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Sony Xl 55 pro any onwers& opinions out there? one opinion here!

gourmet

gourmet

Integrated Player
Sony Xl 55 pro Cart any owners& opinions out there? one opinion here!

....after hunting for serveral years i found a Sony XL 55 pro, finally.
Ok, it came with a Sharp Optonica RP 7100 TT around it, but this Optonica unit went to ebay, was sold quickly and will leave soon in direction east.

Fortunately the Sony cart & the needle have hardly any sign of use.
But what the heck, why such a superior system for such a, to be kind, mid class gimmick-tt?
The XL 55pro came with the studio drive PS-X9 only, otherwise only at special demand....
The former owner was not willing to talk about it - i do not question anymore i`m the new owner :smoke:

Ok, away with the Denon 103R, the SPU and the Ortofon .
The Dennesen alignement tool- wow, it fits exactely like the Denon , only the weight have to be adjusted.

And .................

THIS WAS AND IS is a ground shacking experience for me .:ntwrthy:

The Denon 103R ( even perfectly aligned, played in, not more than 120hours use on a real fitting arm ) is a shabby cartridge, i know now.
Theres not one area the Sony isnt better.
Far better in any detail, faster and more right in time, more silent, a nicer and warmer overall "tone", a better, more accurate and stunning deep bass
...
Anyhow what it is, Stoner rock, Burials Two-Step Elektro, cool Sketches of Spain jazz, piano with Arturo B.Michelangeli , Bruckner under Giulini The Sony is a Holy Grail

Even the Ortofon SPU and the Ortofon Rohmann cant compete with this unique Sony cart- i listened to both of them carefully and listen to the Sony for some weeks already.



Unfortunately its nearly impossible to find more about the 55pro.
Any other XL 55 / Xl 55 pro / XL 55 II users out there? - i would love to hear more about it.

Axels thevintageknob-site have the best informations, netwide :
http://www.thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyesprit/XL55/XL55.html

:music::music::music:gourmet :music::music::music:
 
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Closest I've been is the bottom of the line, the XL33L, the second L indicating the standard 1/2" mount version.

It was a very nice cartridge I'd still be using were it not for a dropped channel.
 
Hello Knut,

I tested my recently acquired XL-55pro last weekend together with the also brand new PS-X9 and I can only say, that it was far far beyond every expectation and believe me my expectations were already quite high !

At the beginning I was actually not believing, what was going on (I thought I was dreaming) and then I slowly realized, that the music came from the record player.

I'm really puzzling how the other big Sony, the still defective XL-55proII will sound until I got it refurbished. I currently really can't imagine, how the sound could be even bettered over the MKI , but the improved (and also more expensive) MKII version has to be a little better, otherwise Sony/ Sound Tec did something wrong with it.

There is only very few information about the XL-55proII. So far I only figured out, that it features a micro ridge tip (instead of an elliptical one) and a much lower output impedance (measured around 4 Ohms instead 40 Ohms), so it allows a better S/N ratio (about 10dB better), if you use the very best head amps or transformers.

I so far own the following Sony carts:

VC-20, XL-35, XL-45II, XL-33S, XL-44, XL-55pro and XL-55proII

The XL-45II and VC-20 I like a lot as well, the XL-44 is new and still needs some breaking in, but it already comes close to the DL-304.
 
I think it's getting about time for me to head over to that place of yours Mirko... ;) (and nab that XL55Pro when you're not looking :D)
 
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