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Notice That There Are Not Many Survivors of the MC from the early 19080's or so?

Every once in awhile I will see an odd Audioquest 404 for sale. But otherwise not too many cartridges from this generation. I have always wondered about whatever happened to the Sumiko SHO cartridges. Were they the predecessor to the Blue Point or the Blackbird? Always wondered how they sounded, never got to hear one. 

I wonder if it is the use of the hollow rod cantilevers that caused them to become lost cartridges. I don't think you could retip them, but the best you could do is trade them in for a discount. 

The other cartridge I see from time to time are the Shinon, and every once in a great while I will see one come up for sale. Oh an odd Ortofon or two, and that is about all I remember for this era of moving coils ever coming available. 

neonknight
bdgregory
1,744 posts
 

I have an Adcom cartridge that came on a table I bought some time ago. I believe it’s a MC but there are no identifying marks on it.  I play it through my Musical Fidelity Phone pre set to MC and it sounds wonderful. it looks like the one in the link below

 

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/gallery/image/18627/source

rich121's avatar
rich121
202 posts
 

Love the Fidelity Research FR1-MK3F cartridge, which, I have (4), of which, (3) are NOS and (1) has been re-tipped by SoundSmith and still have yet to mount it.
Also really like my Fidelity Research MC201 cartridge, also re-tipped by SoundSmith and not yet mounted.

 

larryi
4,577 posts
 

Probably the biggest reason there are so few early MC cartridges is that relatively few were made compared to MM cartridges back then.  Even now, I am sure many more MM cartridges are made than MC ones.  Also, the high cost of refurbishing the cartridges made it less likely that a worn cartridge was retained.  They were either discarded or traded in to the manufacturer.  

mahler123
3,996 posts
 

They had mc cartridges in 1908?

lmnop
79 posts
 

How about a Signet MK440ML. Some ad copy from 1986.

“Signet is the audiophile division of one of the world`s largest phono cartridge manufacturers. It was decided in these waning days of the phonograph era to go for broke and design the ultimate cartridge. Every innovation culled from a decade of research appears in this cartridge. The MK-440ml represents one of Signet`s rare forays into a moving coil design.”

“Many moving coil cartridges track more poorly than their moving magnet brethren. Although the MK-440ml might not match the best moving magnet designs, it holds the groove faithfully through virtually any disc with which you might challenge it. Mistracking distortion is virtually nonexistent.”

“Buying a phonograph cartridge costing as much as two or three CD players may seem foolhardy. Yet even at $600, plus the cost of step-up transformers or pre-preamplifier, the MK-440ml rewards the faithful. The amazing thing about black vinyl LPs is that even in this age of laser scanned CDs, more sonic glory can be recaptured from the grooves than we dreamed. If you want to retrieve every nuance hiding in the groove, this super cartridge will make you leap tall speakers in a single bound.”

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