Fidelity Research FR5e

I have the FR-5, FR-5E and FR-6SE.
My first one was the FR-6SE which I loved......
It is lush and smooth, full-bodied, relaxed, warm and enticing....
The complete 'AntiChrist' to the modern LOMC 'etched and detailed' sound.
It was always obvious though, that one was listening to a 'coloured' cartridge 😎
Not that there's anything wrong with that.....👅

And then Jonathan Carr (in this Forum) wrote that he particularly liked the FR-5E so I bought the FR-5 which, compared to the FR-6SE....went even 'darker'. It eliminated even the remotest soupçon of high-frequency information and added even more 'treacle' to the syrupy bass.
It was like wallowing in molasses.....😱
I fortunately then acquired the FR-5E which was slightly better but still no match for the more 'even-keeled' performance of the 6SE.

All these cartridges are very low-compliance and still retain their stiffness after all the years....so I had no problem with running them exclusively in one of my heavy FR-64S or FR-66S tonearms.

What arm are you intending to use?

You’re welcome....
Nice table btw ateal....👍
Uses a similar Victor motor to my TT-101 with bi-directional quartz-locked servo control. Way to go......🎶

The closest cartridges I can think of that sound similar in my system are the Empire 1000ZE/X and the Sony XL-55.
The Sony is closer to the FR-6SE whilst the FR-5E is closer to the Empire.

Will be interesting to see what you hear with it in your system.....?

Regards

One important problem I remember when I first listened to the FR-5E.....was the fact that the plastic ‘yoke’ which attaches the stylus holder to the aluminium cartridge body was loose and wobbled. 😱
This initially made the sound so warm, wooly and undefined that I’m happy I found the problem.
Using Superglue all along the joints, solved this problem.....👌