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Need Stylus recommendations for AT20SLa

vaathi

vaathi

baski
Subscriber
I was literally handed a Sony PX-X7 by my regular handyman, who was asked to throw it in the dump. As he knew that I am into turntables, he gave it to me. It came with an AT20SLa Limited edition cartridge, but the stylus ( 20SLa) is broken. I am looking to find a proper cartridge for the same. Thanks in advance for your suggestion and Guidance.
 
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at the other end of the spectrum if budget is tight...

www.audio-technica.com

AT-VM95E

This VM95 Series cartridge with 0.3 x 0.7 mil elliptical stylus fits half-inch mount turntables. The cartridge’s special coil design delivers a powerful output level of 4.0 mV. It also offer ...
www.audio-technica.com www.audio-technica.com
 
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revox-b77 said:
LP Gear has it.
Click to expand...

Not really, it would seem. I.e.,while they lstill list it, you can't put it in your shopping cart - so I'd bet, that they're just as sold out on NOS originals as all of the other established vendors.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
That AT20Sla is a nice cartridge indeed. I finally obtained one after I put my Quad setup away but it was always {and still is| on my ‘Holy Grail’ list of cartridges for decoding Quad and high quality Stereo listening sessions.
It’s worth getting a quality stylus for it. Check out JICO for a replacement.

This is from my old notes about the AT20. Feel free to correct me or add to the information
The AT20 Sla is the same cartridge as the AT15 Sa. The 20's were hand selected by AT for their tighter specs and then rebadged as 20Sla Special Edition.

Here are the differences in specifications when they were first released in the seventies:
Tracking Force: No difference; 1 - 2 grams
Frequency Response: AT20SLa; 5 - 50,000 Hz. AT15Sa; 5 - 45,000 Hz
Output: No difference 2.7mV@5cm/sec.
Channel Separation: AT20SLa; 25dB min.@1kHz; 23dB@10kHz. AT15Sa; 25dB min.@1kHz; 22dB@10kHz.
Channel Balance: AT20SLa; 1dB. AT15Sa; 1.5dB.
From the original sales brochure from Audio Technica. The AT20SLa was $175.00 and the AT15Sa was $100.00 then.

Note: The AT15 Sa was a Shibata stylus, and the AT15 SS added the beryllium cantilever as did the AT20 SS over the AT20 SLa. The biggest gain was in channel separation and speed. The 15 gained 8db of separation and the 20 gained a full 10db of separation. Huge numbers when decoding Quad!
Many say the speed and air in the top end also enhanced their desirability.
 
Unless you buy a JICO replacement, would be pretty tough to find a NOS original.
You may want to consider one of the new VM 700 series from AT or if budget allows jump into one of their MC carts if your phono stage can do MC carts.
 
mr_petit said:
Would you trust the term 'NOS' when displayed a non sealed box with frayed edges and a close up of the stylus with dust on it for the sum of $300 ex shipping from a person who is not a known stylus dealer? Obviously there are no microscope pictures/video's.
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Oh, well, as far as I'm aware, those old AT needle boxes never were sealed - and personally I've received some, in case of which the outer (cardboard) box was in worse condition or even missing completely, and that from established vendors. And the needle itself doesn't look really dusty or used to me. However, I'd concur, that a decent pic of the tip would be good to see.

loudnoises said:
Bluz bros to the rescue. They have genuine nos.
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Are they actually still in business? I vaguely remember having read, that they weren't - but maybe that info wasn't correct.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
lini said:
Are they actually still in business? I vaguely remember having read, that they weren't - but maybe that info wasn't correct.
Click to expand...

I've not ordered from them, tempting as some offerings are. But the selection is updated since my last visit.
 
I’d probably go for the ATN 15XE Pfanstiel on the bay that is an AT product.

The XE is a nice elliptical and it should sound very nice. A c-note less than the Shibata which is only needed if you are going to be playing your collection of Quad records. It also looks new which the ATN15 doesn’t. But it doesn’t looked much used if any. The XE is just cleaner.

IMG_1154.jpeg

Have you reinforced the feet attaching hollow plastic threaded posts on the PS-X7, yet? Good project while you wait for the stylus delivery.
 
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vaathi said:
I do see they have up to 15s but not the 20SLa
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The difference 15s vs 20s was in the cartridge not the stylus I believe. The 20 was hand selected for spec out of the 15 production.

Perhaps one of the folks with better memory can confirm.
 
vaathi said:
I do see they have up to 15ss but not the 20SLa
Click to expand...

To be honest, in my view it would already have been difficult to tell a difference between an ATS20, ATN20 or ATN20SS and an ATS15, ATN15 or ATN15SS back in the day - and by now it'll most likely make more of a difference, how well or not so well the individual exemplars have aged.

Mind you, however, that BBE's compatibility info isn't quite correct in this case. I.e., while BBE claims the ATN13 and ATN14 to be compatible with the AT15/20 family bodies, that actually isn't true, because the connector block of the AT15/20 family bodies is a bit wider than the generator shell, which doesn't apply the bodies of the AT13Ea and AT14Sa (and the other models with the same body and matching needle shape, like for example the AT12d, AT13d, "the other AT12E and AT13E" (the ones with the original needles ATN12E and ATN13E rather than the ATS12 and ATS13), the AT13EaV/EaX et cetera). So the original needles for these models won't really properly fit onto AT15/20 family bodies. And the other way around it actually isn't true either, 'cause original AT15/20 family needles have too high side walls to properly fit onto AT13Ea, AT14Sa (et cetera) bodies. That's why there used to be some special 3rd party replacement needles with a combo shape with side walls, that were both lower and also less thick at the rear end, so that these replacent needles would actually fit onto both body shapes - but due to being way less good than the originals, I wouldn't recommend these replacement needles and rather just mention these, as the existence of these may be resposible for the false compatibility info regarding the original needles.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini


P.S.: For illustration, see for example over there on HifiWiki: https://www.hifi-wiki.de/images/0/04/AT20SLa_05.jpg Here you can easily the wider connector block on the AT15/20 family body and the matching non-uniform inner width of the needle. Whereas on this rotating GIF by Turntableneedles you can easily see the uniform inner width of an original ATN13: https://www.turntableneedles.com/assets/images/ProductImages/202-DEM.gif And to see the difference in side wall height you could compare the side view of that ATN13 with the side view of this rotating GIF of an ATN15SS: https://www.turntableneedles.com/assets/images/ProductImages/203.gif

And while I'm at it, I might as well finally also include the quite closely related Signet TK1E to TK7SU family. See for example the body of a TK5E over there: https://img.canuckaudiomart.com/upl...4aa1b-audiotechnica-signet-tk7e-cartridge.jpg And for a rotating GIF of a TKN3 see there: https://www.turntableneedles.com/assets/images/ProductImages/jan07/signet-3.gif As one can see, in case of these Signet bodies the connector block itself has a tiny width step, so that the connector block gets a tiny bit wider towards the rear end - and that tiny bit is just enough, so that an ATN13 or ATN14 (et cetera) won't properly fit onto a TK1E to TK7SU family body, whereas an AT15/20 family needle will fit.
 
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