Classic Cartridges

[Prince of Darkness]

Isn't that backwards ?

Yes, I think you're right.

[Martyn Miles]

My classic cartridge is an Entre 1 MC, from the late '70s. I initially had it in a Rega 3 and subsequently in a Mission 774 arm on a Linn LP12. It still works beautifully in that setup. It has had a number of styli fitted by Expert Pickups. They even rewound a coil, as the output was down on one channel. I had an Ortofon MC 20MC from the mid '80s as well. Lovely cartridge, but not up to the Entre. That had a new stylus or two and now resides in my brother's system, which it suits well. Martyn Miles .

[Rare Bird]

Goldring 920IGC (VDH II) Improved Groove Contact ..I still have one somewhere NOS still in it's 50p shaped box..

Coral 'MC82' were ok

[DSJR]

[Barry]

Excellent! I really must dig out my Deccas and give them a go.

Regards

[quadsugdenman]

Decca London - Wooooooooooooonderful. Different from the rest in so many ways

[DSJR]

The MicroScanner is/was different again IMO..... No hf probs and great tracking on this sample..

[quadsugdenman]

Yep, I have only heard the Ms a couple of times but was impressed by the clarity. My Decca London Gold had real bite and a habit of mistracking til I got a Hadcock unipivot which it liked a lot!!

[Thermionic]

I thought my 1979 Dyanvector 30C cartridge might be of interest though possibly not a classic.





While vintage, I am not sure it’s a classic because I don’t think it was all that popular. I bought it as a replacement / exchange for an Ultimo 20A. The Ultimo’s were manufactured by Onlife Research which later became Dynavector, and were imported by the late Donald Chave. They were I think the first high output moving coils. The 30 series was the next generation and the C was top of the range costing around £180.





It has a straight solid Boron cantilever fitted with a grain oriented ‘Paroc’ diamond by the late Dr Weintz. The wiring is silver, and the coils are wound on lightweight non-magnetic polycarbonate formers. Designed for the DV505 arm the connector is in fact standard Ortophon, so it works reasonably well in my modified SME. (I can’t remember the model no but it has the steel knife edge bearings, and I filled the arm tube with glass loaded epoxy resin to increase mass and rigidity, silver wired it and removed the counterweight decoupling.)

[kcc123]

Talking about classic cartridges, I have quite a few of them, for example, the ADC XLM mk3, Stanton 681 EEE, AT OC9, AR P77/C77, Denon 103/103D, Ortofon VMS 20/30, Supex 900 Super, Entre EC-1, JVC X1, Stilton Nagaoka MP11, AT 33E, and Technics 205C mk3….etc.