Azden carts?

Anyone out there using an Azden cartridge? A Pioneer 115 recently given to me had an extra headshell w/ an Azden 10VE installed. The only information I've been able to find is through the vendor at the following address:

http://www.adelcom.net/AzdenCart1.htm

It's a rather pricey cart, but since the stylus is totally wrecked, I haven't been able to test myself. Any opinions?

If memory serves, Azden was an OEM supplier of ceramic and magnetic carts for many "all in one" stereos back in the 70's and 80's. Pretty low grade stuff.

Woh! Somebody else has an Azden cart? I thought I was the only one. I have one of their Moving Coil cartridges and it is fantastic. Definitely not low grade. Mine is a GM-p5L, which is usable on either a P-mount or standard mount (how I have it). I know..P-mount MC?...but it is, in fact, a low output MC and sounds great. I got it NOS, in original packaging, for the price of a low-low-end AT as the store I frequent had some old carts they'd found and suggested I try it. I have no complaints about it. It's on the TT in my bedroom rig after being displaced by an AT-150mlx in the main rig, but it wasn't as if the 150 was a huge step up, just different. I have no idea where you'd find a stylus but it may sound good if you get it fixed. But who knows, they may have had both great and not so great cartridges. I'm just glad to hear that somebody else has one.

watt said:

Anyone out there using an Azden cartridge? A Pioneer 115 recently given to me had an extra headshell w/ an Azden 10VE installed. The only information I've been able to find is through the vendor at the following address:

http://www.adelcom.net/AzdenCart1.htm

It's a rather pricey cart, but since the stylus is totally wrecked, I haven't been able to test myself. Any opinions?

Click to expand...

While I'm guessing "vital elliptical" means "nude elliptical" suggesting quality, there's no doubt that the price reflects rarity. IMO not worth pursuing. You'd get much more for your money buying something new or at least better known.

http://audiotools.com/oldcart.html

There's a little more info on this page, quoted below. It seems that they had some good ones, and not so good ones as the other poster mentioned.

"Azden
This Japanese company was until recently one of the biggest OEM supplier of cartridges. Unusually the company made low budget Moving Coil pickups such as the GM-1E that featured a user replaceable elliptical stylus. Other recently deleted products from the company include the YM-10 pickups, these are budget MM's with a reasonable audio specification of 10Hz to 22 KHz, there were 3 models available all electronically identical but with differing stylii and cantilevers, the C and E version that had aluminium cantilevers, the C version had a spherical stylus, the E version had a elliptical one and the VE version featured tapered cantilever and a "Vital Elliptical" stylus. Amongst the Azden low budget models were the YM-P50C, a typical example of the genre with a frequency response of 10Hz to 20KHz, a weight of 4,5 grams and featuring a spherical stylus. One US company has some original styli supplies but rather expensive."

Thanks for the good info, everyone. I'll just keep spinning with the AT120.

JohnVF said:

I have one of their Moving Coil cartridges and it is fantastic. Definitely not low grade. Mine is a GM-p5L, which is usable on either a P-mount or standard mount (how I have it).

Click to expand...

I have also 2 of them, just received as gift, probably because the P-mount.

Still have to install one of them, and compare it to my current Sumiko BP II.

Hope soon to complete my DIY tonearm and will hear by myself...