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ADC's Bricks

bkmz said:
...R-5e, but have not reliable information about it compatibility with ADC 10e or 10e mkII...
Click to expand...
My 10E body measures around 600mH and my 550E is around 250mH. Putting the R-5E in the 10E body will roll off the high treble, where tests in the old audio magazines showed the R-5E to have a peak around 14kHz. So the combo might sound rather nice. Give it a try.
 
I am looking forward to it: I have just ordered a NOS original ADC R-90XE from Thakker. I am curious how it will work on my 220X - body. Should be slightly better than the 20XE from EVG which I use now. And which sounds really good. The compliance of the R90XE is slightly higher, should be better for the (Jelco?) tonearm of the CEC BD-3200 with light SME shell I use.
 
Those ^^^ are all bonded elliptical styli. Varying compliance, but in all respects identical. The EVG Japan styli sold by VOM were made by Jico and are virtually identical to originals, except for the suspension. I’ve used their cantilevers to plug into original ADC grips to “recharge” the stylus. ADC suspensions are better than the Jico ones, and present a better sound.

You have to move to original styli for the ADC 25, 26, 27 to get nude ellipticals. Otherwise, they’ll be bonded.
 
Yes, that is basically what I thought when I scutinized my EVG. It looks exactly as what is documented here for the originals in the details. And the slightly higher compliance should be better, if not perfect, for the tonearm of the CEC. Which is not that heavy. That the bodies of the 220x + - series are identical I know.

Peter Pritchard liked - as we know - bonded diamonds. So although I don´t expect the performance of a 2x I think the original bonded will be adequate. When I want nude: I still have an Astrion. But that would work better with my Dual 1229 or even the 502. Which I will modify the same way as the CEC (mechanical damping of chassis and plinth, electrical shielding where appropriate, cleaning and lubricating the mechanics, RG 179 connection cables).

I for the first time operate the 220 X with the EVG for longer instead of rotating my about ten pickups. And suddenly (really!) after hours it opened up. Yesterday in the evening I realised a sort of silken, open and free quality in the music reprodution I otherwise know from the Astrion. Something that is difficult to explain but makes you listen to disks you know for a long time again and again.

I am not fixed on nude diamonds. I prefer a really good bonded to a mediocre nude. I for example have no good experience with the Swiss Nude. The Shure M 75 works, but has a "loudness" - quality I really don´t like, the AT 13 Ea is an absolute failure. The Astrion however, or my NOS Shure M95ED ...
 
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What I just realised: The EVG stylus in the 220XE is extremely sensitive to the VTA. Changing the mat from 2 mm to 3 mm (very slightly nose down to parallel) changed the stereo balance. Formerly a bit to the left, now correct. I did not expect that.
 
I have a NOS NIB Astrion. I play a used Astrion stylus on my (7 of them) gold body carts. They are the same bodies as the Astrion.

I have an extensive collection of ADC cartridges. From the Point Four (with an Uber rare original nude 0.4 mil conical stylus) to the Astrion and TRX-2. Many original styli.

The nude original ADC styli are eye-openers! The ADC styli-cantilevers are already very low mass; with the nude styli, they are even lower mass, and the nude mounts transmit much greater detail than the bonded styli.

While I have, and enjoy the XLM MKI, MKII, MKIII, ZLM, VLM, Integras, and the older cartridges, the 10E MKIV using the nude elliptical R-26 stylus is my favorite. Tracks at 1 gram. The best detail, best imaging, and flat FR. IMO, the most MC-like MM cartridge combination ever made. Even more than the Grace F-9E. The 10E MKIV is the first ADC cart to use the Eddy Current Electro-Mechanical damping of the armature; flatter response than the ADC 25/26/27 that use only the suspension to control the cantilever movement.
 
So I did plug the 990XE - stylus into the 220x - body. And after several hours of listening I can say: I have found the perfect cartridge for my CEC and the system it is connected to. No other cart plays that - as we say in German - "stimmig" (harmonious) in this combination. Not the Shure M95ED, not even the Astrion, which might be too soft in its suspension. Not the Ortofon F15C the CEC came with and which has a NOS N15E - stylus. And not the M75 with Black Diamond. Or my M97xE I bought new then as one of the last that were produced. Voices come really, really good. Fine details, attack. I am happy.

Vtf: 1.7 p.
 
What VTF on the 990XE stylus? I’ve got many original ADC X-series styli. The 550XE is my favorite in the series, cartridge and stylus.
 
The elusive 550XE is the only member of the “X” series to have the eddy current cantilever damper, besides the 10E MKIV, and the later XLM MKI (and all subsequent ADC cartridges). That feature has been mis-characterized as a coil inductance filter.

So the 990XE is a heavier tracking version of the 220XE stylus.
 
Nm cannot be. That is torque. N it should be. And of course I know that 99 percent of the people use g for weight. But I am a German technician ...:cool:

The information about the eddy current damper of the 550 XE is interesting. Where did you find this? Can it be that this is the case at the 550E, a different pickup, and not the XE?
 
Autocorrect. I use Nm often for work.

Nope. 550XE. The 220, 550, 990, were the previous series, 1965-67. The 10E MKI and MKII was the TOTL for that series.

Here is the ADC 10E MKIV (left) and the redesigned poles with the electro-dynamic eddy current damper; the 220X is on the right. In the closeups, you can see how the poles are different.

IMG_0013.jpeg

IMG_0018.jpeg

IMG_0020.jpeg

Below is a view of the ‘66 ADC 10E MKII. This has the same pole configuration as the 220X, and all previous ADC models:
IMG_6905.jpeg


Here is a closeup of the 10E MKIV poles:
IMG_9415.jpeg

And here is the ADC XLM MKIII, using the pole modification first found in the 10E MKIV:

IMG_7853.jpeg

The 550XE (below) is the only other “X” model to use the new pole design, besides the 10E MKIV, and the subsequent XLM MKI:
IMG_9999.jpeg

IMG_5853.jpeg
 
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So I have listened to the 220X - body with the original R90XE stylus for hours now. Some work was necessary. I had to take it from the SME headshell because of the bad connections. Regrettably "normal" wires with 1.2 mm plugs do not work with the SME shell, seems to be more like 1 mm needed. But anyway - I cleaned the contacts of the body with Faderlube and wick and adjusted the pickup with the utmost care. The outcome? I have a daily driver! It is glass clear, has nice bass, reproduces voices wonderfully. On Alexis Corner´s Direct-toDisk - recording "Me" (Jeton) there is a piano. I have never before heard this thing so naturally! My humble but heavily modified CEC BD 3200 with this pickup lets me listen to my old records with newfound joy!

The VTF now is 1.45 p (measured). With that it tracks 300 Hz 68µ without any disturbance, 85 µ with slight distorsion. Which goes away at 1.6 p. However the pickup seems to be more balanced at 1.45, so I choose that compromise.

And yes, the pickup reacts audible to slight misadjustments.
 
The 220X is a nice cartridge! I prefer it’s sound over the Shure M91 and M75, both contemporary offerings. I’m a Shure fan. But I think ADC did some really nice work with the very light/short cantilever and MI generator. You can still find genuine ADC styli in the wild for that cartridge.

As for headshell wires, I use a loupe and needle nose pliers to make adjustments to the clips, to fit various headshell pins and also cartridge pin sizes.
 
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