Fidelity Research FR7F history/changes


Recently fell in love with a front end I was supposed to be trying to sell for a friend that included this cartridge. Wonderful bass,dynamics, delineation of instruments with nice harmonics,... I bought the front end & recently bought a back up cartridge as well. What prompts the question is the minor cosmetic differences (believe they both are 6 digit serial numbers) - the 1st one (the magic 1) has a vertical stripe in front and seems to have a slightly different body size (the stylus guard of the 2nd cartridge does not quite fit; and the marked playback differences-the 2nd cart does not have the "technicolor" presentation of the 1st. It is OK but not what I was hoping for(It was supposed to have low hours and I saw nothing under the scope to contradict that). If there are experts or resources out there to fill me in, please do since when the time comes to retip, I assume that the magic might go away & I may need to hunt down another one & will need to figure out what criteria to look for to make sure I do not buy another that has less magic. Best wishes, LS
trytone
Our former member dertonarm ( Der Tonarm) or Dietrich 
Brakemeir owner and designer by Acoustical Systems was
long term admirer  of FR-7 fz cartridge . He retipped his
sample 4 times in Japan. I think he uses at present his
own cartridges. But he is also interested in Ikedas cantileverless
kinds so he got my REX to investigate. I assume he will try
something in this ''direction''. But my intention in this post is
to ''refute'' chakster ''prejudice'' against retips (grin). 

Nowhere did I mention the FR-7 cart as having suspension problems, but as often as you mention 
all your NOS cartridges available its prudent to note
the relevant pitfalls.


But this topic is ABOUT FR-7 cartridge. 

@chakster looks in the mirror each morning he sees a young 17 year old man, hasn’t aged a bit in 50 years.


I’m 45 soon, not 67


Some of my NOS cartridges are a bit younger than me, but we are good. 

Some of my tubes are much older than me and they are still better than new tubes. 
You have to understand that in Russia nothing ages. When @chakster looks in the mirror each morning he sees a young 17 year old man, hasn’t aged a bit in 50 years.


LoL :D
I believe the "magic" cartridge I have was 1 of 2 supplied to the previous owner...