Found old cartridges - Any of these good?

GaryM

GaryM

G.A.S. man
Today I found my box of old phono cartridges. Now, my old gray matter isn't what it used to be and I need some help. Can someone tell me about these and which of these are good, decent, poor or whatever? I will be using one on my Kenwood KD-22R8 TT into my GAS Thoebe preamp. They all will need a new stylus.

Audio Technica AT91E
Pickering XV15
Shure M91ED
JVC 4MD-20X
Grado FC+

Thanks!

Gary
 
Register to hide this ad
Actually they all may be decent.The Shure is a nice vintage cart and the Grado should be decent too. Pickering made a lot of XV15s and I've never figured out how they ranked, but again a decent cart. AT's are nice journeyman carts too.

The JVC is the only wildcard.

Unfortunately, a stylus is the major part of the cost, and you may just want to consider an entire new cart once you price out some styli.

Good luck!!
 
Last edited:
The first two seem more familiar and you're likely to find the AT stylus cheap. have they already got styli so you can at least ascertain if both channels are Ok?
 
They all measure ok with a digital ohm meter. Only the JVC and AT have good styli. The Pickering has a gold body.
 
I believe that Jico makes SAS styli for both the AT and the Shure. As for standard styli, I'd give the nod to the AT, but that's personal preference. Either would give you good sound without costing a mint. If the Pickering is a bog-standard XV15, I wouldn't keep it in the running. If it's a later version (625E, etc.) I would consider it as well. The 20X suffix on the JVC *might* mean it's a quad (Shibata) stylus, but don't quote me on that.
 
The Pickering XV15 is a kissing cousin of the Stanton 68x series. I have a NOS XV15 150 (conical stylus) sitting in front of me right now - looks just like a white Stanton.
 
The AT91E is a p-mount elliptical--okay.

Pickering XV15 just describes the body. There would be an additional designation for the stylus, which really determines the quality.

Shure M91ED was decent, second to the V15 of the time.

The JVC is a rebadged AT-14S, the best of the bunch.

Grado is equivalent to the current Green.
 
I'd be looking at them real close and if they look complete, I'd mount in spare shells and play them. All could be decent to quite nice :)
 
hakaplan said:
The AT91E is a p-mount elliptical--okay.

Pickering XV15 just describes the body. There would be an additional designation for the stylus, which really determines the quality.

Shure M91ED was decent, second to the V15 of the time.

The JVC is a rebadged AT-14S, the best of the bunch.

Grado is equivalent to the current Green.
Click to expand...

I own and enjoy one of those JVC carts. It is indeed a Shibata equipped AT-14S with a JVC label. It's CD-4 capable, of course.
 
I'm surprised nobody picked up on your discription of the Pickering. If it's a Gold body it's most likely a 1200E and it's a keeper. Only problem is finding NOS styluss for it and if you do it will be pricey. When they come up on that auction site it's a feeding frenzy like sharks going in for the kill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom