Vintage Philips MC cartridges, but who built them?

Ynnot:

Evidence suggests that these cartridges were designed and built by Namiki.

Although unheralded outside of Japan, I consider these cartridges (probably 1978; 1979 at the latest) to be historically important because they are the first yokeless MC designs that I am aware of.

IIRC, the original GP922 was a one-magnet design similar to the later Ortofon MC200 (Concord type), while the GP922Z was a more sensible two-magnet design along the lines of Sumiko's US patent #4675859, but predating it by perhaps 7~8 years.

hth, jonathan carr

Philips, Luxman, Sony, Yamaha, Sumiko etc. all had yokeless cartridges in production well before Transfiguration was even founded.

Philips' GP922 and GP922Z were launched in the 1978~79 timeframe,

Yamaha's MC-1X (also from the late 1970's) used printed-circuit coils and no yokes (AFAIR),
http://vantageaudio.com/spec/yamahamc1x.htm

Sony got involved with the early-to-mid-80's XL-MC** series
http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-XL-MC1.html

Luxman's LMC-1 and LMC-2 designs were from 1980~1981
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LUXMAN-LMC-2-MC-Cartridge-Moving-coil-Cartridge-Tonearm-/250837671162?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a67171cfa

Ortofon's MC-200 was also from the early 1980's
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Ortofon-MC-200-moving-coil-cartridge-/320731534643?pt=AU_Electronics_Home_Audio_Turntables&hash=item4aad16d533

Sumko's Talisman cartridges were from the mid-late 1980's.

These were all yokeless cartridges that were in production before Transfiguration was even founded.

FWIW, I believe that the Transfiguration designs were a spin-out from Supex - when we (Lyra) were still working together with Supex (early-to-mid 1980's). I knew that Asakura (Supex owner) was working on a yokeless cartridge design.

At the time, Yoshioka was working for a large trading company called Ohsawa Shokai. In addition to his normal import and export work, Yoshioka was an audiophile, and was fairly close to Asakura. Yoshioka had Supex OEM a line of MC cartridges which were branded as Ohsawa and exported.

In a few years, Asakura's health began failing and he retired to the countryside, but I heard that the yokeless MC project was kept alive and Yoshioka subsequently took over the business.

hth, jonathan carr