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Help identify this mystery cartridge please

alanl

alanl

Active Member
head-shell (600 x 534).jpg cartridge 2 (600 x 453).jpg head-shell (600 x 534).jpg cartridge 2 (600 x 453).jpg stylus_front.jpg stylus_back.jpg

Have just acquired a SILCRON turntable from a very reliable source- the original owner was the leader of the Sydney Symphony and a mate of Issac Stern's for decades and all the reviews I have read about this unit are positive. I play only classical music - symphonies. chamber music. vocal and opera. The Silcron is installed in my 15' X 10' office and it is coupled with an NAD 3140 amplifier and a pair of AR25 speakers

The head shell is a Sansui fitted with a moving magnet cartridge but without any identifying numbers, Goldring have identified a replacement stylus but cannot identify the cartridge itself so maybe one of you experts can help - see pictures.

It would good to have a review of the cartridge and your comments on its suitability for the kind of music I play. even though I have already ordered a Goldring D165SR stylus also a new drive belt. If the cartridge is considered to be "pretty ordinary" I can always change it later.

As a matter of passing interest, the main gear in the house is a Thorens TD160 Mk 1 with a Realistic pre-amp/mixer, a "special edition" Marantz amp driving a pair of vintage "MIcro" speakers.The house is stone with a cathedral roof and the acoustics are pretty good for my old ears. Both in the house and the office, the power supplies for the turntables are pure sign-wave inverters hooked up to 12V deep cycle batteries. This hes proved to be an inexpensive and effective way to eliminate the voltage fluctuation because I live in the bush and use a generator for mains power that was originally causing unacceptable pitch variations.
 

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Yes. comparing the website image with the actual unit, they certainly do seem to be identical. A Goldring stylus is on order for it - Goldring here is OZ were extremely helpful once I sent them pictures of the current stylus.

Any idea how well regarded this cartridge was?
 
Grbluen: I don't think it's the Pioneer, 'cause as far as I'm aware the body of the PL-C6 looks just like an AT-6 body - whereas the depicted one seems to be a tad different, with a somewhat less fat rear part with protroding "ear" on each side for the mounting screws instead of a wider rear part without ears.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
It's a variant of the Sonotone V100 but I can't remember which of several iterations of that cartridge that stylus goes to. I'll try to find out. I seem to recall that nobody ever offered anything other than a heavyish tracking conical for it.

John
 
Sansui AT6D. Victor MD1004. Another cartridge everybody sold under their own name.
 
It appears to have been offered as a number of different Piezo models so it's likely that they were the manifacturer.

John
 
John: The Sonotone is again somewhat different (not quite as fat rear plus not quite as fat front (compared to the AT-6), hence two "ears" per mounting hole, plus tall needle).

Walt: Irrc, the MD1004 also looks just like an AT-6.

I also had a couple of Goldring, Nagaoka and Neat models in mind, that looks pretty similar, but unfortunately not exactly the same...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
"What would have been impressive is that you got Isaac Stern's Guarnerius." is a fascinating question!

You will be interested to know that the Silcron in question was owned by Ernest Llewellan, who was not only the leader of the Sydney Symphony but also the founder of the Canberra Music School and a fine soloist. He an Stern played music together on numerous occasions in Australia and in the USA. During one remarkable performance of the Bach double concerto, Stern's A string broke and without a pause, Llewellan simply continued to play BOTH parts until Stern "borrowed" another violin from one of the orchestra members. I have the recording.

Stern also come to Australia specifically and at his own expense to play at the Llewellan memorial concert.

I was given the Silcron by Richard, Ernest's son. Talk about a lineage! His grandfather was A E Smith, one of the world's great violin makers. On one occasion, Oistrakh was in Australia, when his Strad was damaged. In despair, he contacted his own specialist in Europe who calmly told him to take it to A E Smith who subsequently repaired it. Oistrakh claimed he could not tell the difference!

Back to the question of the cartridge, I'k sure you are right in identifying it as a "generic" unit sold under numerous brand names. The stylus has been damaged and a replacement is on its way, along with a new drive belt. so I cannot presently tell how the deck performs. It will probably replace the Dual 505 with an Ortofon OM5E I currently use in the office. I know we are comparing quite different scenarios due to different amps and speakers and very different acoustics but the sound from the Dual is nowhere near as good as my Thorens TD60 Mk
 
I was given both a Thorens xyx and a Dual 1219 by a customer to fix. Both had a Shure V15 III. When they were both up and running, I did an A/B comparison. The Dual sounded better. So when comparing a Thorens to a Dual, the model types need to be taken into account.

And I like your above story.
 
Which Silcron table is it? I gather there were a few rather different models. A pic would be lovely!
 
W
boreas said:
Walt and Manfred got it. It is, among others a Victor MD1004 or, if you prefer, an AT-6.
A long list of other versions can be found here.

https://www.turntableneedles.com/JVC-DT-16-Type-Stylus--our-Needle-621-D7_p_1231.html

And there is an elliptical version here.

https://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle-621-DE_p_1232.html

or here

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/cata...ameNeedles&MfgName=Audio+Technica&Categories=
Click to expand...
When I spoke with them, Goldring did not identify an elliptical stylus option.

I surely do miss my former Ortofon VMS20E with its SME Mk2 arm mounted on a Kenwood "concrete" base. One of my more stupid moves was selling that due to pitch variations, that I now believe were due to the voltage fluctuation from the (then new) generator. As mentioned earlier, I had the same problem with the Thorens and the Dual but overcame that with the inverter off the deep cycle battery.

I'll post a picture of the Silcron when I get it back together after the new belt arrives. Information I have unearthed is that most Silcron units were near identical, except for different arms and cartridges
 
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