Fifty year old phono cartridges

The original hemi engines hold the majority of records in their displacement class. Heavy but capable.

 

Wasn't the hemi engine put into some Chrysler pickup?

 

Thats cool, and I'm not surprised. In fact, just this morning I was reading an article on the 1937-39 Chrysler line and all the technological innovations their engineers came up with. pretty amazing.....Those cars had "overdrive"...in 1937!!

 

Chrysler also built the battle tanks for the US Army during WWII while the military jeeps were made by AMC (or American Motor), then a separate company ...

 

...and Velie - made in my hometown, had hydraulic brakes in the 1920's!

 

Wow! I've never heard of the Velie brand. But I know that here were hundreds of small auto companies that ceased operations by the time of the 1929 crash. Hydraulic brakes in the 1920s...thats something!!

I know that "Oakland", which became Pontiac, were really well designed cars as well.

 

Ransom Olds ...

 

Velie was John Deere's Grandson.

 

Thats very cool!! motive equipment stayed in the family!!

 

For a budget mc cart it's hard to beat the venerable dl103. A pretty decent all arounder and still very inexpensive.

I have a monster cable alpha 1 that provides more detail. Not 50 years old, but was well reviewed in 1983. She's due for a retip though.

 

I used the Denon DL 110 , 103 ect, all good sounding carts for 50s and 60s music. My issue with them is that the styli are not replaceable.
I can tell you, I will never buy another cart where the styli are not replaceable.

Another reason to love the GE VR 1000!

 

Understood, but for less than $200 for the 103 I consider them disposable.

 

Thats fair, but for me, it wasnt the cost, it was the hassle of having to remove those fragile cartridge clips (I broke one on my Rega, got estimates to fix it, and ended up having the whole arm rewired with audiophile cable....long story..) AND having to mount the new cart and do all that dialing in again. With the VR 1000, I pull off the shield, put in the stylus, put back the shield and done....10 seconds!!

 

Now you know how I can test hundreds so quickly. LOL.

 

I'm suspicious since there are no photos showing the stylus. Only with the cover on.

 

I noticed that too. I also wonder if people buy the VR 1000's in original packaging and just resell them a few years later. I would rather see them sell for cheaper and be used as they were intended to be.

 

Mine is a green one, and that one is tan. Does that mean anything?

 

It appears the green had the 0.7 mil stylus. The tan had the 0.5 mil stylus. I have one green and one black. Maybe the black was the -3 with elliptical stylus. All the cartridges are identical except for color. Only the styli differed. I will never understand why the elliptical was rated to track at 3-7 grams. They should have mounted the elliptical tips on the stylus assembly that tracked at 1-3 grams. Maybe by the time that they realized the styli assemblies were foobar, they decided not to push the 1-3 grams. The original design was capable of tracking at 1 gram but then you add some household adhesive and slop glue all over the rubber bits and goodbye to light tracking(or tracking at all).

 

You guys ever try to run the VR1000 without the stylus shield on?
To help with clearance? Seem possible to me... also that thing weighs 1.77 grams on my scale.

 

I have tried it. It does help with the clearance but the other problem is that the armature(cantilever) is still too close to the pole pieces. The shield is also a hum shield. YMMV on the hum. You certainly can try it. Some styli fit snuggly, others will fall out.

 

Nothing wrong with experimenting. That is how I learned as much as I did about the styli. Reading the patents helped too.

 

never tried it without the shield for Hum reasons. Also, I would not want the stylus falling out of the cart onto a nice LP when I raise the tonearm!!

 

Hey there, looking to chat with you, I was on AK and would like your retipping services. Can you PM me.

 

Looking for advice: I have a cheap but decent ‘80s Marantz turntable (TT1080). I want to switch from the 50-year-old Pickering V-15 I’ve been using.

I was considering a Shure M97xe, but got the idea to get a new stylus for a Grado MF3+ I bought back in the mid-80s. Consensus seems to be to use a Blue stylus.

Do cartridges generally sound okay when being fired up after a 30-year slumber? Or should I just get the Shure to be, uh, sure? And are headshells with the 4 pins on the back universal? (I’ve never had a second one.)

 

First depending on the tone arm, whether it is the universal tubular type with the screw collar would determine if a universal headshell would work. Many quality turntables dating well back into the 1960's or 70's will accept a universal headshell. They realized that people played different kinds of records, so they made it easy to just swap headshells with cartridges pre-mounted in them to get the best out of a record.
Magnetic cartridges don't age, if stored well in a dry cool environment. I have magnetic cartridges that date back to the 1950's which still play well.
The Pickering V-15 was always a great cartridge as was the Shure V-15. The 15 denotes the degree that the stylus was cut. The Shure M97xe is a great cartridge and is considered the replacement for their V-15. You might consider getting replacement stylii for the cartridges you've already got. Don't go for the cheaper replacement stylii. OEM is best as the cartridge was designed to re-produce a certain sound.