We could also title this thread "The Lost ADC P-Mount".
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For a few years now we've been seeing NOS ADC styli with the XT prefix. Until recently, you could even get an XT version of the famous ZLM stylus for far less money than a 'real' ZLM stylus.
But where were the XT
bodies? And what were the XTs? In a casual ADC conversation with one of our better-known online retailers, I was told the XTs were ADC's first p-mounts, and was shown a drawing of one taken from a 1980 Pfanstiehl catalog [
middle image above]. This immediately became a mystery, since I'd never even heard of them.
Like most of you, I'd heard of and actually owned the ADC-branded Japanese-made p-mount cartridges, the PSXs and SERs...
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...and they were obviously good cartridges, but, equally obviously, they were not made by ADC and not physically compatible with any previous ADC models. I couldn't, for example, use my QLM 36 Mk III Improved stylus in any of my p-mount tables.
And I so desperately wanted to!
On eBay, faked versions of this alleged p-mount showed up, making me think the XT cartridges were vaporware, or worse, rumorware. I'd begun to believe that ADC had intended to make this line, but, since time was running out, abandoned the idea at the last minute and went with the PSX/SER lines.
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This all changed when a bunch of XT-II cartridges and their legit-looking packaging showed up on eBay. There was an additional shock: the packaging said
Integra XT. We know the ADC Integras as being well-designed integrated headshell-cartridge combos with slightly eccentric electrical specs. There are even Integra pre-mounts. But what was Integrated about a p-mount cartridge? Nothing, as far as I could tell, so why call it Integra?
I still don't know the answer to that question, but I finally know that the Integra XTs are both indisputably real p-mounts (mine weighs 5.95g) and real Integras, at least electrically (ie, wrt inductance and resistance-- 480mH and 760 ohms). Checking the US audio magazines, they emerged from the void, however briefly, in the fall of 1982 and were gone only a year later, replaced by the PSX/SER line.
The XT Integra bodies and styli are close enough electrically and VTFwise to the final-generation XLM/VLM/ZLM/QLM36 (
including the XLM Mk II Improved) for the styli to be interchangeable. They're also close enough to be interchangeable with the better previous-gen (Mk II, not-Improved) styli, not to mention the better regular Integra styli (RXM-II and III) and Series styli (RS-III and IV).
And now, finally, I can use any of those styli in my p-mount tables, as long as they can track safely at 1.25g VTF.
Styli: XT-I is a bushed 0.7 mil conical; XT-II is a nude round-spike 3x7 elliptical on a straight canti; XT-III is a nude 2x7 'tombstone' on a tapered canti, and XT-IV is an "Aliptic" version of the XT-III. Since these are T4P cartridges, VTF is nominally 1.25g.
