Fidelity Research cartridges

T-Bone: Both the FR1 and FR7 were air-core MCs, so in a v-e-r-y general sense you could regard the FR-7 as being an integrated headshell version of the FR-1. In reality the 7 had a radically different coil former (cube-shaped), likewise for the magnetics (dual magnets, quad polepieces). IMO, the FR7s were by far the most interesting of FR's MC designs, but the 7's basic design concept dictated that they would always be big, heavy monsters, suited for relatively few modern arms. Even if FR had tried to make a non-integrated headshell version of the 7, the weight would have almost certainly remained daunting, and far heavier than any FR-1 variant.

My favorite FR-7s are the f and fz. I am not familiar with the 702, so cannot comment on it.

AFAIK, the FR-1 was one of the first stereo air-core MCs and can be considered groundbreaking as a result.

The PMC-3 is far less popular than the FR-1 or 7, but was influenced by the FR-7's thinking, and is certainly worth searching out. http://www.hifido.jp/KW/G0303/J/80-10/C08-42162-39384-00/

FR also had quite interesting MM designs. I'm not too fond of the electrical characteristics of most MMs (nor how they sound), but the low-inductance FR-5E is a notable exception. FWIW, the later FR-6 doesn't sound nearly as good.

Here is a webpage in Japanese that lists the Japanese-market cartridges that Isamu Ikeda was responsible for. http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/cart.htm

regards, jonathan carr

Thanks Jonathan,
That table is great. Very helpful. But it shows some ridiculously low impedance for the FR-7. I am at a loss at how to even think about dealing with a 2-3ohm impedance cart. Anything special required? My phono stage has the ability to choose 25kOhm, 50kOhm, 100kOhm and capacitance at 100pF, 200pF, and 400pF. I cannot easily amend anything else right now. It's driving a Jadis pre. I am at 100pF and 50kOhm default levels. Is there anything I need to do to optimize that?

Using a PUA-9 arm with the heavy counterweight allows me up to 33g. Just squeeking in - thank heavens it's a stiff armtube. Wish I had a 506/30 or FR-66s handy but I don't.

I will keep an eye out for the PMC3 (do you think it's worth 40k? Guess it sold pretty quick...) and some of the better FR-7 series carts.

Dear T_bone, no worries about the low source impedance of the FR-7 family carts. Some Kondo, Ortofon MC-5000 and many other low output MCs do have similar low impedances. However I strongly recommend using a low impedance matching step-up transformer to offer the FR-7's coil inductance a matching partner - that way you will fully appreciate its sonic virtues and only then its full potential sees the light of day.

I am using FR-7fc, FR-7f (special modified) and FR-702 in my FR-66s/B-60. This combination - together with a suitable step-up - gave peace of mind to me and the tonearm/cartridge-question.

And yes - among the 30+ FR-7-series cartridges passing through my hands in the past 20 years there wasn't one single sample with a giving in suspension. These beast do live forever!! My prime sample has by now its 3rd stylus and about 5000 hours behind in its 25 years since birth.....

The FR-64s is a much better partner for any FR-7 as compared to the 506/30. Second only - by a small margin and only in direct comparism - to the FR-66s.

And indeed - the FR-7 was first named FR-1 MK7 - I do have the original first flyer at hand. FR claimed that it was a direct successor to the FR-1.

Jonathan and others, this is off-topic but while we are in the mood for older Japanese carts...

Have you ever used/considered the micromini-voltage Micro Seiki MC carts like the LC-80W, which puts out something like 0.0mV? Was it any good?

T_Bone, I would easily be willing to pay up to the low 30's for a PMC3. At 40 I'd probably think about it, and buy it after all (grin).

The very low coil inductance of the FR-7 implies that loading can be fairly flexible, so I wouldn't be so concerned with the low impedance. Also, none of the FR-7s are overachievers in detail, and the top end extension is a little curtailed. so the downsides of transformer stepups won't be overly apparent. However, in consideration of the low coil inductance, should you choose a stepup transformer, I would look for a toroidal-core type.

I don't know the inductance data for the signal coils so cannot do any proper loading calculations, but I'd suggest keeping the loading capacitance as low as possible, and this includes the capacitance of the cable. 25kohm or 50kohm coupled with as little capacitance as possible sounds workable, especially if your Jadis preamp includes an RF attenuation network at the input.

I agree that the FR-66S would be somewhat better than the SAEC, but truth be told, I'm not overly enamoured of the "S" family either (and I say this as the long-time owner of a 64S with Elevation Base and Arm Stabilizer). The stainless steel is great to look at, but less great to listen to, and when I run mine I prefer to keep a compression wrap around the tube.

FWIW, I've known Isamu Ikeda for many years, and not once has he suggested that the FR-7 was any kind of successor to the FR-1. Even today he appears to remain proud of what he accomplished with the 7 (also the Ikeda 9), but the FR-1 hardly ever comes up in our discussions.

BTW, here is more eye-candy for the FR-7.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/images/fr-7fc.jpg
Drawing of interior structure

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/FR-7B.htm
Drawing of cantilever with cubic core

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/images/FR-7_cat.pdf
One-page catalog

http://www.nippaweb.net/myroom/kt/

Here you can see just how huge the magnet structure is, and if you understand cartridge design, the uniqueness of the 7's innards will be very apparent. The magnet structure alone would spill over the body sides of any non-integrated headshell MC cartridge (at least that I am aware of), and underscores why FR never made a non-integrated headshell version of the 7.

From my perspective (that of an active cartridge designer), the closest thing to a non-integrated headshell version of the FR-7 was the PMC-3, but even this remained quite a way off.

I have a lot of experience with Micro Seiki turntables and tonearms, less with the MC cartridges. However, I did own the LC-80W, and I recal the output as being around 0.1mV, which at least was less aggravating than the JewelTone ribbon cartridges. I last used my LC-80 during the late 80s (probably amplified by something like a Yamaha HA-2), so I wouldn't know how it would do on a current SOTA phono stage. The cool feature of the LC-80 was that the stylus was user-replaceable, but the funky aspect was that Micro relied on the magnetic attraction of the polepieces (yokes) to the magnet as the clamping mechanism. How the polepieces are secured to the magnet is a critical area for performance and sound, and the situation on the LC-80 was made even more tricky because the polepieces also carried the cantilever, the mounting of which is likewise a critical area for performance and sound. I rather doubt if a performance-oriented cartridge designer would have opted for these design choices, and it is entirely possible that these are why the 3-ohm LC-80W produced so little output voltage (compared to other cartridges of similar impedance). Still, the thinking behind the design was very interesting (and brazen!).

Ah, managed to link to a defunct Yahoo auction. This link is via Google's cache, so probably won't last long.

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:FeVEVjdz-osJ:page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f75052193+%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E7%B2%BE%E6%A9%9F%E3%80%80LC-80W&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=jp

regards, jonathan carr