Soundsmith - Thank you to everyone.

I have to say that as a person, VDH has befriended me from the beginning, and upon meeting and seeing my work, asked me "Are we competitors, or colleagues?" I said it would be an honor to be considered a colleague; so he said "GOOT!" and shook my hand heartily and said - "What ever you need - always call me!"

Brilliant! :))

  Dynavector 23 and similar, due to low mass (but terribly fragile), some Ortofon MI designs, Grace, and of course the B&O, upon which my line has evolved from.

Very nice, glad to see Dynavector and Grace in your list.

One of the rarest cantilever from Grace in my private collection of their original styli is Ceramic for LEVEL II (and Ceramic version for F14 model) made in the 80's. 

Never seen any other cartridge with thin black Ceramic cantilever in my life. I think this is the most exotic type of cantilever, if you're familiar with Ceramic cantilevers it would be nice to spread the light, because it's such a rare type. Would be nice to hear your comment if you seen anything like that, Peter.  

Grace is the only company to my knowledge that made nearly all kings of cantilevers for their styli (Aluminum, Beryllium Pipe, Ruby, Sapphire, Boron Pipe and finally Ceramic Pipe). Also different diamonds (Conical, Elliptical, Advanced Luminal Trace, Discrete 4, Utility 4, and finally Micro Ridge for the latest models like LEVEL II and F14).

P.S. Surprised not to see any American manufacturers in your list :) Michael Fremer managed to record an interview with Norman Pickering, link to the audiofile is there. The interesting point is how Walter O. Stanton took Pickering's company and started Stanton Magnetics Inc. 

I remember then because of the MC versus MM subject:
Stanton and Pickering very low output (low impedance) MM cartridges was an alternative to LOMC. An interesting design with Stereohedron tip.       

@retipper Mr. Ledermann, i enjoyed your two RMAF lectures, very interesting. It’s nice to have industry professionals on our forum to discuss tech stuff.

Sadly Jonathan Carr does not post on here as much as he did before, but it was so great to read his opinion about some classic cartridges from the legendary designers and legendary brands.

Watching your lectures i see you’re admire MI design over MC. You’re the one who personally refurbished and re-tipped thousands of different cartridges (old and new).

I;m pretty sure there are some models that inspired you to go further in cartridge design. Watching Art Dudley’s (R.I.P.) SoundSmith factory tour i see you got vintage equipment in your collection. What about cartridges ?

I am interested mainly in classic cartridges from the golden era (70’s/80’s). Without making a free advertising for new cartridges and modern brands it would be nice to discuss some OLD GOLD from the past, discontinued models or disappeared brands.

Could you recall some of the greatest, clever design from the past (MM/MI or even MC). I’m pretty sure you learned a lot with those carts from the past. It’s good to share some knowledge about clever design that surpass the time test (if we can imagine we found NOS, UNUSED or MINT condition).

I’m curious to read your opinion.

*From Russia with Love

@retipper Very diplomatic answer, but i’m curious about inspiration, as i can see your friend Frank Schröder is definitely inspired by classic tonearm design from the past, his Model B looks like very old Grey Research and related tonearms. As far as i know B&O developed their cartridges before you signed contract with them to improve the line of B&O carts. This is a predecessors of SoundSmith own line of cartridges?

I have seen some damping materials in MC designs turn to cracked stone in 2 years, ones I assume worked extremely well when new.

Many of us here collect vintage MC cartridges, turntables and tonearms and rate them high even in comparison to the new ones. Suspension of some brand new cartridges sometimes fail quicker than old ones. One example of LOMC cartridges with suspension that never fails is FR-7fz designed by Ikeda-San. A low compliance heavy monster, but Air-Core Coil, we have huge fan club of this series on audiogon.

Others are 40 years old and work perfectly.

At least you said that, fair enough.

It is true, because there are great cartridges that passed the time test and works just fine. Those were made with the right combination of materials.
Some materials are no longer available like Beryllium cantilevers (here is a Gold-Plated Beryllium that was an ideal material according to the old AT engineer later replaced with Gold-Plated Boron on another version of AT-ML180) or Hollow Pipe Boron cantilevers with ultra low mass or like this Grace LEVEL II BR/MR with micro ridge stylus tip mounted without glue (a tip mounting hole made using a laser beam). or this short gemstone cantilever invented by Dr.Tominary of Dynavector. Or that strange gemstone cantilever/stylus made from one piece of diamond by Sony (model 88D). Way different technology that we do not see anymore in modern design.

Ikeda LOMC cantilever-less design or cantilever-less Decca MI or Victor Direct-Coupled MC recently improved and used by Audio-Technica ART-1000

when you reduce the moving mass dramatically as I have done and cannot be done in MC designs, damping becomes orders of magnitude easier and more efficient. A win-win.

So there is no telling - even if I DO tell you of some I love, how you will find good ones?

I will. I have museum of vintage cartridges on my records shelf. But this is not the advice for me to buy what you liked, it is something that inspired you with your huge experience in rebuilt. It’s about clever design. Something rare and interesting.

So forgive me my vagueness - I just don’t want to misdirect. What I CAN tell you is what a wonder it is to find a well designed MM, MI or MC that HAS been traveling at 3/4 the speed of light, and after rebuilding, it plays so well........

I’m curious, what is a well designed MM/MI or MC from the past (not new) in your opinion ? I’ve never sent any vintage cartridge for rebuilding yet, just because my favorite vintage MM, MI and MC are just fine, i use time machine to travel back in the 80’s to find them.

Suspensions tended to fail with long term age. They WERE great carts.

Indeed, depends on environment/storage, i am not afraid to try and after trying as much as possible NOS Stanton samples i’ve never seen one with softened suspension like those notorious Technics mk3 and mk4 low riders from the 70’s with softened suspension that can’t hold the cartridge and can’t resist even 1.25g tracking force. I think softened suspension is the biggest problem and material that Technics used was bad choise. But Stanton and Pickering choosed the right one, well maybe compliance is not that high anymore (it was 30cu), but the damper is definitely not bad, but more important the sound is so silky smooth and so pleasant, especially this one from early 90’s Walter O. Stanton Signature Collector’s Series 100 with their best Stereohedron II profile. The ONLY model from Stanton with Sapphire Coated Aluminum Cantilever. Actually Stanton made so many models and styli for all formats (stereo, mono, 78), but the cheap models are bonded. What a great brand is was until Walter sold it. Reading this old Stanton Product Catalog from the golden age of analog is a pleasure.

It’s amazing that in the late 1940’s Mr. Stanton’s slide-in stylus made it possible for users to replace a needle assembly when it wore out, instead of having to send it back to the factory.

He ran both of his companies until retiring in 1998, but Mr.Pickering wasn’t happy about it until his death, even dying in his chair Pickering mentioned Stanton in M.Fremer interview. However, even after Stanton bought and run both companies he did not shut down Pickering brand, here is the latest from the mid 90’s. It’s a strange story that identical cartridges have been made under two different brands by the same factory, the different was the design only.

Walter O. Stanton was Norman C. Pickering’s plant manager. In 1950, Walter Stanton bought Pickering & Company, the audio component manufacturer that first sold his patented stylus.

Here is another forgotten video interview with Norman Pickering.
And one mode video with him. Very interesting!

My favorite comment was from Walter Stanton, who during a large meeting with sales reps, was asked "Why do the diamond styli cost so much?"

Walter responded properly.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY OF THEM WE DROP?"
Peter Ledermann

LOL

Reading some fact about Walter Stanton i found this:

"Mr. Stanton was known for holding outings on his boat near his longtime home in Laurel Hollow, N.Y., and playing jokes on employees."


BTW (since you’re all from NY area): Grado is another very old NYC family business, a person who invented stereo MC decided to go on with MI only :)) Here is a video tour. Joseph Grado Signature XTZ (from the 80’s) still my favorite MI. Its Special twin-tip Grado nude stylus still available from Grado. 

@retipper Dear Peter, here is an interesting question:

Some people always recommend a cartridge for certain genre of music, i always thought it's a nonsense, because a good cartridge must be neutral.

But we often read "this is a cartridge for rock" and "that is a cartridge for classical" or "this is for jazz" ...

Would be nice to read your opinion.

Thanks

I was hanging around in the room he helped sponsor and sitting next to him and he looked at me at some point and asked "so what kind of name is Tallan?". I told him it was Russian (true) but I couldn’t help wondering what prompted his question.

I am Russian, never ever hear this name "Tallan" and never met anyone with this name in Russia. 

Regardless of how it came to be, one of my relatives did an exhaustive search and found that my family’s original name was "Telushkin" and that we came from a village long ago decimated, the Village of Slutzk.

@fsonicsmith
So you passed KGB test. 
Telushkin is indeed Russian surename :) Sounds good.

Of course i don’t know how it works when immigrant came through Ellis Island, but i have jewish roots myself, my grand-grand mother’s surename was Cohen, she was a daughter of Rabbi in western Ukraine.