It’s been done and hasn’t worked for years. It really is too bad that this kind of stuff has to go on. But it does go on and this won’t stop it.
Just to dispel some rumors, this SAE at its heart is the same generator as that in what has come to be a long and continuing line of highly respected phono cartridges.
It may have first seen the light of day in some Coral models like the highly respected MC-8. At some point there was the John Marovskis MIT-1 which is said to be the first cartridge on the market to feature the van den Hul diamond.
The ADCOM and the SAE stick to high output and aluminum cantilevers and if you want to know why, you can find an entire treatise on its conception, design and execution over at Vinyl Engine. Brilliant marketing or engineering fact, the authors believed at the time that they were making the very best magnetic cartridge generator that money could buy and it didn’t go unnoticed.
None other than the very discriminating AJ van den Hul himself allowed for his diamond to be installed on the ADCOM as the XC/vdH, only after declaring that it was the only generator worthy of his diamond (obviously this was before he came out with his own brand of cartridges) and it was the “must have” cartridge for a good while.
Coral then put out the Coral 777 and about the same time, Jim Bongiorno introduced the GAS Sleeping Beauty to the world. These are the very same generators as the ADCOM and SAE with very obvious cosmetic changes. Jim decided to add the fancy beryllium cantilever and Shibata diamonds and it seemed the world could not get enough of the cartridge and the reviewers loved it as well.
At some time Sumiko had basically run its course with the David Fletcher patented ring magnet design, executed by Transfigurstion, and moved to this generator. It started, I guess with the rare LMX series that pretty much look just like the Corals. But in the early 1990s it took a wild turn and at $60 Sumiko introduced the Universal Blue Point P Mount which took the world by storm as much for its sound and performance as its price. The generator has since appeared in all Sumiko MC cartridges since, high and low output, and with a rapid elevation in pricing following trends to price moving coil cartridges higher for no reason other than to capitalize on the cache.
You will find this generator, albeit low output with basically a Denon DL-103 coil frame and windings, today on pricey cartridges including multi-thousand dollar cartridges such as the Sumiko Celebration 40 and the $5,000 Palo Santos.
It is also found as we know in the Hana cartridges, the Benz Micro MC Silver and Gold, and some others.
There is no cartridge that is the end all be all in MC, but this SAE cartridge in my opinion deserves the respect it’s receiving from those who have been lucky enough to grab it for $100 and enjoy it and express appreciation for it without the derisive comments that there are better cartridges out there. In fact, some of the better cartridges out there are the same damned cartridge, if you knew your history and know how to connect dots.
What I find really amusing is that you and your old thread-crapping buddy 4-2-7 used to regularly tag team any appreciative thread about what you two considered to be “low end” cartridges. 4-2-7 had outright passionate contempt for any moving magnet cartridge and unrestrained expressions of loathing for anyone who had a good thing to say about them. In the process, he violated so many forum rules regarding demeanor and it was certainly an improvement in atmosphere for many when he got booted.
What’s ironic to me is that you and he regularly dive bombed threads like this one while he brandished his customized Sumiko BlackBird with a SoundSmith ruby cantilever and optimized contour contact line stylus—which sports the very same generator as these SAE cartridges that you are working so hard to point out as “lower tier” transducers.
Don’t you think that’s kind of funny?
I always thought it was kind of sad that 4-2-7 worked so hard to fall under your shadow in the hopes to be considered in the same league as you when there was no way you’d actually consider him to be at your level, whatever level that is. I was always expecting you to say something like, “Well, you know, Dan, those cartridges and turntables you have are actually rather pedestrian and boring compared to what I have. That you hold them in such high regard reveals you to be somewhat of a rube, and even a simple tube at that!” But you never did because he supported you.
You and some nice stuff, for sure. I don’t know why any of that is relevant in a thread like this though. Why your opinions of where it falls in the continuum of cartridge quality or desirability matters is anyone’s guess and why you need to come in and express those positions to a crowd that you know doesn’t want to hear it is also puzzling since it doesn’t actually promote the topic. Except your motivations are quite transparent.
Trolls like you are everywhere in every forum, from cars to cameras to vacuum cleaners and they always behave just like you do.
The SAE is a fantastic proven design that has been around for decades with few changes. It is affordable as a technology because it is more or less mass produced, but to exacting standards and extremely high quality. There are boutique manufacturers of extremely expensive cartridges that do not perform nearly as well and which show comparatively poor build quality and even atrocious build quality. There are boutique manufacturers who take similarly proven motors and dress them up a little bit with some fancy finish work and materials and charge tens of thousands of dollars.
This is a tradition started, I think, perhaps by Sugano San, who took a very nice Supex, and added a low compliance suspension. That’s it. He took a Supex SD900 Rosewood and made it low compliance. He added his own aluminum belly cover, a ton of Asian flare marketing mystique, called it the Koetsu Rosewood and the megabuck boutique art cartridge was born.
The SAE should be appreciated for being an honest no BS cartridge, that is very well designed and does what it’s set out to do which is to perform to a very high standard and sound fantastic, because that’s what it does.
I found that some $16,000 cartridges I auditioned failed to do that, which is at least as relevant as your points, but again, so what?
and mount your LT after listening to the E for another 20-30 hours. Even though many report them sounding great from the gitgo, more play-time will allow for more of the potential to possibly be revealed. Then go back and listen to some of the same music with the LT that you heard with the E and see what you think. Hey, listening is fun, eh? Play on amigo!