additional processing and customs charges on goldring 1006 or nagaoka mp150

@jcarr
Thanks for your comment, Jonathan
It’s always nice to have an inside from the industry leaders

Last year I had the pleasure of listening to the same exact album on LP and R2R.

If I recall correctly, the tape deck was a Sonorous Audio ATR 10 RTR, turntable was a Doehmann Helix 1 with Schroder CB 9CB tonearm, cartridge was an Etna (low-output MC), phono stage was by Wadax, and speakers were Tidal Audio’s Akira.

Despite that the cartridge was not an MM or MI, the sound of the two formats was exceedingly similar, with the LP perhaps being at the level of a first-generation dub of the tape (if that).

Also, I know a number of well-known album producers and musicians who use Lyra’s and other MC cartridges for both their personal listening pleasure as well as evaluating test pressings of upcoming albums.

Neither of the above would be possible if MC cartridges were incapable of sounding like tape (contrary to invictus005’s assertions).

I often quote this TAS article to show the people what was a choice (of monitoring cartridges) for mastering engineers like Doug Sax, Kavi Alexander and others. J.Tammblyn Henderson reports on a listening session comparing digital master tape, analogue master tape, direct-to-disc lacquer and the "live" mike feed; the report consists of a long conversation among J. Boyk, Keith Johnson, Doug Sax, and JTH himself. " What cartridge could have the "lowest distortion of all," "uncanny" resolution, better than master tapes?". The choice was an MM cartridges: Audio-Technica AT-ML170, Technics EPC-100c mk4, Stanton 881s mkII. Well it was in the 80s or early 90s, maybe we have better MC cartridges today, but the price for new MC cartridges is 10 times as much, compared to those vintage MM from this article. There is a comments about MC from that era below the article.

Boron didn’t become popular because beryllium was phased out - they coexisted for years, and during that period the cartridge designer was free to choose whichever one he felt best suited the design that he was developing.

I prototyped with beryllium a few times in the 1980s, but never totally warmed up to the sound. Around the same period I also prototyped with boron, but again with inconclusive results. And ruby / sapphire. And diamond etc.
In the end, for our early cantilevers I settled on a whisker-reinforced aluminum alloy (in rod rather than pipe form).

However, the whiskered aluminum worked best with a coaxial 3-way damper arrangement, which was time-consuming to adjust and sometimes drifted (or was whacked) out of alignment in the field.

Therefore, in the mid-1990s we put more effort into formulating rubber compounds for dampers, and the success of this allowed us to change our cantilevers from whiskered aluminum to boron rod.

Very interesting, but it’s a choice of designer. The unique beryllium cantilever that comes to my mind is the one we can see on Victor X-1 or X-1II MM cartridges. The shape of these cantilever is not like anything else. For some reason JVC Victor never used Boron on their top of the line models from the 70s/80s and i believe it was a choice of the designer of those particular carts. They are excellent MM cartridges. One step backward was X-1IIE with Titanium cantilever according to manual (some people think it was Beryllium). It’s dark color, so i’m not sure.

One of the keys to a cartridge’s sonic personality is the matching of dampers to cantilever - some dampers that work exceedingly well with boron are less good with aluminum or beryllium, some dampers are more oriented to sapphire / diamond cantilevers, yet other dampers are all-rounders that work tolerably well across a range of cantilever shapes and materials (but these may not nail the sound as well as a specifically dialled-in damper(s).

I don’t know of any other manufacturer, except for the Grace, who released all kinds of cantilevers for their MM cartridges. I’ve been collecting them over the years, one day i will compare them on my F-14 and on Level II cartridges. The aluminum was good, but Boron Pipe, Ruby and even Ceramic is what i’d like to compare, they are still sealed. The advantage of the MM cart is the ability to change styli/cantilever combo to find the best sounding combination on the same generator/cartridge.

I wonder what do you think about Ceramic cantilevers?

Thanks

Hi Chakster: Many audio designers are also audiophiles, and whether they subjectively like the outcome of a particular design choice will inevitably affect whether that design choice finds its way into the final product (or not). So yes, these choices very much involve the preferences of the individual designer, and/or the brand. Some of these preferences may be objective, but some may be subjective.

Likewise for mastering engineers / record producers. On the occasions that I visited Keith Johnson, he was using Spectral MC cartridges (which I designed), and I know that Tam Henderson was a Lyra cartridge user, even after we stopped working with Spectral.
Doug Sax was more oriented towards MM cartridges, AFAIR.

Although I’ve designed MM cartridges, for various reasons they never went into production. Kavi Alexander has been pushing us to make an MM / MI cartridge, so I may get around to doing this eventually (grin).

I’m aware of the Victor X-1, and I also know why they chose that particular shape for the cantilever (this is because I had the same exact insight, but wasn’t aware that anyone had made such a thing until I saw the X-1). But studying the X-1 cantilever and how it was made suggests that it couldn’t have been an easy or straightforward task, and probably resulted in a rather high rate or rejected parts and greater wastage (of a toxic material - lol). I would guess that is a key reason why it didn’t survive into later models.
That, and the fact that the clearance between cartridge body and LP will be lessened, which could make the cartridge more difficult to use and consequently less popular among potential customers.

It is true that in the first part of the 1970s JVC focused on MMs, but after JVC launched its first MC cartridge, the MC-1 direct-scan design in 1977, they focused on this family as their flagship range.

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/needie/NDVICTOR/MC-1.html

These JVCs are the spiritual ancestors to the modern Audio Technics ART-1000.

As you point out, most of this family used beryllium cantilevers, although duralumin was also employed.

On the other hand, we must not forget that other big manufacturers such as Technics / Panasonic largely shied away from beryllium in favor of boron, likewise for Denon. So again, different designers, different decisions.

Regarding ceramic, there was a time in the early 1980s when it was one of the flavors of the day, but that trend didn’t last, which suggests that it wasn’t the easiest material to make good sound with.

On a technical level, ceramic tends to be extremely high-Q with very little internal lossiness, and it isn’t particularly light, therefore it wouldn’t be the first material that most cartridge designers would reach for (smile). If you were to use it, you may find that you need an additional method of damping (above and beyond the normal cartridge dampers). Constrained layer damping, or tuned mass damping, or something like that.

kind regards, jonathan

@jcarr 

It is true that in the first part of the 1970s JVC focused on MMs, but after JVC launched its first MC cartridge, the MC-1 direct-scan design in 1977, they focused on this family as their flagship range.

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/needie/NDVICTOR/MC-1.html

These JVCs are the spiritual ancestors to the modern Audio Technics ART-1000.

As you point out, most of this family used beryllium cantilevers, although duralumin was also employed.

Right, and the Victor L-1000 was the best one with printed coil right above the diamond, but most of them have a very short life. I don't know if it's easy to fix those cartridges (maybe you know better), but most of them have a problem with one channel or with both channels even if they are looks mint. The price for a used Victor L-1000 dramatically increased after M.Fremer visited Audio-Technica factory in Japan and they said on video what was their inspiration to make AT ART-1000. I wish i could find working Victor MC L-1000 or someone who can fix a non working samples. 

There's just simply nothing better than boron for cantilever material. Japanese got it right. Boron is only 20% denser than beryllium, but boron is 50%+ stiffer.

Beryllium cantilevers only come in a rod form, whereas boron can be made into a pipe. Pipes are potentially lighter and pipes can be made with a wider diameter increasing stiffness even further.

Propagation of sound in both boron and beryllium is similar. 

Aluminum and aluminum alloy pipes are standard. They propagate sound faster than any other less exotic metals such as steel, copper, titanium, etc. Aluminum has low density and can be made into a wide diameter pipe resulting in very high stiffness. Ortofon 2M Black does just that. 

I would imagine aluminum alloyed rods to sound terrible... But I don't think I've ever heard a cartridge with one.

Carbon fiber cantilevers sound very bad to my ears. So do ruby and sapphire. 

@invictus005

Beryllium cantilevers only come in a rod form, whereas boron can be made into a pipe. Pipes are potentially lighter and pipes can be made with a wider diameter increasing stiffness even further.

No, check the Pioneer PC-1000 MKII MM cartridge, it was top of the line model made by Pioneer for their Exclussive turntables, this cartridge comes with BERYLLIUM PIPE cantilever: http://audio-database.com/PIONEER-EXCLUSIVE/etc/pc-1000ii-e.html I got two samples of this great cartridge on hands, it’s a stellar performer!

Here you will see this cartridge on Pioneer Exclussive P-3 turntable, the price for this turntable was 600 000 Yen in 1981 http://audio-database.com/PIONEER-EXCLUSIVE/player/p3-e.html ... And it was more expensive than Technics SL1000mk3 (SP10mk3 with EPA-100MKII in Obsidian Plinth) available for 500 000 Yen in 1982.  

Boron is fine, but always much more expensive than beryllium when it comes to vintage cartridges.