Anyone Here own/listen to Micro Acoustics cartridges?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by VinylSoul, Feb 19, 2006.

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  1. VinylSoul

    VinylSoul Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Lake Erie
    I was checking the MA line of cartridges on the database and was wondering what members here might recall. I also think MA supplied cutting styli to recording industry. It seems as if the carts. were a bit unique in their design, although it seems like they haven't made any in over 20 yrs.
     
  2. luckyman

    luckyman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brick, NJ
    Great stuff! the value for the $ was remarkable!I think the model I had was the 282E
    My Uncle still has his, although I don't know of ant replacement styli. They had a great
    demonstration record. I beleive the company founder was previously with Macintosh.
     
  3. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Hi all,

    I used to swear by MA cartridges. I loved the MA 2002. Superb sonics and tracking. Needed a low mass tonearm to work it's best. The founder of Micro-Acoustics used to work for Sonotone who used to make hearing aids, microphones, crystal phono cartridges that were excellent for the day, and speakers. For more info on Sonotone check out www.roger-russell.com Roger previously worked for McIntosh Laboratory and was the founder of their loudspeaker line. He designed the ML series and several others.
     
  4. Ronflugelguy

    Ronflugelguy Resident Trumpet Geek

    Location:
    Modesto,Ca
    I think forum member Clay uses one. I owned a 2002 yers ago and wa a great cart. at the time.
     
  5. PMC7027

    PMC7027 Forum Hall Of Fame

    I had a MA QDC-1E, later replaced by a 2002e. I used them on my Philips GA-212 turntable. I always liked the MA cartridges.
     
  6. Paul G

    Paul G Senior Member

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    My first "real" turntable/cartridge combination was a Philips AF-777 coupled with a Micro Acoustics 282-e, purchased at Tech HiFi (NYC, 67th Street and Madison Avenue) in the summer of 1979. I later upgraded the cartridge to the 2002-e (I think that was the model number). MA cartridges were promoted as using an "electret condenser" design that improved playback of transients. Both were great-sounding cartridges. A problem I found was that the 2002 styli wore out very quickly. MA went out of business in the mid-1980s I think.

    Paul
     
  7. idlerwheel

    idlerwheel New Member

    Micro-Acoustics Phono Cartridges

    What database are you referring to? I'd like to read it, if I haven't alread. This is my first post on this board.

    I have a small collection of three or four MA cartridges and a couple of unused styli as well as a few used ones. I'm planning on modifying a Weathers tonearm for use with at least one of these.

    I have been writing a book about record playback, and I've had some involvement with the phono cartridge industry -- engineers at Stanton regarded me as an expert on their products (I was one of their dealers for a time). One thing that's fascinated me for a long time has been audiophile-quality non-magnetic phono pickups. Micro-Acoustics was squarely planted in that category.

    For the only information I've found on the Web about MA, read about it on Roger Russell's site. He was an engineer for Sonotone, and a major engineer at McIntosh. The information there is admittedly incomplete and has errors, but it's the best we've got.

    The Micro-Acoustics designers had their phono origins in Sonotone, an innovator in mass-marketed low-cost piezoelectric cartridges. MA made cutting styli; designer Arnold Schwartz was also a researcher at Columbia Records, involved with record cutting as well as stereo LP technology. As you can see from this short description, MA was no ordinary cartridge manufacturer because of their intimate connection with the record cutting process and its basic technology. The original Stanton company had a similar involvement, but I think that MA, although smaller, was even closer to the source and even more able to correlate the record to its playback.

    MA went bankrupt in 1984. The company was totally trashed by Bose in a lawsuit over alleged patent violation. MA had been selling loudspeakers with a distributed tweeter array. Unfortunatly, the court sided with the plainiff's wildly-absurd claim; anyone with rudimentary audio knowledge can see that the two product lines had virtually no similarity.

    I intend to write a section of my book about non-standard phono cartridge principles and their execution. MA's cartridges were probably the most successful and practical of them, and it's a pity that they didn't last.

    If you'd be interested in the book, or have any suggestions or comments, please go ahead and post them. Thanks.

    Richard Steinfeld
     
    HiFi Guy likes this.
  8. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    I used to have a bunch of MA cartridges. I started out with a 2002, went to a 530i, a 630i and an 830i. They were the only cartridge I knew of from that era which had a MR stylus which was very similar to the shape used in their cutting stylii. The 830i was a real winner and when my last stylus was worn I reluctantly switched to the Shure V15xMR series which seemed to be a bit of a downgrade at the time.

    I always wondered why they used the same numbers for carts as BMW did for cars. :D
     
  9. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    I had a MA for several years that I liked very much; can't remember the model, alas. It wasn't very high up on the food chain, but it did sound nice, though not as nice as the Shure V15VMR I switched to in the mid-80's. The MA cart didn't track nearly as well as the Shure, and it wasn't as neutral, IIRC.
     
  10. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
  11. MikeyH

    MikeyH Stamper King

    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    I've heard good things of these models, and have a couple (or more.. about ten in all) but haven't had the time to get them installed to judge their state (many are missing styli, cantilever, or both. I have a need for NOS or even broken styli of the QDC or 282 type..)

    One will be resurrected this year, at least. I also have their apparently really tough tracking test record. The thing I like about the M-A range is that they espouse very low moving tip mass - something the MC makers have to do, and this is also a feature of other really classic cartridges like the old AT high range ones and especially the Grace F8 and F9.
     
  12. Matti Saari

    Matti Saari Senior Finn

    Location:
    Vantaa, Finland
    I owned 2002 some 20 years ago, but replaced it by Dynavector Karat RS23. I remember being pretty happy with it though. Dynavector itself was replaced by Lyra Doria during last year when I bought a new tt.
     
  13. idlerwheel

    idlerwheel New Member

    Miscellaneous thoughts on this MA cartriedge thread

    About the database -- yes indeed; I had just found it a few days ago. It'll be great to see this become populated over time. I was pleased to find the early GE mono induced-magnet models with their data sheets. What's so confusing about those models is that there seem to be so many of them, yet they boiled down to two and a half cartridge bodies sold with a dizzying assortment of _three_ tip sizes! I've recently been playing with three of them (total five needles) in order to revisit the LP sound of the late 40s. Quite revealing! And, when installed to audiophile stereo standards, surprisingly decent 1948 technology: awesome.

    I wonder if the MA "Cutting Stylus Analog" tip was unique, or if it was simply an off-the-shelf mass-produced first-generation parabolic diamond. If this was the case, it would have indeed been a very fine stylus anyway. Note that you do not want a playback tip that's identical to a cutter -- because it'll re-cut the record! The edges must be rounded.

    Ultra-low-mass tip/cantilever assemblies are much easier to achieve in non-magnetic cartridges, and they can really aid great tracking at low VTFs. Paul Weathers, earlier than MA, was a genius at making super-low-mass assemblies, and delivered flawless tracking before stereo at 1 or 2 grams. I'd like to know about the Euphonics system of the early 60s -- as I recall, the cartridge was a transistor with a needle sticking out of it. And in the dimness of my memory, I seem to recall that it didn't sound so hot. And something about the dedicated tonearm being rather mediocre (which may have sunk the cartridge).

    Note that if you'd like to revive your MA cartridge, if you've got a good stylus assembly with a worn tip, you can undoubtedly get it re-tipped by Expert Stylus (Expert Pickups?) in England, with any of their extensive line of standard tips that you'd like. So, it would be really cool to take one of the .2 x .7 ellipticals and upgrade it to a parabolic. In fact, they can probably replace the cantilever. But I doubt that they'd be able to refab the elastomers.

    Has anyone done this?
    Comments?
    (What a great topic to be tossing around!)

    Richard
     
  14. Sarchi

    Sarchi New Member

    Location:
    Ont/Canada
    I had one kickin' around, but it had a bent cantilever and I never got to try it out.
     

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  15. idlerwheel

    idlerwheel New Member

    Actually, I may be wrong about the lawsuit. It may be that MA sued Bose. Can anyone straighten this out? It appears to have been a textbook case.

    Richard
     
  16. Hi , I have 2 MA 2002 E carts . I Bought them new ... After listening to many others , the 2002 e still in my opinion has the best sound stage and instrument reproduction . I use mine in an AR XA turntable with great results. The only other one that is nice to listen , though not as believable is the shure v 15 type 3.
     
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  17. jackb

    jackb New Member

    Location:
    Brevard, Fl, USA
    Hello,

    I worked for Micro Acoustics two different times. I worked in the speaker assembly department. My uncle worked there for years and was in charge of the injection molding machines that made the parts for the Phonograph cartridges.

    I wish I had held on to all my equipment including my MA speakers and cartridges.

    There was a problem with theft at one point and a bunch of rejected cartridges made it to the market. I think mostly to audio stores in LI. They were sold in glass viles and included warranty cards and this is how they eventually got caught. People were sending in defective units in the "original" packaging. It was bad for the company image but I think they honored the warranty even though they were contraband.

    One funny story from the speaker department - we would get in shipments of 10" speakers and I think MA purchased them from two or three different suppliers.
    One of the suppliers had a problem with their welds and the first test was for us to whack them with a screwdriver handle and listen for buzzes. Once they made it through the first cut they got attached to the cabinet and then would be tested again later down the line with a frequency generator. When whacked just right one set of those 10" woofers had the same tone as the cow bell in the opening of Honky Tonk Woman. We had a lot of fun with that!

    Jack
     
  18. jackb

    jackb New Member

    Location:
    Brevard, Fl, USA
    Both of the owners owned BMWs!

    There was an article in one of the trade journals back in the day that mentioned their affinity with BMWs.
     
  19. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    Thanks Jack,

    I always thought there had to be a connection. :D
     
  20. Off the Micro Acoustics topic a bit, but I had a similar experience with some Ortofon made Digitrac 200 NE cartridges I purchased recently from a liquidator on ebay. Of the 6 that I purchased, 4 were defective (needless to say, the styli alone are worth far more than the price paid, and the 2 working cartridges were all I needed anyhow). Of course, it's situations like this that can turn any company's otherwise great product into one with a sour reputation. ....As for the MA cartridges, I wish I had a chance to try them, but like the no longer available Shure V15, they have now become prohibitively expensive if found NOS.
     
  21. deer

    deer New Member

    i worked for micro acoustics in the late seventies so i cant speak about bose lawsuits, but i can speak about my experiences and observations. i was a buyer. often, i was unable to purchase the materials that the production and/or engineering dept needed because ma wasnt paying their bills. the financial guy would try to get me to buy from other, less desirable suppliers, who we didnt owe $$ to.

    there were some very nice people in the engineering and production departments, but the administrative dept was pretty rough

    i heard that the reason they went under was internal. i'll just leave it at that.
     
  22. LoganGuy

    LoganGuy New Member

    Hi all,

    I worked for Micro Acoustics for six years ('75-'81), most of the time as a manager in the cartridge manufacturing area. I always thought they had an excelent line of phono cartridges (having test thousands of them), although they were very time consuming to manufacture due to the intricacy of the design.

    As far as the lawsuite goes. I had never heard of it untill recently, I never paid much attention to what went on in the front office.

    I was also involved in the creation of the MA Stereo Test Record (you wouldn't belive how we recorded it).

    Richard, I'd be happy to answer questions for the book (email me).

    Barry
     
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  23. Rolf Erickson

    Rolf Erickson New Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Please, please tell us what we won't believe about the recording?

    Pretty please? Tell us about the record.. What was strange about it..? Please. Our curiosity is now whetted.


     
  24. JBStephens

    JBStephens I don't "like", "share", "tweet", or CARE. In Memoriam

    Location:
    South Mountain, NC
    Let me guess. Oxford. We (Zenith) had a terrible time with ringing baskets and also with voice coil rubs.
     
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  25. maydave

    maydave New Member

    Hi, I have 4 MA cartridges. MA309, MA2002, MA3002 & MA630. I use them in a Linn Sondek LP12, one with the Ittok arm, one in Mayware Formulae 4. Also one in a modified Technics 1210 deck. They are probably the best cartridges ever made, ref. detail etc.
    They are very delicate & play best @ 1.5-1.6 grams. ( higher than recommended by MA.)
    They beat the Linn Karma. I purchase the job lot back in 1980,s from a diruntled sales rep, along with a mysterious moving coil cartridge that seems to have a glass type cantilever shank as well as the diamond tip. This is amazing & I use it most of the time
     
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