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Fidelity Research cartridges

Any FR cartridge experts out there? Raul? Dertonarm? Syntax?
I have had an FR-7 which I bought a while ago. I tried it ever so briefly when I got it on an arm I now recognize as not being able to handle that weight (close, but no cigar). I just now pulled it out for kicks and after getting it adjusted with the big counterweight, I am VERY pleasantly surprised. Actually, I'm feeling kind of bubbly. It does not dig out the utmost in detail, but it just sounds very right.

Are there any other FR carts out there which are real steals if still in good condition? I know the MC-702 and the FR-1Mk2 and Mk3f by name, with good reps being assigned to the Mk3 and the MC-702. Given that the MC-702 and the FR-7 look quite similar, and they were offered at about the same time, what is different? And is the FR-7 just an integrated headshell version of the FR-1Mk3?
t_bone
halcro's avatar
halcro
2,664 posts
 
Congratulations on two great decks and wonderful arm.
The FR-7fz is far rarer than the FR-7f and consequently more expensive.
If the stylus needs replacing on the FR-7f.....have it re-tipped with a nude Line Contact diamond pressure-fitted into the original aluminium cantilever if possible.
I had my FR-7f done that way.
My FR-7fz is NOS original.
I find the extra cost for the 7fz hardly warranted but decide for yourself....

FR-7f

FR-7f

FR-7fz

FR-7fz

FR-7f vs FR-7fz

Good luck 😉
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Just curious what Ikeda fans thinking about those last FR cartridges designed by Ozwa Yasuo (founder of Shelter) in the 80's ?

"Born in Tokyo. He was fascinated from boyhood by the timbre of music instruments and started self-designing audio products to realize high fidelity sound reproduction. He designed many tube amplifiers when he was in junior high school age, and majored in electrical engineering at the university with aiming an amplifier designer, but he found the charm of analog pickup which can practice the whole design of sound reproduction that he imagines. In 1982 he joined Fidelity Research (FR) and started its career as a phono cartridge designer. He participated to design MC phono cartridges of MCX-3, MCX-5 and other products during his work at FR. He then became independent in 1986 to establish Shelter, thereafter he has been designing and developing the MC phono cartridge throughout his life."


edgewear
543 posts
 
There seems to be an interesting MC between his work for FR and starting Shelter. Apparently he released some cartridges under his own name somewhere in the 80's. I own the Ozawa OS-70L, which was part of a three model series with different cantilevers (aluminum, boron and ruby). This is one of those Japanese mystery MC's of which there's hardly any info. From what I've gathered these were built by Supex to Ozawa's specification. Fact or speculation I'm not sure, but it's a really nice sounding cartridge with more than a little resemblance to the Shelter 701, the first Shelter model. Coincidence?

parrotbee
103 posts
 
While we are the topic of an old/vintage carts - what did they use as phono stages when the carts came out? was it pre-amp and step up? if so which pre-amp?
edgewear
543 posts
 
This is somewhat speculative, but my guess is that most of these 1980’s cartridges were designed and ’voiced’ with the use of step up transformers, being more common than MC phono stages (called ’head amps’ in those days). And in Japan they were always more popular than active devices , even to this day.

Most of these vintage MC cartridges will sound great using a modern high quality phono stage, provided you have some flexibility for setting impedance load and gain. But in my experience the low output low impedance types - like most of the FR models - give their best using a dedicated SUT.


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