Strain Guage Cartridge

Panasonics and a gentleman and US citizen names Sao Win of Bumese origin used to make and market them. Excellent as they were, they never really could make a dent on the market. They were difficult to drive. Win, I believe is still around, perhaps somebody knows where and at what he is putting his nimble and creative mind to.

I ran one of the Win cartridges (1977?). It needed a separate power supply to make it work. The performance was startling, a very dynamic and deep presentation with prodigious bass. My problems were channel imbalance and quality control. I owned three or four versions, each sent back with a promise it would be returned "working perfect."

Mine was serial number 6, so improvements may have been made at a later date, long after I gave up on the project.

Two of my brothers and I bought the Win Labs cartridges with power supply as Albert had mentioned in late 1977/Early 1978. We all loved the dynamics and clean, extended (at that time) low frequencies the Strain Gauges offered. For Win Labs, quality control was a problem. I had tried the Panasonic while mine was being "repaired", and remember being very happy with it. Cartridges have progressed since then ...

The last that I'd heard of Sao Win was about 6 years back, when he'd made a point source speaker.