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

The Shinon Red did have suspension issues in one of the batches we received. That problem always showed up in the first few hours of play. This is why we started thoroughly testing every unit in house before shipping them out. Ensuing batches were perfect and no longer needed to be tested.

The boron cantilevers we used could be easily snapped as well but we considered it a good trade off because they sounded so much better than any other material we experimented with. 

Interestingly we had a sample of a lower output version of The Red that sounded superior but my partner was sure Absolute Sound’s Harry Pearson would prefer the medium output version so that’s the one he took to Sea Cliff to audition. 

One of the best MC of the late 1970's was the  Supex SD-900E/Super. 

Awhile back there were a somewhat steady supply of Scantech or Spectral cartridges appearing on USAM or Audiogon. Those were always interesting, but they seem to have found owners who will not move them on. I was always interested in them. 

Some years ago a friend who was a home-based dealer shut down his business because of health reasons.  I got a deal I couldn't refuse on some of his demo cartridges.  Fortunately all appeared to be in grate condition as he was very fastidious.  I still have those but have not listened to most of them.  Simply too many cartridges and I went through a period of minimal play time.  But some are mentioned by others here so my curiosity is up.

@bonsey56 I appreciate that information.  I don't recall the year but I bought a Shinon Red Boron and the suspension collapsed after a short time period.  Now I know mine may have been one in that group.  The importer was Canadian and they quickly handled a replacement.  That became my favorite cartridge and it held up over the many years since.  Admittedly I replaced it with others over the years but always came back to it.  Finally I became concerned with stylus wear so retired it.  Now I should probably have it examined by a re-tipper and also audition others I have, such as my original Kiseki Blackheart.

@pryso We also had a version that sold in very low quantities called the Shinon Red Boron Improved. I would carefully remove the metal bottom plate and then syringe a drop of ferro fluid on suspension ring. The improvement in fine detail was startling but we didn’t put it into mass production because we were worried about how the ring would hold up long term.