Retippers and pickup rebuilds Retipping is the process of gluing or otherwise fastening a new tip onto the cantilever of your pickup, this is needed in MC pickups since the styli on them is not user replaceable but is sometimes also done with MM for the purposes of having a specialised stylus on it or where a replacement stylus is not available or decidedly inferior to the original. Note that all retippers will clean and readjust your cartridge for you in addition to replacing the diamond tip itself, others will do more, from replacing the cantilever to completely rebuilding the cart. So get information from the rebuilder in case you want something more than just a retip, some of the do a whole lot more and conversely if you want your cart to be absolutely stock make sure that the retipper knows that. Old crystal pickups need rebuilding since the rochelle salt used in them deteriorates over time, but there are a few companies that do this, this is not needed for ceramic pickups Garrott Brothers When the Garrott brothers met their untimely death this Australian company was founded to continue their work. They retip and rebuild carts from any maker with a property type of line contact stylus called Weintz Microscanner (you can get other types) and the company is esp. famed for their Decca rebuilds. One of the services they can perform is to modify the cartridge to better fit the arm you are using (and I don't mean the fastenings, the mass of the cart excellent stuff). Actual retips done by Phillipe Luder an old associate of the Garrots HD-Service Retipping and pickup repair service in Berlin, Germany. Good choice of styli Expert Stylus This British company retips any type of pickup (i.e. not just MC's) and in addition manufactures a range of specialised stylii for the playback of old record and suchlike, they will also repair or replace cantilevers of any type but do not repair coils etc. Jan Allaerts Retips and rebuilds any MC pickup, usually replaces the cantilever with a boron one, choice of Fritz Geiger stylii Benz Micro Retips and repairs any type of MC or MI cart, all retips are done using a Geiger line contact stylii, highly recommended Van Den Hul Retips any cart with a Van Den Hul I or II type stylus (what else ?), if the cantilever is made from aluminium or boron he usually replaces them as well, in addition he will repair some carts and modify most MC pickups for higher output and "resolution" and modifies his own designs to updated standards, highly recommended. Ortofon Retip and rebuild any pickup made by them or derived from their designs, that includes EMT, Esl etc., my understanding is that they will also retip other MC pickups Torlai Italian watchmaker that rebuilds and retips MC carts, according to his website the average cost of a rebuild is 100 to 200 €, more of course if the unit gets a coil & suspencion replacement, but this seems an excellent value since a full replacement is very rare and is really not a rebuild but a new pickup in an old housing. The few reports I have had on his work have all been positive Moth Group Rebuild and retip any Decca or london cartridge, more info here PhonoPhono They will tip or retip any cart with an spherical, elliptical, Shibata line contact or a 65µm (78rpm) stylus Sylvain Vanier Will rebuild any crystal pickup, there is more info here on his old site than is on his new one. 17485 Dubois, Mirabel, Quebec, Canada J7J 1R7. Email : restoration at oldradioz.com. West-Tech Services Rebuilds old crystal phonograph pickups, (the rochelle salt used in old pickups of this type deteriorates with age) West-Tech Services 570 Hazelgreen Rd., Smithville, WV 26178, USA. Tel/fax : +(304) 349-2149. Email : westtechservices at yahoo.com The Cartridgeman Retips/rebuilds high end MC carts for around 250 to 350 pounds, puts in a high contact stylus of his own design and modifies the coils. The Philco Kid Aka Donald Cochrane, rebuilds old Philco crystal cartridges and perhaps others ? E-mail : PhilcoKid at compuserve.com George Epple Rebuilds electric reproducers. E-mail : gkepple at msn.com Rebuilding crystal pickups Please send any factual corrections, dead links, information and/or links that you feel that should be on this page to the page maintainer but please note that I do not have an Internet access at the moment so there may be some time before I can answer.
|
Note that although we list mostly modern(ish) pickups here we also list some classic early 78 style pickups as these are collected and used by some people, electronic reproducers are not listed here however (there may be a few on the Discontinued Arms page). There is actually a number of generator technologies used for pickups and each of them has some peculiarities of their own :
The Moving Coil type of pickup is by far the most common type of a high quality pickup, the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy by using a wound copper coil which is fastened to the end of the cantilever, opposite to the stylus, while a magnet is fastened into the housing or frame of the pickup itself. This system has a number of advantages, it has a low moving mass, has a high structural integrity since the since the unit is usually a whole with the stylus/cantilever not being user replaceable (there where some MC designs made in Japan in the late 70's and early 80's that had user replaceable stylus assemblies but rare), there are plenty of specialised concerns making and servicing them meaning that there is a bewildering array of specialist variants and services available for them. The disadvantages are they are more expensive to make since it's much more difficult to construct the coil piece on the end of the cantilever that it is to build it into the pickup housing, for the same reason it's more complicated to automate the manufacture of them and thus there are few worth while low end designs, the very best MC pickup usually have a low or very low output since they have fewer windings on the coil to minimise the mass on the cantilever, but this puts strains on the amplification requiring much more gain than what you can expect with a similar MM design, amplifying those signals has become something of a black art and the how's and the whatnots are endlessly debated on, the lack of user replaceable stylii means that they have to be sent to the manufacturer or a specialised service company when it gets worn out and so on. There are variants on the theme, silver is occasionally used in the coil windings to gain more efficiency, but this is typically only on expensive variants, better coil winding robots have meant reasonably priced high output designs are slowly becoming more commonplace. The moving coil pickup was developed by the Danish company Fonofilm Industri (now Ortofon) in the late thirties/early 40's as a cutterhead which was turned into a commercial pickup in 1948 (which is still available BTW as the Ortofon Mono 63) with a stereo variant appearing in the 50's as the SPU. The large support industry for MC designs has meant that old designs can be kept going almost endlessly, cantilevers and stylii can be replaced and coils repaired.
The Moving Magnet can be seen as the inverse of a MC with the magnet being mounted on the end of the cantilever while the coil is fixed into the pickup housing. This is the most common type of pickup made today and has a number of advantages such as it's much simpler to mass manufacture than an MC, is very linear, since the cantilever construction is very simple the use of a replaceable stylus is made possible, it's very effective (Sensitive) compared to a MC and most amplifiers come with inputs intended for use directly with an MM pickup. The disadvantages are that it's slightly less accurate than an MC due to a higher moving mass, the (almost universal) use of a replaceable stylus means that the pickup housing is less rigid, it's has a tendency to distort slightly on LP's that have high modulation levels, the high end response has a tendency to be slightly damped and the perception that they are inferior to MC's means that there are very few specialised concerns making high end models these day's meaning that it's almost impossible to find a MM with a modern line contact stylus and better cantilever materials which means that in practice, as opposed to theory, they do not track as well as high end MC designs and finally there does not seem to be anyone out there that specialises in repairing them making older models more vulnerable to the ravages of age. The MM has been with us since the 1910's at the least although in the form that we know it today it's based on a design that was patented by ELAC in 1957. Note that in old ads for pickups MM carts are sometimes called "Induced Magnet", "Moving Armature", "Induced Flux" or "Variable Reluctance"
The Ribbon pickup was popular in the 50's as a high end device but it's best described as a 2D variant of the moving coil principle rather than as a variant of the ribbon transducer principle, but the coil is wound a sort on an U frame connected to the cantilever with a magnet fastened to the pickup housing, this type of design was mostly seen in the UK, since the ribbon pickup is only useable for Mono pickups it disappeared in the stereo age.
The Moving Iron is basically a moving coil pickup with iron in the coil, this makes it more effective as a generator (ie you get a higher output voltage) but they do not appear to sound as good as similar MC designs. There are quite a few variants of the principle, some of them designed more like a MM pickup with the coil partially in the housing, the best known MI basic design is the one that Grado patented in 1957 or thereabouts.
The Piezoelectric pickup takes advantage of the fact that certain crystal structures generate electricity when put under a mechanical stress, this system is remarkably efficient, in fact so much so that a crystal pickup can generate enough voltage to drive a line input directly and is very cheap to manufacture but has problems with linearity, the RIAA pre compensation Eq. is designed to accommodate the characteristics of this sort of transducer. Almost all early piezoelectric pickups where made out of crystals grown in Rochelle Salts solution and where almost all budget devices although in the 50's and early 60's there where a few designs that attempted to gain higher quality, in some cases there was a noticeable improvement in linearity but that created a problem with the pre compensation and in those cases you will often find resistor networks inside the pickup that modify the signal back to that of a normal crystal pickup. As for old crystal pickups, these can be repaired or rebuilt but the crystal element deteriorates over time so even if you find a NOS unit chances are that you cannot use it without a rebuild or that the performance will be abysmal, thankfully however most carts of this type are still being made (or equivalents). In the 60's ceramic pickups started to replace the crystal pickups in the marketplace, they have the exact same characteristics as the ones made out of Rocelle salts but are easier to assemble and last much longer, longer than either MM or MC's in fact and in the 70's ceramic designs appeared that competed with other high end pickups in quality. Piezoelectric pickups are sometimes seen referred to as "Electrets" and the first company to design crystal pickups was Brush Development Company in the 1910's although they never actually made them themselves commercially but rather licensed the concept.
The Optical pickup pops up from time to time, it's basically a photocell that senses the movement of the cantilever and thus acts as a transducer, in theory should sound great and have a long livetime but in practice neither objective was really archived. First seen commercially in the early 40's on Philco equipment but the best models where made by Yamaha Corp. in the 70's and cost as much as a high end MC pickup.
The Electrostatic pickup is yet another obscure device from the 50's that died out with the mono age since it is difficult to fabricate in 3D, they did not require an energiser (i.e. they where self energising like a Koss Electrostatic headphone)
The Digital Pickups are almost unheard of as commercial devices (one made today at a price of around 15K€) but do crop up from time to time, in them the movement of the cantilever is digitised directly in the pickup and transferred to an audio system as digital data. The reason that they are not more commonplace is the price and the need for computing power, the overhead of just the RIAA pre compensation calculation does at the least a 40 bit headroom to sound reasonable with a 16 bit 44KHz signal but that means that it will probably not work in real time on a 32 bit computer unless there is a trade-off somewhere and with a higher sampling or bitrate the problems mount, and that is without counting in all the other calculations needed, all of this computing can be accomplished in the analogue world with a 50p op-amp (most people think Eq. is cheap and easy to do digitally but that depends on what sort of Eq. that is and to what spec.).
Accuphase
Had a range of mid/high end MC cartridges on the market as late as the mid 90's, including the AC-2 model.
ACOS
Made the Hi-Light cartridges in the 60's, I think they would only mate with ACOS Tonearms by the same name, appears t be MI but impossible to say without taking it apart. If you have problems finding stylii for ACOS carts you can try Musonic.
Acutex
The company is still going but it's difficult to find accurate info on their current products so I'll list these pickups here (are from the 80's and were available in the early 90's) rather than in the Pickups page. All the Acutex pickups used a propriety variant of the MM system the company called "Tri-Induced Magnet System", it's unclear what difference, if any, was/is between this system and a normal MM but the company claimed the best channel separation in the business. The range started with the M110E that featured a simple "line contact" stylus (actually a elliptical variant), slightly more expensive was the M210 IIE and the M310 IIE, those 2 had an elliptical stylii and all three above carts had the same frequency range or 20Hz to 22KHz. The updated M310 IIIE model does not appear to have replaced the IIE model in the catalogue but rather augmented it, it uses the same stylus as the IIE but has an improved frequency response of 20Hz to 25KHz. The top range of pickps from the company all featured Shibata STR line contact stylii, the cheapest one was the M312 IIISTR, then came the M315 IIISTR that had a quoted frequency range of 20Hz to 40KHz but I have not been able to find the specs for the top of the line M320 IIISTR model.
ADC
The company started off a revolution in cartridge design in the 60's with the introduction of low weight Moving Magnet cartridges such as the Model 25 that the company referred to as "induced magnet" designs, these sounded excellent, especially in the top frequencies and had typically 1/4 of the tracking weight of competing MM carts. The problem was that finding an arm that suited was close to impossible until the early 70's (ultra light unipivots mate best with light MM's). And mated with the heavier arms of the time the pickups from the company often had problems especially with warped records, playing them with this combination often produced ghost bass notes and other distortions. The company introduced a bunch of improved designs in the 70's and early 80's but stopped the manufacture of cartridges shortly after the introduction of the Compact Disc. The budget QLM Series, the budget/midprice VLM series and the mid price XLM Series were some of the most popular cartridges of the late 70's and early 80's. Note one oddity, while the original QLM 3x series were replaced with Mk II and Mk III models as usual the Mk II and III's of the VLM and the XLM series were just higher priced versions of the same carts (and my understanding is that the only difference between a MkI, II and III are the stylii), there was also a line of cartridges in the early 80's that were integrated into a headshell and called Integra, these were popular with DJ's, I believe that the basic cartridges inside them were QLM MK III series. I lack info on the early 70's carts such as the 10E MkIV and models such as the K 8.
The technical specification of an XLM MkII is : Frequency response: 15Hz~20Khz +-1.5dB. Output @ 5cm/s: 4.5mV. Tracking force: 3/4 to 1 1/2 grams. Channel separation: 28dB. Channel balance: +-1dB. Stylus Tip: Nude elliptical. Inductance: 350 mHy +-10%. Resistance: 625 ohms. Max recommended capacitance: 275 pf. Load: 47k ohms. Cartridge weight: 5 3/4 grams.
The technical specifications of the VLM MkII are : Frequency response: 15Hz~20Khz +-1.5dB. Output: 4.5mV 5cm/sec. Tracking force: 1 to 2 grams. Channel separation: 26dB. Channel balance: +-2dB. Stylus Tip: Elliptical 0,0007 x 0,0003. Inductance: 350 mHy +-10%. Resistance: 625 ohms. Max recommended capacitance: 275 pf. Load: 47k ohms. Sensitivity: 0,9 mV/cm/sec
The technical specification of QLM 34 MkIII are : Frequency response: 20Hz~20Khz +-2dB. Output @ 5cm/s: 7,8mV. Tracking force: 1 1/2 to 3 grams. Channel separation: 24dB. Stylus Tip: Elliptical 0,0003 x 0,0007. Max recommended capacitance: 275 pf. Load: 47k ohms. Cartridge weight: 5,75 grams.
The technical specification for the QLM 33 MkIII are : Frequency response: 20Hz~20Khz +-2dB. Output @ 5cm/s: 5,8mV. Tracking force: 1 to 5 grams. Channel separation: 24dB. Stylus Tip: Spherical 0,0007 R. Max recommended capacitance: 275 pf. Load: 47k ohms. Cartridge weight: 5,75 grams.
The specs for the QLM 32 MkIII are : Frequency response: 20Hz~20Khz +-2dB. Output @ 5cm/s: 6,6mV. Tracking force: 2 to 4 grams. Channel separation: 20dB. Stylus Tip: Elliptical 0,0004 x 0,0007. Load: 47k ohms. Cartridge weight: 5 3/4 grams.
The technical specification of the QLM30 MkIII are : Frequency response: 20Hz~18Khz +-2dB. Output @ 5cm/s: 1.1 mV per channel at 1 kHz (note not the same format as other specs above). Tracking force: 3 to 5 grams. Tracking ability: 80 µm at 315Hz at recommended tracking force (3gr). Compliance: 9 µm/mN dynamic, lateral. Tracking angle: 20°. Channel separation: 23dB @ 1KHz. Channel balance: +-3dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: Brushed Spherical 0,0007. Load: 47k ohms. Cartridge weight: 5 3/4 grams.
ADCOM
Although mostly forgotten by now the first products from this company in the early 70's were in fact MC pickups. These were dubbed "Crosscoil" and were some of the first affordable high output models to reach the market. For a time the range was quite successful and they even supplied them as an OEM but the audiophiles of the day were never very convinced by the sound and the range disappeared when better high output carts such as the Dynavectors came on the scene. The only cart from them that I have been able to dig up some info on is the XC/MR, it had a 2.35mV output and recommended tracking force was 1.8 grams or so but there was also a plain XC version..
AKG
Made a range of pickups in the 60's and into the early 90's, some of their MM's were very popular amongst the European producers of players as OEM part to ship with their players as standard (this means that they must have been rather a good value, especially the ones near their top of the range), all Revox players were supplied with them for instance. Some of their last line of pickups were the included the budget P4 , it was also available as a p mount as P4DP it had cheap conical 0,0008 stylus and sported a frequency range from 20Hz to 20KHz, basically if you have one in your record deck now consider getting something better. The P5ED was also a budget model but had a much better Elliptical stylus (0,0008 x 0,00018) and a 20Hz to 22KHz response, this is the model that was shipped with a lot of Dual decks in the 80's. The mid range P8-MF is much more like it and the P8-ES featured a type II Van Den Hul stylus and was considered one of the better MM's in the 80's especially value wise, getting a stylus for that particular model might be a bit difficult (beware of sellers selling replacements with another type of stylii, they will work but the tracking will be much worse), but if the cantilever is good consider getting a new VDH-II stylus glued onto it as an alternative.
Andante
Various models of this make keep showing up as NOS (New old stock) and they appear to be low priced MM's with cheap spherical stylli (but reasonable audio spec) dating from the late 80's early 90's, if anyone has further info I would be keen to hear from them. Earlier models bearing this name like the F9-E and the E and S are rebadged Grace Pickups, the E and S models were considerably cheaper thatn the F-9.
A & R Cambridge (ARCAM)
Made (or rather sold) the E-77 and P-77 MM pickups in the 80's, for a replacement stylus you should be able to use one intended for a Garrott Brothers P-77.
Arista
Dutch company that made low/mid range crystal pickups in the 50's/early 60's.
Audio Note/Kondo
The company has produced a one model of an high end MC pickup that has evolved since it's introduction in the late 70's, the original model was called Io and later models included the Io-II, note that both Audio Note companies offer rebuild service for the older Io cartridges, but not for the more modern ones.
Audio Technica
Much of the second hand AT products that you see on the market are low budget MM designs that is not worth going after, however their MC designs are worthwhile but it should be noted that none of them were extremely expensive when new so while they will definitely warrant a new stylus it might not be worth giving them a complete rebuild. Some of those MC's include the low outut AT24, the budget high output AT3200X EII or variants thereof, the classic low output AT33E or other variants of that design (an extremely good design that has withstood the test of time), the AT36ML was a mid/low output cart, an older design so do not pay too much for it, the AT-OC10 was a more expensive version of the AT-OC9 itself a classic and although a variant of it with a Microline stylus is still available some prefer the original elliptical stylus version that was introduced in the early 80's and discontinued in 1995 or so, also note that early OC9ML version do have the Microline stylus even though the packaging says BiRadial and the specifications for the ML versions are the same as for the old version, the cheapest MC cart in that lineup was the AT-OC5 and was considered to be quite a bargain in it's day, it has a predecessor in the AT-F5 but the body is the one from the OC series rather than from the old F series. Of the Moving magnet designs from the company you should be on the lookout for are the AT150 although that design is getting a bit long in the tooth so a more modern variant like the AT150MLX is perhaps a more dependable buy, there was also a range of MM carts from the company that was called the Lab Series with models such as the LS300, these were supposedly fairly good but I have been unable to find further info. The Mid/top range MM pickups listed here below are also interesting if you can get them cheaply.
The technical specification of the AT120E are : Frequency response: 15Hz~25Khz. Output @ 5cm/s: 5mV. Tracking force: 1 to 1,8 grams. Tracking ability: 70 µm @ center value VTF, 80 µm at upper value VTF. Tracking angle: 20°. Channel separation: 29dB @ 1KHz, 20 @ 10KHz. Channel balance: +-1dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: BiRadial 0,0004 x 0,0007. Stylus Construction: Bonded. cantilever: Thin Wall Tube. Load: 47k ohms. Recommended Capaistance: 100 - 200 pF. Cartridge weight: 6,5 grams.
The technical specification of the AT125LC are : Frequency response: 10Hz~28KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 5mV. Tracking force: 1 to 1,8 grams. Tracking ability: 70 µm @ center value VTF, 80 µm at upper value VTF. Tracking angle: 20°. Channel separation: 29dB @ 1KHz, 20 @ 10KHz. Channel balance: +-1dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: Linear Contact. Stylus Construction: Titanium Bonded. cantilever: Tapered Tube. Load: 47k ohms. Recommended Capaistance: 100 - 200 pF. Cartridge weight: 6,5 grams.
The technical specification of the AT130E are : Frequency response: 10Hz~30KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 5mV. Tracking force: 0,8 to 1,5 grams. Tracking ability: 80 µm @ center value VTF, 90 µm at upper value VTF. Tracking angle: 20°. Channel separation: 30dB @ 1KHz, 20 @ 10KHz. Channel balance: +-0,75dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: BiRadial 0,0002 x 0,0007. Stylus Construction: Nude. cantilever: Tapered Tube. Load: 47k ohms. Recommended Capaistance: 100 - 200 pF. Cartridge weight: 6,5 grams.
The AT20SLA was a limited edition MM made in the early 80's, very impressive but you might have to have the stylus made for it, the technical specification are : Frequency response: 10Hz~50KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 2,7mV. Reccommended Tracking force: 1,5 grams. Channel balance: +-0,75dB @ 1KHz or less. Stylus Tip: Shibata Line contact. Reccommended Load: 47K to 100K ohms. Coil Impedance: 370mH. Cartridge weight: 8,5 grams.
Audio Quest
Sold mid end MC cartridges in the late 80's and into the late 90's these were actually made by the Scantech company of Japan, the MC 404I L is a low output (0,5mV) cart with a Boron cantilever, a line contact stylus and a recommended load of 100 ohms. The MC-5 however was a high output design and the AQ-7000 FE5. Older models included the AQ-B100MH a mid output (1,6mV) cart and the AQ-7000 NSX.
Azden
This Japanese company was until recently one of the biggest OEM supplier of cartridges. Unusually the company made low budget Moving Coil pickups such as the GM-1E that featured a user replaceable elliptical stylus. Other recently deleted products from the company include the YM-10 pickups, these are budget MM's with a reasonable audio specification of 10Hz to 22 KHz, there were 3 models available all electronically identical but with differing stylii and cantilevers, the C and E version that had aluminium cantilevers, the C version had a spherical stylus, the E version had a elliptical one and the VE version featured tapered cantilever and a "Vital Elliptical" stylus. Amongst the Azden low budget models were the YM-P50C, a typical example of the genre with a frequency response of 10Hz to 20KHz, a weight of 4,5 grams and featuring a spherical stylus. One US company has some original styli supplies but rather expensive.
Next Page : Discontinued Pickups B - E