Pickering 3 DTL Decent Cartridge?
- Thread starter Decibel_116
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Stanton681EEES
Addicted Member
No it's garbage and you can send it to me for disposal as that is my penitence for all things Pickering and Stanton. No all kidding aside it's a nice cartridge, problem is the original stylus for those are getting hard to find. here is a link to some info from here
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=416959
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=416959
Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
Thanks for the info! If what I read is correct, that is a line contact stylus? No wonder it sounds so good!
I want to say yes, because some sellers (Thakker in Germany, for example) sell original Pickering styli with that same "3 DTL" and say it's a Stereohedron. I'm a teeny bit concerned that it doesn't say "3S DTL" or "DTL-3S", but I haven't found an original DTL-3 stylus that says it's an elliptical, so I'm going to say yes, Stereohedron.
Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
Very cool indeed. I have always liked the sound of Pickering cartridges. I remember a long, long time ago when I was working in a department store, I had the pleasure of remodeling their sound room. I found the sound room in a state of disarray including receiver and speaker selector switches that were broken and out of date merchandise with missing knobs. A real mess. I sent the switches out for repair and removed all the old display equipment. In the midst of installing all the new receivers and turntables, I got a opportunity to try out all the new cartridges. There was a large selection of cartridges from Empire, Shure, Audio Technics and Pickering. I didn't much care for the Empire or Audio Technica although they weren't bad. My favorite one was a Pickering V15 of some kind. I remember it was gold in color with a brush. The Pickering seemed to deliver a very natural sound and sweet sound with impeccable reproduction of high frequencies and the "ssss" sounds. Needless to say, I looked forward to going to work. The centerpiece of the room was a rather large Pioneer rack system complete with a RT-707 and RT-909. Those were the days...
Do you have any idea if the Pickering V-15 is the same as an XV-15 Pickering? I realise that Pickering made this cartridge for quite some years and I've only read about these cartridges but have never had any chance to use or hear one to my knowledge. I bought one today that claims it is still in the plastic shell and the original folding jewel box, and I took a wild chance on buying it on Ebay just based on the things I've read here and on other forums about them. I have two turntables with one being a Dual 1237 early first series without the strobe light and it has a Shure M-91ED on it now and I purchased this used a year ago with no idea if the cartridge is original or newer newer to the unit along with my main TT a Realistic Lab 440 which still has the R1000 EDT Shure/RS original to the unit since 1982. I'm going to try it on the Lab 440 first if it is compatable since I'm getting a faint audio static from the cartridge when I hold my hand very close to it, and I've taken the 4 connecting wires off it and cleaned all the contacts along with the ground wire at the back of the preamp which is plugged into a known good ground and surge protector. The R1000 EDT is not a bad sounding cartridge to my ears but I can't figure out this static for about 3 months now and the dual doesn't share this problem when it's substituted.
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Balifly
Listening
Please post some close up pictures of the cartridge in the headshell. :scratch2:
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
3 DTL uses a Stanton 500 type stylus (A or EE). No Stereohedron for that setup. Is MM. There is a Pickering XSV based T4P option which does offer one as is a XV 15 based MI which does too.
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
The Pickering V 15 is MM (Stanton version is the 500), Pickering XV 15 is MI (Stanton version is the 680/681). Technically while both are good cartridges, the XV 15 is higher end and has superior stylus options.
I haven't recieved it yet and the listing didn't say which model it was. I will disclose all info when I recieve it, but can't ad anything other than what I said in the first post, I didn't pay much for it and the photo had bad detail. I didn't realize when looking that there were so many different models of this XV-15 cart. and felt it was going for nothing close to what the others listed were asking. I hope I haven't stuck my neck out by shooting from the hip, but when I saw the listing, it was almost ended and all I could do was search what the other XV-15s were asking??
seminole54
AK Member
There will more and more of the Pickering/Stanton Moving Iron cartridges showing up on Ebay for attractive prices needing styli, now that most of the reliable sources for the styli have dried up. Seems to be more and more people on AK picking them up cheap or included in TT deals here lately and that is probably part of the reason, as the sellers know what the replacement NOS stylus would cost if found.
