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ADC P-Mount, Model PSX-10

boreas

boreas

"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
I got the above mounted to a Technics SL-B200. The stylus was shot so I checked into replacements. There is no model number on the cartridge, just the stylus which says "ADC SER-1".

Well ADC made a "Series 1" cartridge but this ain't it. JICO came through for me with 4 styli that will fit. Interestingly, the least expensive ($27.00) is for the top of the range PSX-40, originally a nude elliptical with tapered titanium cantilever. Pretty slick, especially if the JICO replacement is the same.

Anyway, I know that a lot of people think very highly of ADC cartridges but I've never had one so I thought I'd ask you guys for your thoughts about the PSX-10. Is it worth fooling with? I know that $27.00 is chicken feed when it comes to good styli but I have other cartridges, Shures, Grados, Stantons, Empires and Signets, that could use styli as well. I'm just trying to put this ADC in the right place in line.

Thanks,
John
 

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That's quite an interesting find John, wish I could help but know absolutely nothing about it, maybe the VE cartridge database might be helpful?

Just curious, can you determine if it's an induced magnet design?

Dave
 
Its an induced magnet design. It was sold under the PSX model numbers as well as the "Digital Series" with the Roman numerals. I have SER-IV that currently has a RPSX-40 stylus, and a SER-III that has a RPSX-30 stylus. LPGear has original ADC stylii for these, which is what I have been using. I've had no experience with the JICOs.

I've got around 40 p-mount cartridges in my collection that I swap around on my Technics SL-M3, but this ADC with the 40 stylus is one I keep returning to. Not sure if I can explain why, other than it just sounds right.

See http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=370003 for a recent thread about this cartridge, and http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264615 for an older thread.
 
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ChairSpud said:
That's quite an interesting find John, wish I could help but know absolutely nothing about it, maybe the VE cartridge database might be helpful?

Just curious, can you determine if it's an induced magnet design?

Dave
Click to expand...

The Cartridge Database does have an entry for that Series, PSX-10, 20, 30 & 40. They indicate that it's a moving magnet but that could be mistaken.

John
 
SA-708 said:
Its an induced magnet design. It was sold under the PSX model numbers as well as the "Digital Series" with the Roman numerals. I have SER-IV that currently has a RPSX-40 stylus, and a SER-III that has a RPSX-30 stylus. LPGear has original ADC stylii for these, which is what I have been using. I've had no experience with the JICOs.

I've got around 40 p-mount cartridges in my collection that I swap around on my Technics SL-M3, but this ADC with the 40 stylus is one I keep returning to. Not sure if I can explain why, other than it just sounds right.

See http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=370003 for a recent thread about this cartridge, and http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264615 for an older thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and the link to that old thread.

I'm wondering whether these four cartridges differ only with respect to the stylus. I'm guessing that's the case so by getting a stylus for the SER IV I end up with that cartridge.

JICO's pricing is odd to say the least. They charge $56.00 for the SER I conical stylus, $45.00 for the SER II elliptical, $56.00 again for the SER III nude elliptical and then, as I said, $27.00 for the SER IV nude elliptical. I wish they gave more info on their web site as to the design specs on their styli.

John
 
I know it's an old thread, but it still seems the most appropriate place to put it.
For the record, the JICO RPSX-40 is a strictly ordinary bonded .3x.7 elliptical on their standard-mass straight cantilever. QC is weak too - SRA is beyond my TT's adjustment range. My original 30 absolutely smokes it. I'm calling the JICO a 20 and using it on beaters. I still wonder why the others are higher. The tech rep equivocated. I didn't feel like paying to find out - instead, I got a genuine 40 elsewhere.

Dave
 
GrampaDave said:
I know it's an old thread, but it still seems the most appropriate place to put it.
For the record, the JICO RPSX-40 is a strictly ordinary bonded .3x.7 elliptical on their standard-mass straight cantilever. QC is weak too - SRA is beyond my TT's adjustment range. My original 30 absolutely smokes it. I'm calling the JICO a 20 and using it on beaters. I still wonder why the others are higher. The tech rep equivocated. I didn't feel like paying to find out - instead, I got a genuine 40 elsewhere.

Dave
Click to expand...

It turns out that all JICO ellipticals, regardless of what the originals might have been, are .3 x .7 mil. I may not have known this 2 years ago when I posted this thread.

Also, the SRA issue smacked me between the eyes on their N95ED. It was hideous!

John
 
As long as Gary has gone to the trouble of finding more NOS ADC styli for us and currently has the genuine 30 and 40 styli in stock, there's no need, at least for now, to mess with aftermarkets. Besides, everyone should own a 40 stylus with its unique (to me) sidesaddle stylus and titanium cantilever.
 
wualta said:
As long as Gary has gone to the trouble of finding more NOS ADC styli for us and currently has the genuine 30 and 40 styli in stock, there's no need, at least for now, to mess with aftermarkets. Besides, everyone should own a 40 stylus with its unique (to me) sidesaddle stylus and titanium cantilever.
Click to expand...

Where does he find this stuff??? He is really a treasure for folks like us.

John
 
He's a wonder, Gary is. He's partially restocked the 104s, the 110s, the 111s, the 115s and of course the 116s, which are the PSX/SER styli mentioned above.
.
 
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A couple of 114's too.

I noticed that there are four -DEM's, all $30. (Two still in stock). Does anybody know the difference between them?
 
110-DEM (RK5E), 111 (RQLM36), 113 (RS-IV), and 115 (R-XT II). All $30 (110 and 111 still available), and mechanically interchangeable AFAIK. So what's to choose between them?
 
The RK#Es are decent heavyish-tracking (around 2g) ellipticals. If you need a nice-looking blue stylus (also comes in a dark gray that's slightly greenish) to match your eyes, here they are. Because their compliance is lower, they match medium-to-heavy tonearms. The Ks are all basically from 1975, but even the base K8 (aka K8C) is superb. Better than the QLM 30 and 32, in my opinion. Certainly lighter tracking than the QLM 30 and 32 Mk III, which by the way will both work properly in a K body.

The QLM 36 Mk III and Mk III Improveds were basically VLM Mk IIIs / Mk III Improveds. The QLM 34 Mk III was not far behind, though it lacked some features (carbon-fiber-reinforced grip, Omni-Pivot, flippy guard).

The R-XT (Pfanstiehl 115) and RS series came late in the game. The lower numbers are basically decontented Mk III Improved XLMs. The RS styli designations correlate to the XT styli, but are offset by 1. Example: the RS-IV is roughly equivalent to the XT-III, and so on. The XTs are Integras, meant for the rare Integra XT p-mount body but can be used on any standard-mount XLM-style body. The XT-IV sports an Aliptic (think ZLM) diamond.

And yes, they're all mechanically interchangeable, but, like the Mk III QLM 30 and 32, the K styli use (ie, are "voiced" for) the lower-inductance Mk I or Mk II bodies.
 
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The nice thing about Gary's site is that he's absolutely determined to get his site's ADC listings as accurate as he can get them. He's one of the few sellers who can tell the difference between the old red 220 model and the newer 220X Brick, for example.
 
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I need to correct an oversight/omission in my earlier post (which has been edited). It was only the QLM 34 Mk III (never Improved) and QLM 36 Mk III (Improved or not) that were elevated into the rarefied high-inductance atmosphere of the XLM Mk III and ZLM (Improved or not). The 36 Improved's stylus got the machined Omni-Pivot armature and slimmed-down moving system, plus the fiber reinforced stylus grip and the flippy guard-- the Improvedments were all in the stylus assembly.
QLM 36 Mk III Improved-a.jpg
The QLM 34 Mk III was given the high inductance body, but the stylus lacks the Improved features-- Omni-Pivot and all that. It also doesn't track as lightly. There was no QLM 34 Mk III Improved, but the stylus makes a good spare for those disaster days. A QLM 34 Mk III body will make a good home for a ZLM stylus, if you can find one.

Below the 34 and 36, the QLM Mk III bodies are electrically "Mk I" (ie, low inductance), regardless of the "Mk III" label, and the bottom QLM 30 Mk III is a basic heavy tracking conical, ranking below the K8 conical with which it's often confused. However, the inductance of the rare QLM 33 Mk III light-tracking conical is, as measured by AK's evonimos, 350mH, making it a Mk II.

Not that this makes the lesser QLMs bad, since the genius of Pritchard's design becomes apparent when you compare the construction and materials of the cheapest ADC QLM to the most expensive ZLM and find they're substantially the same. It was a design that scaled well. This is not to say that they all sound the same! You do get more finesse when you pay more for the better styli.
 
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Coincidentally, I just pulled my old Technics Sl-J33 out of storage and there's an ADC PSX-40 in it that I must have bought just before packing it up. I even have the original box for the cartridge. It sounds great, but I went ahead and ordered a spare stylus from Gary. I'm glad I read this thread. I never would have found that stylus otherwise.

By the way, the box says it's an induced magnet cartridge.
 
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DKirk said:
By the way, the box says it's an induced magnet cartridge.
Click to expand...
It is, despite what a certain cartridge database [cougherrorbasecough] says. In fact, it's laid out almost exactly like ADC's pre-XLM line, the one we affectionately call Bricks, and very much like Nagaoka's current MP models. But despite that, I'm almost certain Azden made these cartridges for ADC, which by then was owned by BSR and then dbx-- you'll see both names on the packaging.
 
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