Fidelity Research FR5e

I have the FR-5, FR-5E and FR-6SE.
My first one was the FR-6SE which I loved......
It is lush and smooth, full-bodied, relaxed, warm and enticing....
The complete 'AntiChrist' to the modern LOMC 'etched and detailed' sound.
It was always obvious though, that one was listening to a 'coloured' cartridge 😎
Not that there's anything wrong with that.....👅

And then Jonathan Carr (in this Forum) wrote that he particularly liked the FR-5E so I bought the FR-5 which, compared to the FR-6SE....went even 'darker'. It eliminated even the remotest soupçon of high-frequency information and added even more 'treacle' to the syrupy bass.
It was like wallowing in molasses.....😱
I fortunately then acquired the FR-5E which was slightly better but still no match for the more 'even-keeled' performance of the 6SE.

All these cartridges are very low-compliance and still retain their stiffness after all the years....so I had no problem with running them exclusively in one of my heavy FR-64S or FR-66S tonearms.

What arm are you intending to use?

Thanks for the info Halcro. I plan to install on my Yamaha GT 2000 with Zupreme 12g headshell, making mass of tonearm 21g. 

is there another cart you would compare the 5e to and what other carts in your collection did you prefer it to. 

Thanks

You’re welcome....
Nice table btw ateal....👍
Uses a similar Victor motor to my TT-101 with bi-directional quartz-locked servo control. Way to go......🎶

The closest cartridges I can think of that sound similar in my system are the Empire 1000ZE/X and the Sony XL-55.
The Sony is closer to the FR-6SE whilst the FR-5E is closer to the Empire.

Will be interesting to see what you hear with it in your system.....?

Regards

One important problem I remember when I first listened to the FR-5E.....was the fact that the plastic ‘yoke’ which attaches the stylus holder to the aluminium cartridge body was loose and wobbled. 😱
This initially made the sound so warm, wooly and undefined that I’m happy I found the problem.
Using Superglue all along the joints, solved this problem.....👌

This cartridge is so cheap so i bought many of them and in my experience the low inductance FR-5E is better than FR-6SE.

The versions of the FR-5 are Conical (5), Elliptical (5E) and also 5SE which i have never tried.

The weight of the cartridge itself is very low, i’ve had the best result with ZYX LIVE-18 headshell.

But this cartridge is nothing special compared to the Grace F-9F,AT-ML150, Garrott P77, Stanton 881s and the higher models of those Grace, AT, Stanton are on another level. If i remember correct even the Ortofon M20FL was superior to the FR-5E and FR-6e, but they are impossible to find for such a low price as the FR MM cartridges.

Later i have discovered the sound of Ikeda-San’s MC cartridges and they are indeed very special in my opinion, much better than his MM design. The champs are FR-7f and Fidelity-Research PMC-3

The best thing about FR-5E is the price, which is often under $60 if you know where to find them. It’s hard to imagine anyone can find some other MM cartridge at this price. I think you’re already have much better cartridges, so i don’t think you will be impressed much.

Thanks everyone for your responses, very informative.

I'll give it an audition and if doesn't impress I'll use it on my son's table. 

What happened??