Luxman releasing a MC cart in Japan

There's not much info, but it seems LMC-1 and LMC-2 were interesting cartridges. At the time LMC stood for Linear Magnetic-field Coil and not for Luxman Moving Coil as would be the more obvious assumption. Both were low output / low impedance as was the norm in those days. (0.1mV for LMC-1; 0.2mV for LMC-2). The LMC-1 had a line contact tip on sapphire cantilever (from Namiki by the looks of it), LMC-2 a similar tip on a titanium cantilever. I've never figured out who was the designer. Haven't heard either, but would like to some day.

The new LMC-5 looks a bit like the Ortofon A90/95 with the 'hole in the middle'. Based on the limited technical info my guess would be it was designed by Matsudaira San of My Sonic Lab, who does OEM work for various companies, like Air Tight, Accuphase and TechDas. At 230.000 Yen the price of the Luxman is more reasonable than those, at least in Japan. Could be a winner!

Well, so much the better. Some sellers advertise diamond, some sapphire, so I assumed the latter. Should have mentioned both.

While checking the info on the web I noticed that the LMC-1 is also being described as a rebadged version of the Sony XL-MC7, which does look a bit similar. Elsewhere it's suggested that the Madrigal Carnegie One was also derived from the Sony. For what it's worth.