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
@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...