Amazing stylus - Pfanstiehl*

I got an AT70 cartridge off a junk table and bought a generic stylus for and was not impressed. A stylus I had looked at dropped in price so I bought it. It is an old phanstiehl, made in USA not Swiss. What's amazing is the soundstage this stylus puts out. It doesn't sound like music is coming from the speakers! I put the other stylus back on just to be sure my 40 yo preamp wasn't getting weird. It's a conical and lacks the detail of my better carts and stylus but man!

 

When the music stores had the Pfanstiehl display with all the drawers for about any turntable that might come in, the styluses were, as often as not, ones that were made by the original manufacturer, the stock replacement, and simply distributed through the dealer arrangement. This was oft determinable by the part number - the aftermarket would be a four-digit number starting with 4, while the OEM product would be the three-digit number without "4".

As cartridges and styluses stopped being made, more and more of these are the aftermarket hit-or-miss replacements made by Pfanstiehl themselves out of necessity.

Conical can sound good as long as you don't have challenging records with high frequency high level siblance, especially in the inner grooves. They do add a tracing distortion, 1% or more depending on the groove modulation.

 

Details, man, details. What was the "generic" stylus you got that you did not like?

You can fit the AT71 type elliptical to it, .4 x .7, which could bring out more detail with the same overall sound. The current Swiss made Pfanstiehl 4206-DET sounds fine on it. A new original AT71 elliptical is available from one seller with his own website (VoM).

Here's a quick 22 sec from this little tune (original 1966 US pressing) with the AT70/71 cart and that cheap 4206-DET Swiss Pfanstiehl - direct 96/24, no processing
Wikisend: free file sharing service

 

Some were original styli. There were options. You paid more for the 3 letter styli (genuine), and less money for the 4 digit styli (The Generic Stylus).

 

Care to divulge the source of this amazing stylus? Was it a one time lucky find, or did you buy from a seller with more in inventory? Genuine Audio Technica replacement conicals, as well as aftermarket ellipticals, can be had from The Voice of Music, here: Product Detail

 

www.vintadelectronics.com great source for nos stylus. He had 6 of these, I bought 2. Last year I bought 2 at3650 stylus which are .4x.7 that are genuine AT. Look for *697-d7 made in USA. Phanstiehl stylus with a * usually means original mfg but these were made in USA. These were $14 + $4 shipping and dropped to 10. Ships from Hattiesburg MS

 

Search atn-70 on fleabay, that's how I found it. I have like 10 carts with many stylus for each. None are 3D like this. Do to my room my speaks aren't set up for good imaging which adds to my amazement. It's like surround with the rear speakers about 3 feet out from the front corners. My speakers are 1/3 out from the corners, on the wall. Door on the right, usually closed.

 

Ah, ok thanks. I bought a genuine Audio Technica ATN3601E stylus from him off eBay for $12 + $4 shipping last December. Nice, genuine NOS AT stylus at a very fair price.

 

www.vintagelectronics.com Ed Crockett has many OEM's.

 

I hooked up an old Sherwood receiver that is stereo but has a surround button. The effect is the same. I know it does something with frequency response to trick your ears but how does a stylus do it? The build qualify of the stylus is excellent. It has the screw, rather large one. I've read you can adjust the compliance. I have another on the way, curious if it will be the same. Bass is lacking though. The other stylus has plenty bass so wiring is right, triple checked it.

 

I got the 2nd one today. It sounds the same as the 1st.