Electronic M
New Member
I'm looking for advice on the least expensive 'good' way to add the CD-4 format to my existing quad system.
A few months back I acquired a couple of albums in this format that appear to have intact sub-carriers. After reading enough to glean that I need a CD-4 decoder to get quad playback as well as a proper pickup cartridge and needle in order to avoid erasing the quad difference sub-carriers on playback, I've decided not to play the discs until I have at least the latter on hand.
Seeing as I'm a college student I don't have much money(don't like to spend it either) so I'm basically limited to a 50$ max budget for a decent cartridge and styli combo.
From what I understand(correct me if I'm wrong) the two key things that make a pickup suitable for CD-4 are a Shibata cut stylus and a cartridge with the ability to reproduce frequencies at least as high as 45kHz.
So far the best place I could think of to look for one for sale was ebay, but with a complete cartridge and needle ALONE running north of 150$(holey cow! :jawdrop: IMHO it should come installed in a NICE TT for that kind of money) I'm rather apprehensive towards buying one.
My next thought was to look at my post 1970 TTs and have my fingers crossed that one of them might be equipped with a suitable cart and styli, but I'm not sure how to go about identifying the ones in my TTs.
Another thought that came to mind is that considering most opinions I've read regard the CD-4 carts and styli as being a major advancement from previous designs and that technology has had much time to advance since then, shouldn't there be a readily available current or recent production CD-4 spec cart/styli combo at a much cheaper market price than what I see on ebay out there?
If anyone has any relevant ideas, advice, or knowledge to share or knows of a significantly cheaper dealer for these things than ebay please chime in.
Also please correct me if I'm wrong in any way...I'm new here and trying my best to get the hang of things without stepping on peoples toes.
A few months back I acquired a couple of albums in this format that appear to have intact sub-carriers. After reading enough to glean that I need a CD-4 decoder to get quad playback as well as a proper pickup cartridge and needle in order to avoid erasing the quad difference sub-carriers on playback, I've decided not to play the discs until I have at least the latter on hand.
Seeing as I'm a college student I don't have much money(don't like to spend it either) so I'm basically limited to a 50$ max budget for a decent cartridge and styli combo.
From what I understand(correct me if I'm wrong) the two key things that make a pickup suitable for CD-4 are a Shibata cut stylus and a cartridge with the ability to reproduce frequencies at least as high as 45kHz.
So far the best place I could think of to look for one for sale was ebay, but with a complete cartridge and needle ALONE running north of 150$(holey cow! :jawdrop: IMHO it should come installed in a NICE TT for that kind of money) I'm rather apprehensive towards buying one.
My next thought was to look at my post 1970 TTs and have my fingers crossed that one of them might be equipped with a suitable cart and styli, but I'm not sure how to go about identifying the ones in my TTs.
Another thought that came to mind is that considering most opinions I've read regard the CD-4 carts and styli as being a major advancement from previous designs and that technology has had much time to advance since then, shouldn't there be a readily available current or recent production CD-4 spec cart/styli combo at a much cheaper market price than what I see on ebay out there?
If anyone has any relevant ideas, advice, or knowledge to share or knows of a significantly cheaper dealer for these things than ebay please chime in.
Also please correct me if I'm wrong in any way...I'm new here and trying my best to get the hang of things without stepping on peoples toes.