridge; the original went into his collection.
Memory is never a good judge, but people who heard it playing through a pair of Lowther PM7s in original cabinets said it sounded better than £300+ systems they'd heard elsewhere.
It's long gone (as are the Lowthers) but I was just wondering. Given a decent stylus, how good can a crystal cartridge sound? As I understand it, they have much higher output, so avoid having to use a phone stage.
EDIT. I've copied the above from a post I put on AudioKarma, hence the weird heading.
Combwork
AK Member Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Kirriemuir, Scotland
Posts: 898
Crystal Cartridge
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Years ago I found one of the first STEREO record players sold in the U.K. in a second hand shop. It had a Garrard autochange deck plus original cartridge. To give an idea of age, the cartridge was V shaped and held together with tiny nuts and bolts; about 10 BA or thereabouts. Style of manufacture made it look almost as if they'd started with a couple of mono cartridges and modified them. It had a 10 valve amp which a friend of mine rebuilt; part of the deal was he fitted a 'modern' crystal cartridge; the original went into his collection.
Memory is never a good judge, but people who heard it playing through a pair of Lowther PM7s in original cabinets said it sounded better than £300+ systems they'd heard elsewhere.
It's long gone (as are the Lowthers) but I was just wondering. Given a decent stylus, how good can a crystal cartridge sound? As I understand it, they have much higher output, so avoid having to use a phone stage.
EDIT. I've copied the above from a post I put on AudioKarma, hence the weird heading.