ADC 990E Cartridge

[Tucker99]

Can anyone give me any insight into its quality?

 

[wualta]

It's a lower-end ADC from about 1967. The basic layout is very similar to the later XLM, though the 990E weighs quite a bit more and tracks more heavily (2.5 to 3g). You can still catch the occasional R-9E stylus on certain auction sites. Its stablemates were the original bright red 220 conical base model, the gray 550/E (note the slash) midrange model and the black 10E Mk II at the top. You can use the lighter-tracking R-5/E or R-12E styli, if you can find them.
Specs:

 

[Tucker99]

That was fast! Thanks mate...very helpful and much appreciated. Exactly what I needed to know.

FYI the cart is on a TT donated to the church fall sale and I needed to be sure that I was not selling on some unrecognised (by me!) gem.

Thanks again.

Cheers

 

[wualta]

You're welcome.
The old ADCs are interesting cartridges and the 990E can be useful for the few who have the better R-5/E and R-12 styli available, but it couldn't/wouldn't be considered a gem by a general audience.

 

[Vasiley]

It is maybe the best cartridge for men who likes enigma and a little darkness in soundstage.
ADC220 model has close sound but a little bit worse.
Both made by Peter Pritchard, BTW.
I am sorry, but the spreadsheet from post #2 is incorrect - it looks like
a specification from Astatic site, not original ADC.
In original specification (ADC990E):
output - 5 mV
tracking force - from 1 to 3 g.

PS I have both (220 and 990) in my collection.

 

[wualta]

The chart in post #2 is from the 1967 Audio magazine annual directory. Not incorrect, merely temporary. ADC changed its specifications over time, as I've shown in other posts. In the real world, the differences are [arguably] not significant.


I have an original ADC R-9E replacement stylus instruction sheet showing a tracking range from 1 to 2 grams. So which is the "real" specification? I don't know.

 

[Doug G.]

Yeah, specs. The original tracking force spec. for the 220 was 2 - 5 grams as stated on my original package from the sixties. The chart from ADC, above has 1.5 - 3 grams. Go figure.

Doug

 

[wualta]

We could say that ADC's specs at the time (regardless of whether or not there were actual production changes) were notional. Subject to change without prior notice.

My very preliminary guess, based on comparisons of the 10/E and 10E Mk II, is that this is the time when ADC changed its suspension blocks from simple rubber grommets with round holes to the square rubber hole interlocked with the stamped permalloy sleeve arrangement they used from then on, boasting in their ads "no governors, wires or adhesives". Might have had something to do with the fluidity of the specs. Maybe.