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What was wrong with the P-mount ?

So, as some of you may gather, I know very little about turntables. I mean, I know the general physics, the RIAA curve, cartridge loading, stuff any one can pick up from a book.

Sometimes I think of getting into vinyl, especially with a store right across the street, the new Techniques turntables as well as old and new Luxmans or Yamahas, and then I remember the cartridges and all the issues of setting them up correctly, cleaning the vinyl, carefully holding the LP and I return to my digital only lifestyle.

One thing I was thinking about in all of this was, what happened ot the whole P-mount industry? Perfectly reasonable idea to me. Fixed dimensions for the cartridge, adjust the tracking force, and bam, done.

What went wrong?
erik_squires

Showing 3 responses by lewm

lewm
13,554 posts
 
Technically, I suppose you are correct, bimasta. The term Pmount  probably should be reserved for that one kind of mount. The B&o mounts are different as I already said and you’ve reiterated. Fair enough.
lewm
13,554 posts
 
chak, This or that will work for some P-mounts, but aren't the Technics P-mounts "special", like B&O P-mounts?  Be sure of compatibility.
lewm
13,554 posts
 
The P-mount was adopted most notably by B&O back when they made some of the best sounding MI cartridges, ever, in my opinion. Peter Ledermann must think highly of them too, since he has devoted his company to repairing the old MMC series and building new cartridges based on the same idea. The P-mount was very well suited to very high compliance types, because you could dispense with a headshell entirely, thereby lowering effective mass compared to almost any other alternative method of mounting. The problem was and is that P-mounts from company A are not cross-compatible even with P-mounts from company B. For example, a B&O P-mount cartridge will only work on a B&O tonearm with a B&O P-mount receptacle. In the end, B&O and others who made P-mounts usually had to come up with some sort of adapter, so to mount the cartridge in a conventional headshell. I own a B&O MMC1 and an Acutex LPM320III. Those are two of my finest sounding cartridges, bar none. Both P-mounts being used with adapters. For Mijo to dismiss all P-mount cartridges with the back of his hand only reveals either his ignorance or his intransigence. Some of the other propaganda he dispenses with regularity, regarding dust covers and the need to clean an LP, is also, to say the least, questionable.
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