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ADC XLM advice

R

rjche0206

New Member
Need professional advice on these vintage ADC XLM carts/stylus.
I acquired and currently using a ADC Super XLM II cart which I adore but now needing a new stylus. Found one on turntableneedles.com for a NOS shibata RZL stylus for a steep $157. Another option would be a NOS ADC XLM II improved (diasa )cartridge from Adelcom.net in stock for $207. Which would be the best and practical choice. Thank you in advance for any advice.
 
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I am also quite fond of the Super XLM MKII which I currently am using on my Kenwood KD500 with Infinity Black Widow arm. I would vote for the NOS RZL stylus as the Super XLM MKII is a great sounding cartridge. I have been a big advocate of Shibata, Parabolic, Line Contact, Micro-Line Contact, etc. type cartridges. The only word of caution would be the potential for suspension issues, but I would guess that turntableneedles.com would stand behind what they sell.
 
You uttered the magic ADC words... there should be some guys (boreas, wualta) show up soon that know everything about these. If not, do some searching in the turntable forum and you should run across some discussions.

Here's a Jico RZL: http://www.jico-stylus.com/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=1388

Beware in that there are two or three different iterations of the basic ADC body with varying impedances. You need a stylus to match the body.
 
Definitely looking to acquire genuine NOS ADC components. Im not too familiar with but I've heard of these Jico stylus other than from reading through forums lately that they are not superior or equal to genuine ADC ( are they?) but again what do I know.
 
The RZL ("Rizzle") is unique. ADC never made anything like it again. As another fan of the Super (but only when used in the high-inductance Integra, Mk II Improved and Mk III bodies), I say get another one while they're still available at all.
 
wualta said:
The RZL ("Rizzle") is unique. ADC never made anything like it again. As another fan of the Super (but only when used in the high-inductance Integra, Mk II Improved and Mk III bodies), I say get another one while they're still available at all.
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>>> Just to clarify .. should I be getting a genuine NOS ADC RZL stylus or JICO RZL?
 
How about the ADC R-XT III stylus?? Supposedly the same as the best XLM. Has a nude mounted 0.2 x 0.7 mil elliptical and tracks at 1.25 grams. Also is usually cheaper than any of the XLM styli.
 
One more vote to the RZL - the ADC one, NOT the JICO one.
The jico is good, but as long as the Originals are available as NOS - those are better. Mainly, the Jico sounds very similar, but suffers from more surface noise.
The MK3 are great too. actually - sounds almost the same as the Super MK2. differences are so minute I'm not sure how to describe them.
 
rjche0206 said:
>>> Just to clarify .. should I be getting a genuine NOS ADC RZL stylus or JICO RZL?
Click to expand...
I'd get the genuine original article.
However, its price has skyrocketed, as they say in the papers; there are other cartridges and styli in that price range, and I have not heard the J-RZL myself. I would expect it to be very good, and competitive, having heard their other attempts. Turntableneedles.com's shipping is free. Adding the ~$15 shipping charge to the Jico price, the difference is still ~$22. That would make this a painful choice for a cheapskate like me.

I also don't know whether the two Shibatas are different in any way. The RZL is a nude mount, but I believe the J-RZL's is a bushed or bonded mount. J-RZL owners, please correct me if I'm wrong. More significant would be if one had a taller vertical contact line than the other. Shibatas are not all the same; there are tall ones and short ones.


Gretsch: The XT-III, like the XLM Mk III, is indeed a great stylus in the ADC realm, and an excellent alternative in this case, but it lacks something the RZL unusually has: an underdamped, possibly undamped, high-treble resonant peak that's more like a spike, just beyond 20kHz. You can do things with this spike. Put the RZL in a low-inductance body like the one it came in, and it tends toward an uncomfortably etched or too-analytical subjective impression. What it really is, I'm convinced, is the steep rise in the uppermost octave (8 kHz to 16kHz, give or take), which was originally an attempt to keep the response going strong all the way out to the 30kHz CD-4 (discrete quad) carrier's center frequency.

However, put the RZL in a body with three times the inductance (an XLM Mk III body, for example), and what you get is a cartridge that sparkles very effectively in most systems. That spike never goes away, but it can be tamed, and though the resulting sound isn't, strictly speaking, faithful to the original, it's a sound that's very convincing. The highest highs are boosted, but they're utterly clean, and the effect can be subjectively refreshing. The effect can be turned up and down by a phono stage that has variable resistive loading.

He's more than a footnote, but a note of thanks to AKer David Laloum of Australia, who showed us the frequency response of the Super way back when.
 
Thank you to all you Adepts for these advices. I guess my Love Affair continues with the Super XLM MKII RZL then!
 
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Hi,

This is a JICO made Shibata -

16735518064_d292037e02_o.jpg


this specific one wasn't straight and was replaced by the vendor, but it's clear to see it's a bonded diamond.

Here's the original MK3, nude 002X003 -

18202615136_4a58a2aba8_o.jpg


It's really lovely - better than the Jico Shibata in any way I can describe, though not by a huge margin. Right now, the XLM MK2 + MK3 stylus is my preferred combination (there is nothing between the MK2 and MK3 bodies) for light tonearms. The original Shibata (of the Super MK2) or the contact line (Of the Astrion) are a tiny bit better in term of overall resolution (I think...) for the price of more surface noise.

In the end, my preferred choice is the HE MK3 - which I think is this one
 
nkorah said:
Right now, the XLM MK2 + MK3 stylus is my preferred combination (there is nothing between the MK2 and MK3 bodies)...
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Not sure I'm following you here, but there is something electrically between the Mk II and Mk III bodies, namely the Integras.

nkorah said:
In the end, my preferred choice is the HE MK3 - which I think is this one
Click to expand...
Did you mean the Hyperelliptical ("HE"), which would be this one?
 
wualta said:
Not sure I'm following you here, but there is something electrically between the Mk II and Mk III bodies, namely the Integras.


Did you mean the Hyperelliptical ("HE"), which would be this one?
Click to expand...

a) I'm not talking about the Integras, nor do I know anything about those. This discussion is about the regular body XMLs, and as far as I know (including measuring the ones I hold) - there is nothing electrically, between the MK2 and MK3. If I understand right, they did something to the late MK2s to make the stylus pivot more robust, but the documentation isn't clear regarding.

The main difference is in the styli, where the MK2 is a 007X003 elliptical "dissa" diamond, which is IMO - disappointing, and the MK3 is 007X002 nude.

b) I was talking about this original, ADC-made, MK3 007X002 stylus, which I can't call any other than hyper-Elliptical (which it is...), and not the Jico-made bonded you linked to. I've tested both, and the Jico-made was good, but ultimately disappointing for the price of some $90. As said, the Jico Shibata, was much better, then the Jico HE, just not as good as the original 007X002.
 
Bumping this thread. Just getting into the world of ADC cartridge and stylus, and trying to get my head around different versions and such.

So my question now:
I got a XLM mkll body right now with a nude elliptical Black Diamond stylus. Sounds really good!
But now I have a lead on a NOS Super XLM MkII stylus.
But is this a working match? I read a little different info about this matter...
Thanks in advance for any input!

Edit: just got the super delivered and couldn't stop myself from popping it on and give it a spin. If it's NoS I guess some breaking in needs before evaluating but it man, it already sounds great! Tracking at 1g.
If there's any mismatching my ears fails to pick it up.
IMG_20210307_171446.jpg
 
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I have an ADC XLM MKII Cartridge/stylus that I am having a really hard time finding a replacement for. This is the first Turntable, Technics SL-D2, that I have ever owned. I dont know shiot about them. I do know that it sounded really good when I got it home the first day. The next day I came down and the arm ran all the way across the album. I looked at the stylus and the needle was gone?? I would like to just replace the stylus.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Rick
 
Rick: I'm assuming you have the XLM Mk II and not the confusingly-named XLM Mk II Improved, and your cartridge body measures 625 ohms at the terminals, give or take 70. If that's the case, my advice is to immediately grab an ADC K8 stylus (currently $9 shipped) from eBay seller rivertone.stylus (search for the phrase "Use for ADC QLM30/III K8E K8"). Conical, tracks well at ~2.0g, though you can take it up to 3g if you need to. This sounds surprisingly good and will give flat response in your Mk II body.

The Mk II models were not long in the marketplace, so now they're hard to find styli for. Fortunately, they're electrically very close to the Mk I models like the K series. A K8 will buy you some time to track down a stylus suited to your Mk II body or, alternatively, hunt down an example of the later 820-ohm body, which will be a little easier to find styli for.
 
Another good option for the XLM mkll is the Swiss nude elliptical aka Black Diamond stylus.
I have it on my XLM and it's a really good sounding combo.
I got mine from MrStylus in Germany but it's available from other vendors like Rivertone. Key is to look for the nude elliptical version made in Switzerland. "use for ADC QLM32 MKIII NUDE ELLIPTICAL"
 
Update on the conondrum regarding if an ADC mkII super stylus matches a non-super mkII body (maybe useful if someone else wonders):

I asked around elsewhere and got a couple of answers that confirm that it does just fine!
So I will try to close the deal on this bad boy.
IMG_20210307_180959.jpg .
 
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