The P-Mount owners club

[Fab4Vinyl57]

Cheap speakers and low receiver wattage may be effecting the sound - the Grado is maybe not the best match. Should I go back to the AT311e and upgrade that with a Jico? Or replace with the Shure M95 or M97?
Can anyone address this issue? Thank you!

 

[revox-b77]

I would order a Jico N95 or N95HE for the M95. The HE will feel a bit brighter as it has more high end resolution. So if you enjoy AT this may be for you.

 

[Fab4Vinyl57]

I would order a Jico N95 or N95HE for the M95. The HE will feel a bit brighter as it has more high end resolution. So if you enjoy AT this may be for you.

How about this one? Is it an enough of an upgrade from the $22 stylus to hear it?
ATN122E ( Jico)

 

[revox-b77]

If you are looking to upgrade the AT cartridge I would order an original ATN stylus. The ATN 132EP from Stereo Needles is a good bet. Do make sure it will fit. The ATN 122 LP and the 132EP are both group L styli. I am not seeing ATN 122E on the group L list. Someone will confirm shortly I am sure.

I would never use an aftermarket stylus when an original is available... Well generally so.

 

[Fab4Vinyl57]

Any opinions on the clearest high end sound out of all the ones I mentioned? It could be an AT or Grado stylus upgrade( Green, Blue), or a new recommended cartridge ( Shure M97E, AT VM520EB)!?
Anyone?

 

[stanwebber]

i found this thread while researching something else and must confess that i play around with these cartridges pretty extensively as well. below is a list of my current p-mount cartridge inventory. styli marked with an * were sourced new from thevoiceofmusic website. i have to say my favorite of the bunch was the adc psx-30 elliptical before the suspension split open on me. prior, i had the psx-40 nude elliptical which also would have qualified as my favorite (also failed suspension), now there's no real outperformer with the aftermarket styli available and i'm very suspicious of any new original stock holding up.

audio technica early body
rx1500 - orange 4212-det *
ss330e/u - gray 4212-de *

audio technica later body
series i - white conical (red dot)
1001 - blue conical (white dot)
3003 - brown 4213-DE
at92ecd - white atn3472se (original)
mg-44j - no stylus
dr300e - no stylus

audio technica other body
at216ep - no stylus

shure
m92e (black body) - red N92-E (original)
m92e (silver body) - yellow 4776-dex *
mt105p - blue 603-de (normarh)

adc
psx (gold body) - white 116-dex
psx (silver body) - red 116-dem * (have extra red stylus with very off-center cantilever that straightens out while playing--can't hear a difference, but don't trust it)

stanton
l720ee - black n400

pickering
tl1 - white dtl1

technics
p23 - clear orange 718-de *

empire
105lt - black s105 (original)
red ed (china) - red 740-de *

ortofon
tm - black sty7
omp - no stylus

kenwood
v-67 - red 819-d7 *
v-68 (also sanyo/fisher mg-67D) - no stylus

marantz
cts-551 - no stylus

I'm having difficulty sourcing styli for the kenwood v-68 and marantz cts-551. both of these cartridges are the universal type which will accept either moving-magnet or moving-iron. the red mm styli are plentiful, but i'm finding the black/blue mi types difficult to come by.

i've purchased 2 black aftermarket mi styli for the v-68 and both turned out to be duds. one was marked es2879 (unknown) and the other 7757d (empire scientific deer park, ny 11729). both have the tell-tale magnet glued above the cantilever, but neither will track properly...or at all. as soon as the needle hits the record it starts skittering across the surface--any grooves that actually play sound like a distorted, scratchy mess and no, the diamonds are not missing from the cantilever.

i don't think any mi styli are actually available for the cts-551 anymore...unless you're supposed to transfer the magnet from your old stylus to the new. i purchased a pfanstiehl 815-d7 which is blue in color (as opposed to the red mm), but there's no magnet present above the cantilever and it's also absent from all the other aftermarket blue styli that i see for sale online. the 815-d7 will track & play, but it sounds awful with really bad distortion. it sounds far-fetched, but i'm wondering if transferring the magnet from the original stylus i took off will do anything. as i understand it, if the inducing magnet is missing a moving-iron cantilever should produce very low or no sound at all.

has anybody else run across these problems with the aforementioned cartridges?

 

[wualta]

Lots of topics here, and I'll be back later with advice a bit more coherent, but in the meantime:
1) I have a fix for the split/cracked suspensions of your ADC PSX styli, which I've described here on AK. I hope you haven't tossed 'em.
2) The induced-magnet stylus for your Kenwood V-68 is the same one as for the Sanyo MG-67, Pfanstiehl 794-D7M. Still available from turntableneedles.com.
3) Gary at thevoiceofmusic.com has both red and blue 819-D7 styli for the Marantz. This one shows up as a kenwood, sansui [definitely IM, red, SN-P212] and sanyo as well, so might be tricky. Ask Gary to check for the magnet-- send him a good clear photo of your stylus.
Above all, don't give up. Nevah surrendah.

Until I hear different, I'm going to zero in on the PSX cartridges and styli, since they're a favorite of mine as well. Let me know if you still have the styli from your PSX-30 and 40 and whether the suspension cracking was the only problem. Was yours worse than this?

 

[stanwebber]

the rpsx-40 is long gone, but yes i still have the rpsx-30. the suspension is cleanly split at the 6 & 12 o'clock positions. it has maybe 350hrs of wear. it doesn't sound great anymore, but it's still listenable & i kept it for comparison purposes to check against my aftermarket styli. i searched and found a couple of your posts where you experimented with rubber rejuvenators on the suspension. have your efforts still held up?

i think you mixed up the 819-d7 & 815-d7 (i have both actually)...unless you mean the 819-d7 also comes in mm & mi variants which would make that ho-hum forgettable v-67 cartridge slightly interesting again. the marantz cts-551 cartridge takes the 815-d7 stylus and the blue pfanstiehl packaged one definitely doesn't have the magnet. i've only ever seen a magnet on the collapsed stylus that came with it.

 

[wualta]

Yes, the repair has held up nicely. One of the most successful applications of Rawn Re-Grip to the problem of rubber suspension hardening.

I did confuse the Marantz 551 and 151 (I have both myself), but the same advice applies to the 815-D7: Gary has the same two colors, [dark] blue and red, and you could ask him to eyeball them to see if the dark blue stylus has the magnet.

 

[stanwebber]

no luck on finding any aftermarket 815-d7/cts-551 syli with the magnet (gary checked on this for me as well). i've given up at this point although i might buy another marantz cartridge with original stylus if one pops up again.

in the meantime i've picked up another audio technica at122ep body with original atn122ep stylus. the cantilever has been significantly knocked off-center, but is otherwise un-bent. it plays well enough mounted up in a regular headshell adapter (stereo imaging even seems ok) so i would like to get the cantilever adjusted back so it can play on a p-mount tonearm as well. i know there's a screw underneath the blob of paint holding the cantilever, but i don't have any screwdrivers that small presently. in any case, does anybody have the experience to know how much or little to loosen the screw or any other caveats?

i'm also looking for an adc xt cartridge (body only; no stylus). it is the last remaining moving-iron p-mount cartridge i have yet to possess.

 

[wualta]

Just so everyone knows what we're talking about, since they're kinda rare... This is a Marantz CT-551 cartridge (aka Electro-Voice TPM-1C) with matching dark-blue stylus:

I've nicknamed this one the "humpback". Some examples (like one of mine and stanwebber's) have a green dot on the underbelly and slightly different inductance. Perhaps the green dot meant it was supplied with either the IM or MM stylus. Don't know.

The ADC Integra XT p-mount body looks like this:

Don't forget that ADC goofed and swapped the channels on the XT bodies.
See post #432 for info on the IM Sansui SV-P212 and the MM Marantz CT-151.
Good luck!

 

[stanwebber]

i took a picture of my ct-551 cartridge as well:

ebay photos from the auction that are still around:

none of the dozens of aftermarket styli (numerous different packaging) i've looked at have the magnet. regardless, i did purchase a pfanstiehl packaged 815-d7, but it turned out to be a dud--it will track & play, but it sounds awful with really bad distortion.

in regard to the nos styli (pfanstiehl 794 for reference) for the kenwood v-68 cartridge, they were tested on a known working p-mount table so vtf & anti-skate were taken out of the equation. both styli have magnets, but neither will track at all and immediately skitter towards the record label.

 

[wualta]

Thanks for the photo showing the magnet!
[ponders aloud:] I wonder if an ADC cantilever (except the earliest examples held in with adhesive-- later ones are in fact easily removable and replaceable) could be transplanted into the available MM CTS-551, or into the N-68, for that matter, with the addition of a compact neodymium magnet, since both are socalled free pivot designs. Hm.
Anyway, here's a photo of the CT-551 at home in the turntables it came with (or at least can be found in), the TT-151, left, and the linear tracking TT-551, right:

Last but not least, the Sanyo MG-67 (sometimes MG-67D) with its black induced-magnet (moving-iron) stylus, ST-67D, or Pfanstiehl 794-D7M as turntableneedles has it (far left photo) The magnet is in the stylus grip (second photo from the left).This stylus will also fit what I'm guessing is a Kenwood V-68 (far right photo), which shares its body with the Sanyos (third photo from the left). The orange stylus is IM, but I have also seen a lot of blue styli out there for the V-68, so if you want IM, make sure the magnet's there before you buy.

 

[Pio1980]

ADC is a "free pivot" balanced armature type, the cantilever is bonded to a butyl elastomeric bearing at its dynamic center. Transplant would be difficult.

 

[Vinylmasters]

The ADC Integra XT p-mount body, also rare-ish, looks like this:
View attachment 1210095
Don't forget that ADC goofed and swapped the channels on the XT bodies.

Man that drives me nuts..... But it's a great sounding cartridge without a doubt.

 

[stanwebber]

update: i've been able to salvage the blue mm cts-551 styli (pfanstiehl 815-d7) that i thought was a dud new out of the box. i aggressively, like nothing to lose aggressively back & forth, scrubbed it with a magic eraser which removed the severe distortion i was hearing. now that i think about it the pfanstiehl box it came in did seem like it was re-glued with a heavier than normal coat of adhesive (1 of the few styli i didn't buy from gary). stylus might have picked up some debris from previous use--i'm probably just being paranoid. in any case, it sounds fine now for a stylus whose suspension hasn't loosened up yet. still would love to find the mi version.

well i rushed to apply the same regimen to the 794-D7M styli, but came up short. it was immediately apparent that the suspension on 1 stylus was absolutely rock hard (no wonder it skittered across the record) and the other was pretty stiff. i cleaned up the better of the 2 with a magic eraser and it now tracks without skipping, but the sound is compressed and lifeless as expected. i doubt any amount of groove time will salvage it without any external intervention.

 

[PerryT]

i found this thread while researching something else and must confess that i play around with these cartridges pretty extensively as well. below is a list of my current p-mount cartridge inventory. styli marked with an * were sourced new from thevoiceofmusic website. i have to say my favorite of the bunch was the adc psx-30 elliptical before the suspension split open on me. prior, i had the psx-40 nude elliptical which also would have qualified as my favorite (also failed suspension), now there's no real outperformer with the aftermarket styli available and i'm very suspicious of any new original stock holding up.

audio technica early body
rx1500 - orange 4212-det *
ss330e/u - gray 4212-de *

audio technica later body
series i - white conical (red dot)
1001 - blue conical (white dot)
3003 - brown 4213-DE
at92ecd - white atn3472se (original)
mg-44j - no stylus
dr300e - no stylus

audio technica other body
at216ep - no stylus

shure
m92e (black body) - red N92-E (original)
m92e (silver body) - yellow 4776-dex *
mt105p - blue 603-de (normarh)

adc
psx (gold body) - white 116-dex
psx (silver body) - red 116-dem * (have extra red stylus with very off-center cantilever that straightens out while playing--can't hear a difference, but don't trust it)

stanton
l720ee - black n400

pickering
tl1 - white dtl1

technics
p23 - clear orange 718-de *

empire
105lt - black s105 (original)
red ed (china) - red 740-de *

ortofon
tm - black sty7
omp - no stylus

kenwood
v-67 - red 819-d7 *
v-68 (also sanyo/fisher mg-67D) - no stylus

marantz
cts-551 - no stylus

I'm having difficulty sourcing styli for the kenwood v-68 and marantz cts-551. both of these cartridges are the universal type which will accept either moving-magnet or moving-iron. the red mm styli are plentiful, but i'm finding the black/blue mi types difficult to come by.

i've purchased 2 black aftermarket mi styli for the v-68 and both turned out to be duds. one was marked es2879 (unknown) and the other 7757d (empire scientific deer park, ny 11729). both have the tell-tale magnet glued above the cantilever, but neither will track properly...or at all. as soon as the needle hits the record it starts skittering across the surface--any grooves that actually play sound like a distorted, scratchy mess and no, the diamonds are not missing from the cantilever.

i don't think any mi styli are actually available for the cts-551 anymore...unless you're supposed to transfer the magnet from your old stylus to the new. i purchased a pfanstiehl 815-d7 which is blue in color (as opposed to the red mm), but there's no magnet present above the cantilever and it's also absent from all the other aftermarket blue styli that i see for sale online. the 815-d7 will track & play, but it sounds awful with really bad distortion. it sounds far-fetched, but i'm wondering if transferring the magnet from the original stylus i took off will do anything. as i understand it, if the inducing magnet is missing a moving-iron cantilever should produce very low or no sound at all.

has anybody else run across these problems with the aforementioned cartridges?

You seem to know a lot about these p-mounts carts so I'm hoping you can help with my question. I have a Kenwood KD-47F turntable with the V-68 cartridge. I'm looking for a replacement stylus and I've seen three different colors for the N-68. Blue, Red and Black. Turntableneedles lists a 794-D7M (black) moving iron type and a 794-D7 moving magnet. Do you have a recommendation on which type would be better for sound quality? My understanding of the moving iron type was that they had less moving mass, so could perform better, but that was before advances in magnets made them comparable. Maybe the more important question is who manufactured these replacments and who produces better quality needles/cantilever/supsension. I've seen some sellers of these needles with Jico, Pfanstiehl or EVG packaging. I'm worried that it's going to be a crapshoot what I get.

 

[ChicagoTom]

You seem to know a lot about these p-mounts carts so I'm hoping you can help with my question. I have a Kenwood KD-47F turntable with the V-68 cartridge. I'm looking for a replacement stylus and I've seen three different colors for the N-68. Blue, Red and Black. Turntableneedles lists a 794-D7M (black) moving iron type and a 794-D7 moving magnet. Do you have a recommendation on which type would be better for sound quality? My understanding of the moving iron type was that they had less moving mass, so could perform better, but that was before advances in magnets made them comparable. Maybe the more important question is who manufactured these replacments and who produces better quality needles/cantilever/supsension. I've seen some sellers of these needles with Jico, Pfanstiehl or EVG packaging. I'm worried that it's going to be a crapshoot what I get.

My advice is to contact Gary at The Voice of Music, he'll give you great, trustworthy advice and has an incredible stock of aftermarket styli.

 

[steelgtr]

I just found the red box complete p mount package an for got why I bought it, LOL. Would this perhaps fit a BIC 960?

thx

bob

 

[SA-708]

I just found the red box complete p mount package an for got why I bought it, LOL. Would this perhaps fit a BIC 960?

thx

bob

What cartridge is in your red box? A Pickering, perhaps?