Crazy that so many old Technics are still out there chugging along just fine and your far newer AT-LP120 is already broken.. Says a lot about the quality of older equipment.
I'm honestly not surprised with this having been made to a higher quality standard with so much audio gear being build to a price point to make a quick buck on people looking for nostalgia in our troubled times, as an escape, and with that said, it sounded really good to may 41 year old ears even with my Sony WI-C100 Bluetooth earbuds connected to my Android tablet, and I wish they were still made today, as a mid range stylus option.
The closest there was to a high quality ceramic were the ones made by Micro-Acoustics (although they marketed it under "electret transducer" but it uses the same principle). I have a Micro-Acoustics MA282e and the MA2002e, both which are basically high quality and high fidelity ceramic cartridges designed to be used with a standard phono preamp (like the ones for magnetic cartridges). Gonna post a video later today about it. The 282e is paired to my Acoustic Research XB turntable, tracking at 0.75g, while the 2002e is pared to my Pioneer PL-530, tracking at 1g.
That's one fine sounding ceramic cartridge! When I was younger - child/early teens through the 60s/70s, all the record players I ever heard had ceramic cartridges: Philips, and BSR, and then a Sonotone 9T, and I was 'used' to that sound, so when I heard my first magnetic cartridge, it seemed weird! All the mids were subdued, but the bass was lower and cleaner, and the treble was far higher and cleaner, but, even now, I still like what I remember of those old BSR SC-11 (?) ceramics (which I heard the most).... they just had a certain sound to them, and this Sony brings that back, but with better low frequencies, and maybe cleaner treble; it just has a certain sound that only a good ceramic cartridge has... 🙂 Thanks for this video - Very entertaining..... 👍
I remember the first time I connected a BSR ceramic cartridge to a decent amplifier and almost forgot what I was listening to. They were not as dreadful as all that if they were on a reasonable turntable. BSR also did nice magnetic cartridges of the induced magnet variety (to keep the moving magnet weight down), such as the ADC QLM-33.
@@video99couk : Ah yes.. I'd almost forgotten about those ADC QLM cartridges! Very light-weight, very high compliance, and very light tracking force....sounded excellent in a low-mass tonearm; they also had a high quality tonearm available, and a series of badge-built turntables (from BSR) with a lower quality derivative of that tonearm!
In the early 80's I (well, my parents) had a fine German made Belcanto turntable with a ceramic cartridge. I never forget the joy it brought listening to my favorite ABBA and classical music records on it. :)
@Kent Teffeteller : The Philips ceramics were for certain excellent! The one that Mum & Dad had in the 60s was a 'portable' stereo player, with two speakers that clipped-on over the turntable. The whole thing was made of wood, and had a metal chassis inside; a spring loaded plinth which held the platter, motor, and the arm, and had a fully automatic mechanism as well. The amplifiers inside were valve/tube amps. The cartridge was one of those long, thin ones that clicked into place on the end of the arm, and had the flip-over stylus. It sounded marvellous (to me!!), and I used it for a long time during the 70s as my own record player; I loved it! It was sadly replaced when in the very late 70s replacement valves/tubes no longer worked to make it play... 😞
Whether a cartridge can reach 16K, 20 or 30 Khz matters little as you get older because even if you've never been to a rock concert and taken care of your ears, your ability to hear the high frequencies will slowly and inevitably fade. At age 57, I can still hear about 15.3Khz, however, when I play the song "One Of My Turns" (Pink Floyd -The Wall), I can no longer hear the 15.575 Khz television tone recorded in the track.
You are doing pretty well for hearing above 15kHz at 57. I used to hear 19kHz when I was 16-18. Now I am 34 and the rolloff is around 16kHz. And no, I don't go to concerts. I went to a local street party when I was around 20, and my ears were ringing for 3 weeks after it. It felt like my ears were full of water, the high frequency rolloff was around 6-8kHz for that period. I don't know what they were doing, but they surely exceeded any legal sound pressure limits for such a small space. I was hearing my auditory bones rattling! It was the mid and the high frequencies that was the worst. I took a peek at the power amps on the stage (while covering my ears), the clipping LEDs were lighting up almost constantly. And there were two huge racks filled with amplifiers, the sound system looked like something I would expect to fill up a stadium with loud music, yet it was used in a street that was ~15-20m across... I would guess the high THD of the overdriven amps was what made this so horrible and irritating. I guess they grilled some tweeters that night. And some ears, too. I escaped the scene after about 15-20 minutes, and it took a month to my hearing to recover. I may have suffered some permanent hearing loss that night. I cannot imagine what happened to the ones who were there the whole night. Some of them were standing right in front of the speakers.
I miss the sony of the 80’s, so much innovation and quality and not just sony, but pretty much all the manufacturers and brands of the 70s and 80s. Great video as always.
You might be interested to know that the Gradio corporation made a ceramic cartridge back in the early seventies called the Gradi B. It was notable for 2 things: it did have a resistive network in it to both lower the voltage to magnetic cartridge levels and also to to change the amplitude-derived output of its ceramic element into the velocity-derived output of a magnetic cartridge. The 2nd unique feature of this cartridge was it had variable compliance -- it actually had a little brass plate that you could slide up and back along the stylus to change the compliance! it worked quite well. It had good balance and virtually no hom. Although, it was not as detailed as a good magnetic cartridge of the day.. If memory serves me, it tracked at about 2 grams. An audio dealer salesman friend of mine advised me Grado discontinued it because it was too difficult to get ceramic elements that were uniform enough in quality.
I already knew it because when Sony came to Brazil in the 80's, their turntable(like the Sony PS 11-BS) had a their own Magnetic cartridge (Sony XL-15)
It's interesting, because the first Sony turntable in Spain was the Sony PS-11W with Sony XL-15 cartridge released in 1978/79. It was based on the Sony PS-5500 from 1976. This turntable was made in Spain except for the cartridge and various parts. They had to make the turntable in Spain because import duties and shipping costs were very huge during the 1970s and 80s. It's my everyday turntable since 2017. It cost me 50 euros plus 20 more for a new stylus. I'm really happy with it. Great 70s looks and very sturdy and solid turntable.
@@MartinMartorell As a matter of fact I found one last year in the street beside a dumpster, it was in very bad shape but I could recover the XL-15 cartridge and the rubber slipmat. I still use the mat, it saved me 50€ on a new one. ¡Menuda suerte!
Also, the Sony XL-15 was the low end of the line, but the higher end models like the XL-45 are very looked for on the Internet, apparently they some kind of patented technology and they had super light moving mass. Sony excelled at anything they did if they wanted to, they still do.
@@pietroprogman Sony established in Spain buying Kosmos Eléctrica and renaming it as Hispano Sony, S.A. in mid 1973. It was in Las Franquesas Del Valles in Granollers, province of Barcelona. They started selling radios, stereo amplifiers and portable Black and White TVs as far i know. I think that earlier the PS-11W, they made some low-ends turntables during the 70s, like BSR or Dual from the era. The first "high-end" turntable i think it was the PS-11W, dating from the late 70s. It's very likely that the turntable was made in Barcelona, with parts imported from other countries. During the 60s/70s, there was a industrial explosion in Spain. In Barcelona and Valencia many manufacturing plants and factories were opening from foreign companys like Telefunken and Dual or national ones like Inter Electronica or Werner. Many young people from villages and rural areas moved to the big cities to get jobs. It's kind of sad that Spain now it's more focused in tourism and almost every factory anqd national companys from the era disappeared, and in consequence thousands of people lost their jobs.. Now it's all Chinese manufacturing.
I've been binging vwestlife videos since last week. you're consistent, not a lot of ego here. you're just looking at stuff and talking about it. you're a cool ass dude
"And it's sad to think that nothing like this, is ever going to be made again" Sad indeed... Thank you very much for your work. Best regards from Chile.
no it's not sad, we could make a far superior cartridge if we wanted too. there is no need to make an inferior one. even if it is high quality for what it is.
Great sounding ceramic cartridge. Impressive. With the AT-LP120 have seen this issue before and was a bad solder join on the motor board. I would suggest resoldering any suspect looking connections. Great video.. Thanks.
My guess for "lord impedance" is that in the Japanese katakana writing system used for foreign words, "lord", "load" (the word they actually wanted), and "road" are all written the same: ロード. I've seen the opposite mistake, where a video game with "Lord" in the title ("Lord Monarch") gets replaced with "load" ("Load Monarch").
since you mentioned video game, I believe it's the same reason that Famicom (as in Nintendo's Japanese version of the NES) is sometimes written and pronounced like Famicon.
Correct though...the Japanese language itself (regardless of writing system) has a "few" pronounciation limits. For example, the words and phrases are made of full syllables. The letter "L" in English would be read as "eru" and "M" would be "emu" (as in "emulsion"). And it's all straight to the point...no special phonetics (e.g. most French words). There's a reason why crossing to the other language (Japanese for the English speaker and vice versa) is pretty tough... One oddity would be even though there is no "la" on the alphabet...sometimes on songs and even people you can hear "la" where it would have been "ra"...
@@ruikazane5123 the "r" sound in Japanese varies a lot depending on dialect and situation, but generally involves the tongue touching the roof of your mouth (alveolar), similar to an English "L" but usually lighter. Think of it as somewhere in between an "r" and "L", though it is more nuanced than that. And when singing the articulation can be different again.
Sony had a special devision called Sony Sound Tec. They made a few high end cartridges, in collaboration with AT. Most other Sony cartridges are fully made by AT for Sony. I use an XL-MC3 on my PS-X800.
The MC3 is a Sony design (not AT). If you can find them the XL-88, XL-88D, MC5, MC7, or MC9 are significantly better; may be worth it considering the level of your turntable.
These seem to have been equipped on Sony's cheaper 3-in-1 systems from the 70s. I wonder how much this cost when new vs. an entry level MM cartridge goes for now.
Ceramic cartridges were very common in Sony systems with BSR changers across 70-80s One example is the HMK 119 for the Latin markets, manufactured around 1979
WOW!!! That sounded GREAT! And you have some VERY interesting selection of music... they were totally different than my taste but I LOVED them both!! THANK YOU! :D
That cartridge was used in a number of Sony's low end all in one systems from the 1970's. My guess is that the spec for output is incorrectly listed. It should probably be 300 mv. It's really just a regular old ceramic cartridge, albeit a pretty decent one. If you look at any of the old "holy grail" ceramics like the Sonotone 8T and 9T, you'll see nearly the same specs for high end frequency response and stereo separation. They really weren't all that good compared with even cheap magnetics.
Actually i'm glad the YT content match is the way it is i've found quite a few new artists I ended up liking from your channel and 0xBADFOOD just got thrown into my music library.
Yes, Sony made phono cartridges, they even made some that connect directly to the tonearm without a headshell, very common in their non standard "ultra low mass" tonearms, in fact I have one of these, a XL-200 in a PS-LX5.
It's amazing that a Japanese turntable like that 40-year-old Panasonic SL-1900 is still struggling, and that the 12-year-old Audio-Technica AT-LP 120 USB has failed.
I had a Stanton nt-2500 doing the same as your turntable. I found that the glue holding magnet attached to the platter/motor had released with the magnet laying on the pickup. I used epoxy on the magnet and all was good as the motor references its speed by the magnet and coil.
Also regarding the phono input on your Realistic mixer - the input for ceramic cartridges isn't a separate channel, but rather, uses a velocitizer circuit to allow ceramic cartridges to be used on a standard MM preamp. If you use a standard magnetic cartridge on the ceramic phono input, it will sound notably bassier, but it will not lose any output. This is how you can tell if a ceramic phono input is a velocitizer or a dedicated high impedance input. My RCA SA-155 (rebadged Realistic/Optimus unit), which has a switch for ceramic or magnetic cartridges, uses the aforementioned velocitizer circuit to allow ceramic cartridges to be used on the MM preamp. I actually used to have the same realistic mixer, as well as a battery operated one, and both used the same velocitizer circuit.
Thanks for the info. For the audio samples in the video, I actually used my IMA PS 2500 "1970s in a box" stereo system, which has a true high-impedance ceramic phono input.
@@vwestlife I actually had TWO of these in the prop library back when I worked at the Gowanus E-Waste Warehouse before we closed down. Kinda wished I took one of them home. At least I still have my Magnavox FM-28 which is a proper tube stereo and has the high impedance input for ceramics. On some cheaper stereos, they seem to have moved from 1 megaohm to a 270k ohm input. My Dual KA-25, if I can find a 5-pin DIN plug with both input and output RCA connectors, has a pretty good high impedance input circuit for ceramic carts.
I had a Sony all in one stereo from 70s and it used a Sony vx-23p cartridge. For an all in one system it was very well made and truly stood up to the Sony name. Got the stereo with the original 2 way speakers and the stand. I was able to get the stereo almost all working. The 8 track player do to belt melting and gumming up the motor ( this was years ago and I now probably could of fixed the motor). The record player the Sony stereo had was a BSR with metal platter and the head shell was a half inch mount.
From the same era I have seen Sony Music Centres fitted with Garrard decks. This was how they came from the factory. Of course back then record decks all had a very similar size chassis so it was easy for a manufacturer to swap decks depending on local import tariffs etc.
Thanks again for highlighting these neglected technologies. I've stopped paying attention to thrift store turntables because nowdays they're all trashed and I assumed the ceramic cartridges weren't worth saving. I'll start keeping an eye open now.
I'd like to say I do remember a friend having one of these in his system in the mid-eighties here on the other side of the Iron Curtain, but this could be my memory playing tricks on me. Splendid video as always K, happy Pride :)
I never thought it was a big secret that Sony made cartridges. Their XL series moving coil models are still highly sought after by audiophiles. In the early 80s the flagship XL-88D was one of the most expensive cartridges on the market.
I actually have a similar one made by Electro-Voice installed on my Dual 1225 which is part of my Dual KA-25 which only uses a ceramic phono input. That EV cart has a standard output though. Would be nice to find one of these. EDIT: It's a Panasonic EPC-09STAD
My LP120 got some small bit of water (a few drops) splashed down in the slider by accident while i was using it a couple weeks ago and it immediately did this wild super fast speed thing. Did the same things yours did. I let it set for a week unplugged and went back yesterday and now its working fine again. Maybe your LP120 absorbed some moisture? I would maybe check to see if it drew moisture in storage. Perhaps take it apart and see if there is any moisture present particularly around the slider and quartz lock buttons. Just a thought.
Thats very interesting what happened to your at-lp120, mine is about the same age, 11-12 years old, wonder if there’s a design defect. And I just had a thought, maybe the Hall effect sensor died, that would explain why it goes to ludicrous speed and won’t regulate but the controller responds to the reverse command.
@@santi308 Yes.. Quite a common issue. Especially if the unit is left unused for a long period of time. Had this issue with mine and found a bad solder join on an IC pin on the motor board. Have also read that the IC can fail.. guess I was lucky. Too anyone with this issue I would just check for bad solder joins.
I used to play in a Polish wedding band. I should have recognized an Orberek, but I was just hearing the accordion. The thin is, most of us aren't familiar with Slugbug's music and don't connect with it as a comparison of the ceramic cartridge it a magnetic. A good comparison for me would have been something akin to Steely Dan, although I understand the RUclips copyright issue. That's why I said "akin to". Techmoan has several records and CDs that don't break the copyright detection. Due to the high output of the cartridge, I would suggest the specs you found with it or on line weren''t the correct specs for that model. Just a thought. The cantilever and stylus did look pretty well proportioned and of higher quality than one might have thought. Keep up the investigations.
You don’t always need top dollar audio equipment to get high fidelity sound. This cartridge could definitely hold its own against a number of entry and mid range magnetic competitors. To my ears it had a well-rounded sound with good bass and high frequency response. I’d also like to know what went wrong on the AT-LP120 to cause it to play at warped speed. That’s a very interesting failure.
My guess would be that the component responsible for motor rotation detection (and speed measurement) has failed, so now the speed regulation system has an open feedback loop - it doesn't detect the rotation > it "thinks" the speed is still too slow > it ramps up the motor voltage to the max. For example some of my turntables from the 70s and 80s have a wheel with holes in it sitting on the motor shaft, and this wheel goes between the IR LED (or even lightbulb in some models) and optical sensor. If any of those parts fails, the motor will run at crazy speed.
@@adamstan84 There was also a weird Sony turntable which had a magnetic circle (think a circle made of magnetic tape material) underneath the platter, and what looked like a tape head hovering just below it to "read" the speed the platter was going at from a signal recorded onto that magnetic circle to control the speed it was spinning at. Sadly all the ones you can find nowadays won't work anymore because that magnetic circle has lost whatever signal was on it, and since no one (so far) had one that was still working, nobody knows what signal the player expects to adjust its speed so no reproduction magnetic circles (or a signal you could attempt to re-record onto the existing one) exist, dooming all of those turntables to be at most decorative items :(
Good video as always! I love when you break out the SL1900 as it was my first serious turntable when I bought it over half a decade ago. Since then I’ve moved over to a Denon DP-40F, but I always love to see it! Happy Pride!
16:44 I mean, I don't think people "perceive" casette tapes as inferior; they simply are. Even if you can, indeed, make them produce some very nice sound under ideal conditions, there's no denying that a CD player can do just that with nowhere near the involvement required.
I used to listen and record cassettes back in turn of millenium when I was a kid. They always sounded terrible thanks to cheap equipment we had. Our old quality Luxman deck player didn't work and I couldn't fix it. I went back to them couple of years back, deciding I'm going to finally fix it. Also picked up couple cheaper deck players along the way and got myself even some NOS type II cassettes. Yea. They still are pretty awful for listening experience.😅 Just ton of work trying to mimize the wow and flutter you can never get rid of completely, tape wears out, the hiss... Dolby doesn't work properly because apparently I'd need to adjust bias, which requires calbration cassette etc...
3:08 even cheap dollar store ear buds now claim to have 20 to 20kHz frequency response, when they clearly do not, so this spec is totally meaningless now
I'm now expecting a follow up video on the repair of the Audio Technica turntable.... It's an interesting failure mode and those turntables are everywhere! I wouldn't be surprised to crawl under someone else's rock and find one there too! And that mixer!!!! It was my first! Not sure what happened to mine but I do miss it!!! Have been trolling eBay for another but there's nothing in my local area, plenty in the US though, where the shipping cost more than the product! I will never understand that....
Totally, my best guess is that it doesn't "know" it's spinning. So likely worthy to check whatever feedback it have. Why brake a stationary platter? and max torque to get it up to speed!
I just did the opposite on eBay. An American paid £25 + £30 postage for a 1980s Thomas the Tank engine train set. It was a good thing I offered worldwide postage (at cost) as nobody else bid.
Gotta say i'm very positively surprised how good this Phono cartridge sounds. A little heavy on the Mid section of the EQ curve but very pretty good and natural highs and lows. It did sound MUCH better than i actually expected it would. WOW!
Actually some current $2 Chuo Denshi ceramic cartridge clones don't sound too horrible either. He made a video about them a few years ago. They sound better than the original vintage Chou Denshi ones (but not all of them, the clones are probably being made in many different factories, and they sound quite different).
it sounds decent! even the top end is crisp - i was hearing some distortion on ode to joy/three blind mice but that might have just been the record. (also a bit in the slugbug intro) everything played near the end sounded quite good. i wonder if it would be possible to retrofit this cart on a crosley or variant. could you post a video of more examples of the sound quality? or perhaps an A/B with one of your MM carts.
I can tell you that the Crosleys I've messed with (especially the gawd awful Cruiser) are not even worthy of the ceramic cartridges already in them. (With a good stylus, even those Chuo Denshi type carts sound better than they do in a Crosley.) The weak point in modern Cheap Chinese plastic players is the impedance / matching of the (any) ceramic cartridge and the amplifier, plus everything else that surrounds the cartridge. In other words, putting this Sony cart in a Crosley would result in the same, if not worse suckage because of the rest of the system (plastic parts, horrible speakers, poor matching, hum, wow, flutter, rumble, etc.).
@@lurkersmith810 So true. And the cheapskates at Crosley could improve the sound 50% by using an FET front-end transistor. But the brainpower at Crosley is seriously lacking.
To obtain a flat response these cartridges must see over a meg-ohm impedance. they are not velocity sensitive like a magnetic generator, ie the faster you wobble the stylus it will not give higher output, therefore no RIAA full is required, though a portion of HF expansion and bass compression is applied to lower noise and expand bass on all recordings, but otherwise no correction is required. Also the output is usually an order of magnitude or more greater than a magnetic...But here the specs say different! I can't believe that. So a decent ceramic can be helped in the electronic area by having simple correction and less voltage amplification, so all helping fidelity - if it was decent in the first place. I always wanted a hifi ceramic and this isn't quite it yet. But great review. Sony made some classic carts in the 60s 70s 80s.
Wow! I have grown up with "Ceramic Cartridges" and had really bad times with them. Damage to Styrene singles, skipping! Skipping was the worse. I know you won't be able to sample "Pop stuff" on you tube but, I would love to hear the singles I had issues with. Nice video, I am impressed! I have my computer hook up to my stereo and it is a part of my stereo essentially so, I heard the details I would have never associated with a ceramic cartridge. Wow, just, Wow!
From a time when Made In Japan meant quality. It still does, it's just that they don't manufacture much these days. The only cartridges they make will cost you several mortgage payments.
It honestly doesn't sound bad at all! I bet this cartridge would work well with Dynagroove records. I seem to get excessive distortions on all Dynagroove records with my non-conical stylus.
Early Dynagroove LPs were designed for conical styli. They were mastered with electronically-simulated, burned in "pinch effect" distortion, mimicking that of a conical, and gradually increased as the grooves inch towards the center. This was to cancel out the inherent tracking distortion of conicals. By all accounts it's effective enough that on ANY stylus other than a conical, you will hear INCREASED "IGD" on a Dynagroove-not the other way around.
Sony’s cartridges were pretty common in Japan. I’m still using XL-88D, which is Sony’s highest quality MC cartridge from 1980. I spent almost 1700 bucks for this but the sound quality is amazing.
Hi Kevin, love seeing the new Slugbug LP here. The cart sounds a little light on bass response to me, but there's much less distortion than I'd normally associate with a ceramic pickup. Not bad overall. The YT upload of this song on my channel has the audio straight from the original 1/4in tape (that was used to cut the LP) if anyone wants to A/B it.
If only your average Chuo Denshi CZ-800 cartridge (or any Chinese clone) sounded this good…. thanks again for another interesting and informative video!
Kevin has gone Low End Mac on us, By using a 2007-2008 era MacBook Pro, With the notoriously faulty 8600M GT, might I add. Thanks for the video, Kevin.
I'm happy with Teac ceramic cartridge but that's only because Teac uses proper impedance on their stereos. 😏 I only know that from watching this channel. Infact I bought that Teac All In One stereo from seeing your review. Love that stereo.
I noticed a lot of stereo amplifiers from the 70s and 80s accept input from ceramic cartridges, however my 78 Marantz 2226B phono input is for a magnetic cartage input. Which must have been fate because I acquired an SL-Q200 turntable at random with a magnetic cartridge. They sound perfect together.
O would love to hear what you think about the philips 215 ceramic cart. The original one not a copy. It tracks heavy but sounds.. you should try it and tell us
I restore and sell all of Sony's record changer-receiver combo's(no tape players). I do video for each one I sell on my channel here. I love this cartridge comparatively to all the other ceramic cartridges that manufacturer's used in these systems primarily for the BSR changers with the exception of the Panasonic Crystal Cartridge EPS42STAD (My other favorite). I am forever trying to purchase one or more but can never find them! That's how I saw this video. Just the title of this is the opposite of my daily existence! Never Forgotten! Great Video, Thank you. Oh yeah, you can send me that cartridge when your dine with it. I always need one!
Doing a little research, apart from being a standalone product, that cartridge was used in several budget all-in-one systems that Sony sold, such as the SONY HP-170A which has this cartridge preinstalled on its BSR changer.
I miss when Sony made components for turntables, now they don’t even make much analog stuff anymore. Even now there’s barely anyone making ceramic phono cartridges, my local record shop doesn’t sell them anymore!
To be fair, unless you want to use a builtin amp or the mount makes it impossible(though some of these can use a cheap replacement mount), it seems kind of pointless - as you can just swap in a magnetic cart+stylus.
@@DoubleMonoLR yeah, I still prefer magnetic cartridges. But there used to be a lot of options for vinyl records and turntable components many decades ago.
Compliance has to do with the suspension of the cantilever, and in turn has to do with how compatible a cartridge will be with a specific arm. If it's a high comliance cartridge it's better to use a low mass arm since it'll be more compliant (hence the term). Since this is a ceramic cartridge you would probably not need the actual measurement to know that it is a low compliance cartridge but still good to have the exact number.
Tudo depende da qualidade da pastilha piezoelétrica, da densidade da borracha e do amortecimento interno da cápsula. Esse modelo de cápsula foi utilizado em aparelhos da Gradiente (Brazil) até o começo dos anos 1990.
That AT-LP120 went into Photonicinduction's Extreme Speed Record Player mode
Any one else disappointed he didn't try it ? (although not with this historic cartridge). I'm sure it would solve the problem of content matches :-)
Yeah I was waiting for a 50 year old light bulb to be wired to the turntable motor, and then the rest plugged into 50,000V 😂
Maybe you can put a Laserdisc and watch a movie, jajaja
Great to see another Photonicinduciton fan!
RIP cheap German Schneider newave stereo system and RIP Audio Technica lp120 lol
Crazy that so many old Technics are still out there chugging along just fine and your far newer AT-LP120 is already broken.. Says a lot about the quality of older equipment.
i own two at-lp120's and they both broke
there is a big factor of survivorship bias there, a lot of old stuff can be crap too, it's just they are not here so we don't remember them
I'm honestly not surprised with this having been made to a higher quality standard with so much audio gear being build to a price point to make a quick buck on people looking for nostalgia in our troubled times, as an escape, and with that said, it sounded really good to may 41 year old ears even with my Sony WI-C100 Bluetooth earbuds connected to my Android tablet, and I wish they were still made today, as a mid range stylus option.
The closest there was to a high quality ceramic were the ones made by Micro-Acoustics (although they marketed it under "electret transducer" but it uses the same principle). I have a Micro-Acoustics MA282e and the MA2002e, both which are basically high quality and high fidelity ceramic cartridges designed to be used with a standard phono preamp (like the ones for magnetic cartridges). Gonna post a video later today about it.
The 282e is paired to my Acoustic Research XB turntable, tracking at 0.75g, while the 2002e is pared to my Pioneer PL-530, tracking at 1g.
That's one fine sounding ceramic cartridge!
When I was younger - child/early teens through the 60s/70s, all the record players I ever heard had ceramic cartridges: Philips, and BSR, and then a Sonotone 9T, and I was 'used' to that sound, so when I heard my first magnetic cartridge, it seemed weird! All the mids were subdued, but the bass was lower and cleaner, and the treble was far higher and cleaner, but, even now, I still like what I remember of those old BSR SC-11 (?) ceramics (which I heard the most).... they just had a certain sound to them, and this Sony brings that back, but with better low frequencies, and maybe cleaner treble; it just has a certain sound that only a good ceramic cartridge has... 🙂
Thanks for this video - Very entertaining..... 👍
I remember the first time I connected a BSR ceramic cartridge to a decent amplifier and almost forgot what I was listening to. They were not as dreadful as all that if they were on a reasonable turntable. BSR also did nice magnetic cartridges of the induced magnet variety (to keep the moving magnet weight down), such as the ADC QLM-33.
@@video99couk : Ah yes.. I'd almost forgotten about those ADC QLM cartridges! Very light-weight, very high compliance, and very light tracking force....sounded excellent in a low-mass tonearm; they also had a high quality tonearm available, and a series of badge-built turntables (from BSR) with a lower quality derivative of that tonearm!
In the early 80's I (well, my parents) had a fine German made Belcanto turntable with a ceramic cartridge. I never forget the joy it brought listening to my favorite ABBA and classical music records on it. :)
@Kent Teffeteller : The Philips ceramics were for certain excellent! The one that Mum & Dad had in the 60s was a 'portable' stereo player, with two speakers that clipped-on over the turntable. The whole thing was made of wood, and had a metal chassis inside; a spring loaded plinth which held the platter, motor, and the arm, and had a fully automatic mechanism as well. The amplifiers inside were valve/tube amps.
The cartridge was one of those long, thin ones that clicked into place on the end of the arm, and had the flip-over stylus.
It sounded marvellous (to me!!), and I used it for a long time during the 70s as my own record player; I loved it!
It was sadly replaced when in the very late 70s replacement valves/tubes no longer worked to make it play... 😞
Whether a cartridge can reach 16K, 20 or 30 Khz matters little as you get older because even if you've never been to a rock concert and taken care of your ears, your ability to hear the high frequencies will slowly and inevitably fade. At age 57, I can still hear about 15.3Khz, however, when I play the song "One Of My Turns" (Pink Floyd -The Wall), I can no longer hear the 15.575 Khz television tone recorded in the track.
You are doing pretty well for hearing above 15kHz at 57. I used to hear 19kHz when I was 16-18. Now I am 34 and the rolloff is around 16kHz. And no, I don't go to concerts. I went to a local street party when I was around 20, and my ears were ringing for 3 weeks after it. It felt like my ears were full of water, the high frequency rolloff was around 6-8kHz for that period. I don't know what they were doing, but they surely exceeded any legal sound pressure limits for such a small space. I was hearing my auditory bones rattling!
It was the mid and the high frequencies that was the worst. I took a peek at the power amps on the stage (while covering my ears), the clipping LEDs were lighting up almost constantly. And there were two huge racks filled with amplifiers, the sound system looked like something I would expect to fill up a stadium with loud music, yet it was used in a street that was ~15-20m across... I would guess the high THD of the overdriven amps was what made this so horrible and irritating.
I guess they grilled some tweeters that night. And some ears, too. I escaped the scene after about 15-20 minutes, and it took a month to my hearing to recover. I may have suffered some permanent hearing loss that night. I cannot imagine what happened to the ones who were there the whole night. Some of them were standing right in front of the speakers.
Still puts out a nice warm and rich sound.
I miss the sony of the 80’s, so much innovation and quality and not just sony, but pretty much all the manufacturers and brands of the 70s and 80s.
Great video as always.
VWestlife never disappoints in the choice of music. :)
Sounded fine to my ears. Wish the companies would not have gone cheap. Thank you for letting us listen.
You might be interested to know that the Gradio corporation made a ceramic cartridge back in the early seventies called the Gradi B. It was notable for 2 things: it did have a resistive network in it to both lower the voltage to magnetic cartridge levels and also to to change the amplitude-derived output of its ceramic element into the velocity-derived output of a magnetic cartridge. The 2nd unique feature of this cartridge was it had variable compliance -- it actually had a little brass plate that you could slide up and back along the stylus to change the compliance! it worked quite well. It had good balance and virtually no hom. Although, it was not as detailed as a good magnetic cartridge of the day..
If memory serves me, it tracked at about 2 grams. An audio dealer salesman friend of mine advised me Grado discontinued it because it was too difficult to get ceramic elements that were uniform enough in quality.
I already knew it because when Sony came to Brazil in the 80's, their turntable(like the Sony PS 11-BS) had a their own Magnetic cartridge (Sony XL-15)
It's interesting, because the first Sony turntable in Spain was the Sony PS-11W with Sony XL-15 cartridge released in 1978/79. It was based on the Sony PS-5500 from 1976. This turntable was made in Spain except for the cartridge and various parts. They had to make the turntable in Spain because import duties and shipping costs were very huge during the 1970s and 80s.
It's my everyday turntable since 2017. It cost me 50 euros plus 20 more for a new stylus. I'm really happy with it. Great 70s looks and very sturdy and solid turntable.
@@MartinMartorell As a matter of fact I found one last year in the street beside a dumpster, it was in very bad shape but I could recover the XL-15 cartridge and the rubber slipmat. I still use the mat, it saved me 50€ on a new one. ¡Menuda suerte!
Also, the Sony XL-15 was the low end of the line, but the higher end models like the XL-45 are very looked for on the Internet, apparently they some kind of patented technology and they had super light moving mass. Sony excelled at anything they did if they wanted to, they still do.
@@MartinMartorell Hi Martin, do you know in which part/city of Spain Sony turntable were made?thank you
@@pietroprogman Sony established in Spain buying Kosmos Eléctrica and renaming it as Hispano Sony, S.A. in mid 1973. It was in Las Franquesas Del Valles in Granollers, province of Barcelona. They started selling radios, stereo amplifiers and portable Black and White TVs as far i know. I think that earlier the PS-11W, they made some low-ends turntables during the 70s, like BSR or Dual from the era. The first "high-end" turntable i think it was the PS-11W, dating from the late 70s.
It's very likely that the turntable was made in Barcelona, with parts imported from other countries. During the 60s/70s, there was a industrial explosion in Spain. In Barcelona and Valencia many manufacturing plants and factories were opening from foreign companys like Telefunken and Dual or national ones like Inter Electronica or Werner. Many young people from villages and rural areas moved to the big cities to get jobs.
It's kind of sad that Spain now it's more focused in tourism and almost every factory anqd national companys from the era disappeared, and in consequence thousands of people lost their jobs.. Now it's all Chinese manufacturing.
I've been binging vwestlife videos since last week. you're consistent, not a lot of ego here. you're just looking at stuff and talking about it. you're a cool ass dude
"And it's sad to think that nothing like this, is ever going to be made again"
Sad indeed...
Thank you very much for your work.
Best regards from Chile.
no it's not sad, we could make a far superior cartridge if we wanted too. there is no need to make an inferior one. even if it is high quality for what it is.
Great sounding ceramic cartridge. Impressive. With the AT-LP120 have seen this issue before and was a bad solder join on the motor board. I would suggest resoldering any suspect looking connections. Great video.. Thanks.
I really enjoyed the Slugbug song. Had to look up the musician. I love a new take on Divo/XTC. Interesting video as always! Please don't ever stop!
This guy is putting in work and churning out some nice videos.
One of the few RUclipsrs that have been consistent since the start
Hands down he is my favourite youtuber.
Not over-hyped like many are , and he knows his subject.
My guess for "lord impedance" is that in the Japanese katakana writing system used for foreign words, "lord", "load" (the word they actually wanted), and "road" are all written the same: ロード. I've seen the opposite mistake, where a video game with "Lord" in the title ("Lord Monarch") gets replaced with "load" ("Load Monarch").
since you mentioned video game, I believe it's the same reason that Famicom (as in Nintendo's Japanese version of the NES) is sometimes written and pronounced like Famicon.
Correct though...the Japanese language itself (regardless of writing system) has a "few" pronounciation limits. For example, the words and phrases are made of full syllables. The letter "L" in English would be read as "eru" and "M" would be "emu" (as in "emulsion"). And it's all straight to the point...no special phonetics (e.g. most French words). There's a reason why crossing to the other language (Japanese for the English speaker and vice versa) is pretty tough...
One oddity would be even though there is no "la" on the alphabet...sometimes on songs and even people you can hear "la" where it would have been "ra"...
Load Monarch is Fromsoftware’s Adult game.
@@ruikazane5123 the "r" sound in Japanese varies a lot depending on dialect and situation, but generally involves the tongue touching the roof of your mouth (alveolar), similar to an English "L" but usually lighter. Think of it as somewhere in between an "r" and "L", though it is more nuanced than that. And when singing the articulation can be different again.
@@AaronSmart.online A Japanese Language teacher told us that for Japanese the difference between Rice and Lice is a small variation in accent.
How does this account only have 156K subs? Such a great wealth of info, history and know how. Thanks for another great vid.
If you did not know, you would think it was a magnetic cartridge...
Another hidden gem that you've found!!
Thanks! ☺
Sony had a special devision called Sony Sound Tec. They made a few high end cartridges, in collaboration with AT. Most other Sony cartridges are fully made by AT for Sony. I use an XL-MC3 on my PS-X800.
The MC3 is a Sony design (not AT). If you can find them the XL-88, XL-88D, MC5, MC7, or MC9 are significantly better; may be worth it considering the level of your turntable.
@@mvevitsis The XL-MC series were made by SST and developed in collaboration with AT.
*division
Thanks bunches for spinning the Bernie Witkowski track! Great Oberek! Wishing you continued success on your channel!
Love these obscure records! So fun! 😇
These seem to have been equipped on Sony's cheaper 3-in-1 systems from the 70s.
I wonder how much this cost when new vs. an entry level MM cartridge goes for now.
Ceramic cartridges were very common in Sony systems with BSR changers across 70-80s
One example is the HMK 119 for the Latin markets, manufactured around 1979
WOW!!! That sounded GREAT! And you have some VERY interesting selection of music... they were totally different than my taste but I LOVED them both!!
THANK YOU! :D
I genuinely lol'd when you got the AT-LP120 started and it tried to take off like a helicopter
That cartridge was used in a number of Sony's low end all in one systems from the 1970's. My guess is that the spec for output is incorrectly listed. It should probably be 300 mv. It's really just a regular old ceramic cartridge, albeit a pretty decent one. If you look at any of the old "holy grail" ceramics like the Sonotone 8T and 9T, you'll see nearly the same specs for high end frequency response and stereo separation. They really weren't all that good compared with even cheap magnetics.
Yes , and probably closer to 600mV. This was made for cheaper record players . The specs. are pretty average for hifi.
"It was working fine the last time I used it". Whenever I see that on an eBay listing I know it doesn't work and I move on to another one.
Actually i'm glad the YT content match is the way it is i've found quite a few new artists I ended up liking from your channel and 0xBADFOOD just got thrown into my music library.
Yes, Sony made phono cartridges, they even made some that connect directly to the tonearm without a headshell, very common in their non standard "ultra low mass" tonearms, in fact I have one of these, a XL-200 in a PS-LX5.
I had one of these forever ago. Sounded good enough, as far as I can remember, and played many, many records. Happy Pride Month!
Maybe you could do a video opening up that broken AT-LP120 to see what went wrong!
My favorite song from George Harrison is "My Sweet Lord Impedance"
cm/dyn is a measurement of surface tension or torque, for what it's worth. I think Sony listed it incorrectly, I've only found it as dyn/cm.
Cm/dyne is the SI-cgs unit of compliance, I.e. Reciprocal of spring stiffness. Nothing to do with torque.
Another great video, you somehow manage to make the mundane very interesting - first class. ( From Yorkshire, UK)
i like how you use what people do not use today....very good ...i like obscure and obsolete equipment the best!
It's amazing that a Japanese turntable like that 40-year-old Panasonic SL-1900 is still struggling, and that the 12-year-old Audio-Technica AT-LP 120 USB has failed.
I had a Stanton nt-2500 doing the same as your turntable. I found that the glue holding magnet attached to the platter/motor had released with the magnet laying on the pickup. I used epoxy on the magnet and all was good as the motor references its speed by the magnet and coil.
Also regarding the phono input on your Realistic mixer - the input for ceramic cartridges isn't a separate channel, but rather, uses a velocitizer circuit to allow ceramic cartridges to be used on a standard MM preamp. If you use a standard magnetic cartridge on the ceramic phono input, it will sound notably bassier, but it will not lose any output. This is how you can tell if a ceramic phono input is a velocitizer or a dedicated high impedance input. My RCA SA-155 (rebadged Realistic/Optimus unit), which has a switch for ceramic or magnetic cartridges, uses the aforementioned velocitizer circuit to allow ceramic cartridges to be used on the MM preamp. I actually used to have the same realistic mixer, as well as a battery operated one, and both used the same velocitizer circuit.
Thanks for the info. For the audio samples in the video, I actually used my IMA PS 2500 "1970s in a box" stereo system, which has a true high-impedance ceramic phono input.
@@vwestlife I actually had TWO of these in the prop library back when I worked at the Gowanus E-Waste Warehouse before we closed down. Kinda wished I took one of them home. At least I still have my Magnavox FM-28 which is a proper tube stereo and has the high impedance input for ceramics.
On some cheaper stereos, they seem to have moved from 1 megaohm to a 270k ohm input. My Dual KA-25, if I can find a 5-pin DIN plug with both input and output RCA connectors, has a pretty good high impedance input circuit for ceramic carts.
It's been a while since the last turntable-related video. Good to see a new one.
i love the background photo of an eprom over broccoli. i’m hungry.
I had a Sony all in one stereo from 70s and it used a Sony vx-23p cartridge. For an all in one system it was very well made and truly stood up to the Sony name. Got the stereo with the original 2 way speakers and the stand. I was able to get the stereo almost all working. The 8 track player do to belt melting and gumming up the motor ( this was years ago and I now probably could of fixed the motor). The record player the Sony stereo had was a BSR with metal platter and the head shell was a half inch mount.
From the same era I have seen Sony Music Centres fitted with Garrard decks. This was how they came from the factory. Of course back then record decks all had a very similar size chassis so it was easy for a manufacturer to swap decks depending on local import tariffs etc.
Thanks again for highlighting these neglected technologies. I've stopped paying attention to thrift store turntables because nowdays they're all trashed and I assumed the ceramic cartridges weren't worth saving. I'll start keeping an eye open now.
I'd like to say I do remember a friend having one of these in his system in the mid-eighties here on the other side of the Iron Curtain, but this could be my memory playing tricks on me. Splendid video as always K, happy Pride :)
I never thought it was a big secret that Sony made cartridges. Their XL series moving coil models are still highly sought after by audiophiles. In the early 80s the flagship XL-88D was one of the most expensive cartridges on the market.
I actually have a similar one made by Electro-Voice installed on my Dual 1225 which is part of my Dual KA-25 which only uses a ceramic phono input. That EV cart has a standard output though.
Would be nice to find one of these.
EDIT: It's a Panasonic EPC-09STAD
Dude's shredding that accordion!
My LP120 got some small bit of water (a few drops) splashed down in the slider by accident while i was using it a couple weeks ago and it immediately did this wild super fast speed thing. Did the same things yours did. I let it set for a week unplugged and went back yesterday and now its working fine again. Maybe your LP120 absorbed some moisture? I would maybe check to see if it drew moisture in storage. Perhaps take it apart and see if there is any moisture present particularly around the slider and quartz lock buttons. Just a thought.
Thats very interesting what happened to your at-lp120, mine is about the same age, 11-12 years old, wonder if there’s a design defect. And I just had a thought, maybe the Hall effect sensor died, that would explain why it goes to ludicrous speed and won’t regulate but the controller responds to the reverse command.
There is something wrong with the motor controller board, because is a common issue on this turntable.
@@santi308 really? Never knew that it was a common issue. Mines been working flawlessly for over 10 years with use almost every week.
@@santi308 Yes.. Quite a common issue. Especially if the unit is left unused for a long period of time. Had this issue with mine and found a bad solder join on an IC pin on the motor board. Have also read that the IC can fail.. guess I was lucky. Too anyone with this issue I would just check for bad solder joins.
I used to play in a Polish wedding band. I should have recognized an Orberek, but I was just hearing the accordion. The thin is, most of us aren't familiar with Slugbug's music and don't connect with it as a comparison of the ceramic cartridge it a magnetic. A good comparison for me would have been something akin to Steely Dan, although I understand the RUclips copyright issue. That's why I said "akin to". Techmoan has several records and CDs that don't break the copyright detection. Due to the high output of the cartridge, I would suggest the specs you found with it or on line weren''t the correct specs for that model. Just a thought. The cantilever and stylus did look pretty well proportioned and of higher quality than one might have thought. Keep up the investigations.
I vaguely recall seeing that in 1988 to 1994 at Guitar Center, as a discontinued item.
Wow really nice sound for a ceramic cartridge!
You don’t always need top dollar audio equipment to get high fidelity sound. This cartridge could definitely hold its own against a number of entry and mid range magnetic competitors. To my ears it had a well-rounded sound with good bass and high frequency response.
I’d also like to know what went wrong on the AT-LP120 to cause it to play at warped speed. That’s a very interesting failure.
My guess would be that the component responsible for motor rotation detection (and speed measurement) has failed, so now the speed regulation system has an open feedback loop - it doesn't detect the rotation > it "thinks" the speed is still too slow > it ramps up the motor voltage to the max.
For example some of my turntables from the 70s and 80s have a wheel with holes in it sitting on the motor shaft, and this wheel goes between the IR LED (or even lightbulb in some models) and optical sensor. If any of those parts fails, the motor will run at crazy speed.
@@adamstan84 There was also a weird Sony turntable which had a magnetic circle (think a circle made of magnetic tape material) underneath the platter, and what looked like a tape head hovering just below it to "read" the speed the platter was going at from a signal recorded onto that magnetic circle to control the speed it was spinning at. Sadly all the ones you can find nowadays won't work anymore because that magnetic circle has lost whatever signal was on it, and since no one (so far) had one that was still working, nobody knows what signal the player expects to adjust its speed so no reproduction magnetic circles (or a signal you could attempt to re-record onto the existing one) exist, dooming all of those turntables to be at most decorative items :(
my AT-LP120 died after ten years not worth getting fixed - very impressive cartridge great video
Not worth get it fixed, but pretty sure it worth DIY-fix it, if the necessary part is available. Hope you haven't tossed it, but sold or donated it.
Good video as always! I love when you break out the SL1900 as it was my first serious turntable when I bought it over half a decade ago. Since then I’ve moved over to a Denon DP-40F, but I always love to see it! Happy Pride!
Nice touch with the polka, reminds me a ton of klezmer music.
It's an Oberek, not a Polka.
Considering it came though RUclips compression hell that sounds damn good! Great separation, seems underrated for sure. Yeah I am impressed!
Wow it’s been forever since I’ve heard that version of Three Blind Mice.
I bought that Slugbug album today on cassette because I heard it in a previous video, it’s pretty cool!
16:44
I mean, I don't think people "perceive" casette tapes as inferior; they simply are.
Even if you can, indeed, make them produce some very nice sound under ideal conditions, there's no denying that a CD player can do just that with nowhere near the involvement required.
CDs are incapable of two things in my opinion. One is being 'warm' and the other is stoking the nostalgia fires.
I used to listen and record cassettes back in turn of millenium when I was a kid. They always sounded terrible thanks to cheap equipment we had. Our old quality Luxman deck player didn't work and I couldn't fix it.
I went back to them couple of years back, deciding I'm going to finally fix it. Also picked up couple cheaper deck players along the way and got myself even some NOS type II cassettes.
Yea. They still are pretty awful for listening experience.😅 Just ton of work trying to mimize the wow and flutter you can never get rid of completely, tape wears out, the hiss... Dolby doesn't work properly because apparently I'd need to adjust bias, which requires calbration cassette etc...
3:08 even cheap dollar store ear buds now claim to have 20 to 20kHz frequency response, when they clearly do not, so this spec is totally meaningless now
I love this channel. Thanks VW!
Apparently a Decca Deram wasn't a bad sounding Ceramic back in the day.
Love your videos and the work you put into them!!! Keep it up.
I'm now expecting a follow up video on the repair of the Audio Technica turntable.... It's an interesting failure mode and those turntables are everywhere! I wouldn't be surprised to crawl under someone else's rock and find one there too!
And that mixer!!!! It was my first! Not sure what happened to mine but I do miss it!!! Have been trolling eBay for another but there's nothing in my local area, plenty in the US though, where the shipping cost more than the product! I will never understand that....
Totally, my best guess is that it doesn't "know" it's spinning. So likely worthy to check whatever feedback it have.
Why brake a stationary platter? and max torque to get it up to speed!
I just did the opposite on eBay. An American paid £25 + £30 postage for a 1980s Thomas the Tank engine train set. It was a good thing I offered worldwide postage (at cost) as nobody else bid.
Just surprised that the AT was first choice and the Technics was the substitute!
Gotta say i'm very positively surprised how good this Phono cartridge sounds. A little heavy on the Mid section of the EQ curve but very pretty good and natural highs and lows. It did sound MUCH better than i actually expected it would. WOW!
Actually some current $2 Chuo Denshi ceramic cartridge clones don't sound too horrible either. He made a video about them a few years ago. They sound better than the original vintage Chou Denshi ones (but not all of them, the clones are probably being made in many different factories, and they sound quite different).
it sounds decent! even the top end is crisp - i was hearing some distortion on ode to joy/three blind mice but that might have just been the record. (also a bit in the slugbug intro) everything played near the end sounded quite good. i wonder if it would be possible to retrofit this cart on a crosley or variant. could you post a video of more examples of the sound quality? or perhaps an A/B with one of your MM carts.
I can tell you that the Crosleys I've messed with (especially the gawd awful Cruiser) are not even worthy of the ceramic cartridges already in them. (With a good stylus, even those Chuo Denshi type carts sound better than they do in a Crosley.) The weak point in modern Cheap Chinese plastic players is the impedance / matching of the (any) ceramic cartridge and the amplifier, plus everything else that surrounds the cartridge. In other words, putting this Sony cart in a Crosley would result in the same, if not worse suckage because of the rest of the system (plastic parts, horrible speakers, poor matching, hum, wow, flutter, rumble, etc.).
@@lurkersmith810 So true. And the cheapskates at Crosley could improve the sound 50% by using an FET front-end transistor. But the brainpower at Crosley is seriously lacking.
Yay, finally some RUclips love for my favorite SL-1900
By the way, I modded my SL-1900 to run at 78rpm a few years ago with a turbo button. Great machine
To obtain a flat response these cartridges must see over a meg-ohm impedance. they are not velocity sensitive like a magnetic generator, ie the faster you wobble the stylus it will not give higher output, therefore no RIAA full is required, though a portion of HF expansion and bass compression is applied to lower noise and expand bass on all recordings, but otherwise no correction is required. Also the output is usually an order of magnitude or more greater than a magnetic...But here the specs say different! I can't believe that. So a decent ceramic can be helped in the electronic area by having simple correction and less voltage amplification, so all helping fidelity - if it was decent in the first place. I always wanted a hifi ceramic and this isn't quite it yet. But great review. Sony made some classic carts in the 60s 70s 80s.
Wow! I have grown up with "Ceramic Cartridges" and had really bad times with them. Damage to Styrene singles, skipping! Skipping was the worse. I know you won't be able to sample "Pop stuff" on you tube but, I would love to hear the singles I had issues with. Nice video, I am impressed! I have my computer hook up to my stereo and it is a part of my stereo essentially so, I heard the details I would have never associated with a ceramic cartridge. Wow, just, Wow!
From a time when Made In Japan meant quality. It still does, it's just that they don't manufacture much these days. The only cartridges they make will cost you several mortgage payments.
@8:55 - Do we have a repair video in the works? That would be a great watch.
I'm not really surprised that Sony made phono cartridges. Seems great quality than the Chinese ones. 8:38 technical difficulties 🤣🤣
It honestly doesn't sound bad at all! I bet this cartridge would work well with Dynagroove records. I seem to get excessive distortions on all Dynagroove records with my non-conical stylus.
I believe you're right. The Dynagroove that I have just sound terrible on my MM cartridge.
Early Dynagroove LPs were designed for conical styli. They were mastered with electronically-simulated, burned in "pinch effect" distortion, mimicking that of a conical, and gradually increased as the grooves inch towards the center.
This was to cancel out the inherent tracking distortion of conicals. By all accounts it's effective enough that on ANY stylus other than a conical, you will hear INCREASED "IGD" on a Dynagroove-not the other way around.
Sony’s cartridges were pretty common in Japan.
I’m still using XL-88D, which is Sony’s highest quality MC cartridge from 1980.
I spent almost 1700 bucks for this but the sound quality is amazing.
Hi Kevin, love seeing the new Slugbug LP here. The cart sounds a little light on bass response to me, but there's much less distortion than I'd normally associate with a ceramic pickup. Not bad overall. The YT upload of this song on my channel has the audio straight from the original 1/4in tape (that was used to cut the LP) if anyone wants to A/B it.
It's cool to see a non Uni-body Macbook Pro still in use in 2022.
If only your average Chuo Denshi CZ-800 cartridge (or any Chinese clone) sounded this good…. thanks again for another interesting and informative video!
The Decca Deram ceramic cartridge was a good one, still have a couple somewhere.
Kevin has gone Low End Mac on us,
By using a 2007-2008 era MacBook Pro,
With the notoriously faulty 8600M GT, might I add.
Thanks for the video, Kevin.
I'm happy with Teac ceramic cartridge but that's only because Teac uses proper impedance on their stereos. 😏 I only know that from watching this channel. Infact I bought that Teac All In One stereo from seeing your review. Love that stereo.
I noticed a lot of stereo amplifiers from the 70s and 80s accept input from ceramic cartridges, however my 78 Marantz 2226B phono input is for a magnetic cartage input. Which must have been fate because I acquired an SL-Q200 turntable at random with a magnetic cartridge. They sound perfect together.
Very impressive! Thanks for the video!
O would love to hear what you think about the philips 215 ceramic cart. The original one not a copy. It tracks heavy but sounds.. you should try it and tell us
“Preampectomy”. Haha! I knew that VWestlife was secretly a surgeon.
I love your voice.
I restore and sell all of Sony's record changer-receiver combo's(no tape players). I do video for each one I sell on my channel here. I love this cartridge comparatively to all the other ceramic cartridges that manufacturer's used in these systems primarily for the BSR changers with the exception of the Panasonic Crystal Cartridge EPS42STAD (My other favorite). I am forever trying to purchase one or more but can never find them! That's how I saw this video. Just the title of this is the opposite of my daily existence! Never Forgotten! Great Video, Thank you. Oh yeah, you can send me that cartridge when your dine with it. I always need one!
This sounds pretty dang good. It even reminds me of moving iron cartridges or my moving pemalloy cartridge.
I checked the manual for my Sony PS-X7 turntable, I think it was made around 1978. The manual says the recommended cartridge is a Sony VL32G.
I'd love to hear a record played on your Audio-Technica at that speed. LOL. (with an old stylus, of course)
Same, I kept thinking drop the needle
@@natelax1367 I kept thinking that too LMAO.
Doing a little research, apart from being a standalone product, that cartridge was used in several budget all-in-one systems that Sony sold, such as the SONY HP-170A which has this cartridge preinstalled on its BSR changer.
The Audio Techinca Turntable malfunctioning was funny. Imagine putting a laserdisc or a dvd to play on it was a laser.
I miss when Sony made components for turntables, now they don’t even make much analog stuff anymore. Even now there’s barely anyone making ceramic phono cartridges, my local record shop doesn’t sell them anymore!
To be fair, unless you want to use a builtin amp or the mount makes it impossible(though some of these can use a cheap replacement mount), it seems kind of pointless - as you can just swap in a magnetic cart+stylus.
@@DoubleMonoLR yeah, I still prefer magnetic cartridges. But there used to be a lot of options for vinyl records and turntable components many decades ago.
I think the Decca Deram wears that particular crown.
Compliance has to do with the suspension of the cantilever, and in turn has to do with how compatible a cartridge will be with a specific arm. If it's a high comliance cartridge it's better to use a low mass arm since it'll be more compliant (hence the term). Since this is a ceramic cartridge you would probably not need the actual measurement to know that it is a low compliance cartridge but still good to have the exact number.
wow very interesting cartridge I always had a love the old ceramics thanks for sharing this cool old item .
Really enjoyed this one, thanks for the great content.
My PS-434 Sony turntable from the early 80's has a Sony cartridge, the VL-37G.
Sounds amazing. Great video!
Tudo depende da qualidade da pastilha piezoelétrica, da densidade da borracha e do amortecimento interno da cápsula. Esse modelo de cápsula foi utilizado em aparelhos da Gradiente (Brazil) até o começo dos anos 1990.