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Pfanstiehl
Makes the P-132-D cartridge, unusually for a magnetic cart it has a flip-over stylus to enable it to play both LP/45's and 78'rpm's, note this is a standard mount unit and not a .
Phonoshophie
Makes 2 MM designs in the form of the Life and Chiave, they also have a moving coil design in the form of the Flair, these are all based around Ortofon designs, the Flair being a V series derivatve and there may be a variant of the Chiave available called Chiave-Spezial that has a Linn like 3 point fastening system.
Pickering
Make a range of low to mid price MM carts for both home and DJ/broadcast use, for info on some of their more recently discontinued models see this page.
Pluto
Makes the Pluto Mk. III pickup.
Pro-Ject
Has started selling the K4 and K6 MM pickups, these are manufactured for them by Grado and both feature an elliptical stylus.
Red Rose Music
Makes the Rose Petal a high end low output cart.
Rega
Makes a range of mid end pickups, namely the Bias, the Superbias, Elys, Super Elys and Exact MM designs, the exact has a Vital line contact stylus and a unusually high output for such a cart, note that despite rumours these carts are actually made by Rega themselves, note also that unlike most other such pickups the Rega range does not have user replaceable stylii, this is apparently done in the interest of stiffness.
Reson
Designs and sells a line of mid to high end pickups that have been getting good reviews, these include the Mica and Reca mid/high end MM cartridges, the Aicore and Elite mid range MC's and the Lexe high end MC that has coils made out of Neodymium and is wound with silver wires, you can read a review of that cart by reviewed by Hi-Fi+. The Reson One has been reviewed by TNT and the Lece has been The actual product is assembled by Goldring but are not 100% compatible you cannot in some cases use a Goldring stylii with the MM pickups for instance, all of their carts with the exception of the Mica have a Gyger S stylus (the Mica has a Gyger II). Note that these carts are often sold as DNM in the UK and have a cult-like following there.
Roksan
Manufactures the Shiraz moving coil and Corus moving magnet pickups, those are mid to high end models, and the Corus Black which is a modified Goldring design.
Scheu
Sells a cartridge designed by him for his turntable/arm setup and made for him by Benz Micro, the cart has been favourably reviewed by TNT-Audio.
Shelter
Makes 2 well regarded MC pickups, the mid priced 501 Mk II and the 901 high end model, I do not have a link for that model but while being 2 times as expensive as the 501 it's considered to be something of a bargain amongst the Japanese high end carts (particularly in the US were many consider it to be one of the best in the world), this may be due to the fact that sales to the west are mostly through a trader in Japan called EIFL, thereby cutting out 2 middlemen, note also like with so many specialist Japanese MC carts the stylii are elliptical rather than line contact variants. Here is a user review of the 901. And nota bene, because those Shelter pickups share the same body as the Crown Jewel Pickups there is the rumour going around that these are the same this simply not true and should be apparent from the specifications alone.
Shure Inc.
Were at one time the biggest pickup maker in the world but now just manufacture a small line of moving magnet cartridges, top of the line is the classic M97xE which features the same damping system as the V15 is and further down the range you can find the M94E that has been reviewed by TNT here that model is also avaialbe in a P mount version, further down you'll find the shperical stylii equiped M 44 GX and M 44-7X along with their buget models the M 70 bX and M 92 E, that model has been reviwed by the US based Consumer Review here, their cheapest model is the M 75-6 and you can get that model as the M 75-3 with a stylus for the playback of 78'rpm records and the improved M 77-S also with a 78 stylus. DJ models from the company include the SC 35 C DJ that you can also get in a kit with 2 pickups and 2 stylii, the M 44 G DJ, M 44-7 DJ and the classic M 35 S.
SPJ
Sells the Ebony moving coil design, it's actually manufactured for them by Benz Micro and is based upon the Benz Micro Ruby 2 but is housed in African ebony wood which has better resonance characteristics than metals or plastics, has a slightly higher output and is heavier at 10.7 grams.
Sumiko
Makes a range of MM pickups including the budget Oyster that sounds excellent if a little "Japanese", slightly more expensive is the Black Pearl, the Pearl. The Blue Point however is a bargain priced MC and is also available as the Blue Point Special and you can read a review by Hi-Fi Choice here, the company also has the Blue Point Limited and the high end Premier SHO. The Celebration Pearwood Signature is reviewed here.
Symphonic Line
Makes a high end Moving Coil pickup.
Technics
Makes the EDC-U1200 cart intended for DJ and broadcast applications.
Tonar
Primarily a manufacturer of replacement styli, but they also design and sell a range of DJ pickups including the dirt cheap Backtrack and a model based around the Ortofon Concorde that is called the Banana, it has an integrated headshell but and a Tonar stylus used on both of those models has a reputation for being excellent for back cueing and scratching (to do with the cantilever/stylus assembly ?). You can also get the Bactrack in a kit with 2 pickups and 3 stylii. Nb. those models are sometimes sold in the US as American DJ.
Torlai
Mainly occupied with upgrading third party cartridges, but he has at the least one design under his own name that are actually commercial designs that he had modified, the designs he chooses vary from time to time, a couple of years a go they were mostly Linn designs but currently he seems fo favour Benz Micro.
Transfiguration
A Japanese manufacturer of high end yokeless MC pickups, the company has no homepage but you can find more info on their products on the homepages of their distributors (follow the link above) but note that not all distributors carry the full line of their products. The cheapest model the company manufactures is the RE, m here and here, models include the Spirit high end low output model now in a Mk3 version, a high output version of it called Espirit and the top of the line . Review of the Transfiguration Spirit from Hi-Fi Plus is to be found here.
Tubaphon
Makes the TU-2 Blue SLF which is an updated version of the old EMT TU 2 but has quite different specifications, to begin with the pickup features a Super Fine Line Stylus but noticeably it has a fairly high output a 1mV while the original model had 0,4mV. The cart is well regarded by the audio press, even revered by parts of it, and not at all that expensive in Europe for this class of cartridge at something under 1000 € but fairly difficult to get hold of, Phonophono seems to be one of the few places stocking it and the manufacturer has no homepage.
Van Den Hul
The inventors of the "Van De Hul" stylii that made waves in the early 80's, make a large range of high end MC pickups. Their cheapest model is a mid range design named DDT 2 special but better known are the Frog and the Frog Gold and the ultra high end Black Beauty Special X, the Colibri Special-XM and the Colibri Special-X.
Varco
US store Radio Shack sells ceramic designs from this company .
Vestax
Has a range of MM pickups with stylii cut for DJ and broadcast use, more info here.
Walco
I was under the impression that this trademark had not been used on pickups for quite some time but a model called ES 30EX is turning up at too many places to be merely NOS, It's by far the cheapest cartridge that I have seen that features an extended line contact stylus and has a very respectable audio spec if a slightly low output for an MM cart, but oddest of all it is being sold at prices ranging from USD 16 up to over 80! Now that kind of a dealer mark-up has to rank up there with the 40 US dollar turndable belts.
Wilson Benesch
Makes 3 pickups , the Matrix, the Carbon a low output moving coil with a body made out of woven carben fibre nude elliptical and the Analog. And no, I have no idea why an English company uses American spelling.....
Win Research
Makes the SMC-10 low output moving coil.
ZYX
Makes a line of mid to high end moving coil pickups that are probably best described as a smooth sounding low output devices with a sound that can almost be described as an upgraded version of that classic Japanese broadcast pickup sound (Neat, AT 33 and Denon 103 et. al.), this company used to manufacture the Monster Cable Pickups and there is indeed a family resemblance as far as the sound goes but the modern models are appreciably better. All of their pickups are available in a high output version referred to by the addition of a H to the end of the cartridges name, this is not a high output version in the conventional meaning of the term, the normal (or low output) version of the pickup puts out 0,24 mV, the H version puts out twice that or 0,48mV, this is nowhere enough to drive a standard phonographic input directly but does however increase the compatibility in the sense that there are plenty of MC Preamps and transformers out there that will handle half a millivolt but will struggle with anything less, in particular there are a lot of transformers with 24dB gain that are compatible with the H but not with the standard version, note also that on the RS line of pickups you pay a premium for the H versions but on the upmarket R line the H and L versions are priced the same. For some further info on the design methodology behind the ZYX line you can read this article by Nakatsuka-san but the company's real claim to fame is their unique coil winding technology which enables them to wind in 2 directions at the same time thus creating a coil that has a more balanced channel output.
The RS 02 line of pickups is the company's cheapest models but are stationed price wise firmly in the mid end, basically the RS line all feature the same generator and thus share the same electrical specifications but differ in cantilever and stylus assembly. The RS-10 02 features an the elliptical stylus and aluminuim/magnesium alloy cantilever and is also available in a high output version as the RS 10 H that is some 5% dearer than the normal version. The RS 20 02 is only slightly more expensive than the RS-10 02 but features a line contact stylus and a diamond cantilever versus, the RS 20-02H is the high output version but it shuld be noted that it is more than 10% more expensive than the L version. The RS 30 02 is the top of the RS range and features a Microridge line contact stylus and a Boron cantilever, the high output version is the RS 30 02 H. The R 100 Series is next up in line but that line replaced the original R 100 models in 2003 or thereabouts, the "basic" R 100 02 has a stunning (unweighted) audio specification of 10Hz~80KHz FR, it is also available in a high output version as the R 100 02H, other variants of the R 100 line are the R-100 FS Fuji and the recently introduced R-100 FX Fuji variant, both cost the same have an upgraded coil piece versus the "plain" R 100 02 and both are available in a H and L versions at the same price, the FS version features coil windings made out of silver wire while the rest of the R 100 line uses 6N pure copper wire, the FX features a housing made out of crystal and bronze, very dapper.
The company's high end R 1000 MkII line has an eye opening FR specs of 10Hz~100kHz, the R 1000 Airy2S, R-1000 Airy2 Cosmos S and their high output variants R 1000 Airy2SH and the R 1000 Airy2 Cosmos SH feature the same silver wound coils as the R 100 FS while the R 1000 Airy2X and R 1000 Airy2XH feature a coil wound out of copper wire but all of them feature an improved generator design versus the R 100 series and utilise wire that has been put through a cryogenic process, the Airy models were replaced with the MkII versions in late 2004 but the company still has not updated the technical specification brochure to include the newer Airy models when this was written in early 2005 so it's impossible to gauge what exactly changed. Their top of the range models are the R 1000σ don't even ask about the price, it's hovering somewhere close to the 10000 € mark, they are available as the silver coiled R 1000 Sigma S and R 1000 Sigma SH or with copper wound coils as R 1000 Sigma X and the R 1000 Sigma XH, all of those have had the coil wires cryogenically treated and feature a solid diamond cantilever but otherwise share the specifications of the "basic" R 1000.
Note that the company replaced their entire line RS line and the basic R 100 model in 2003 with MkII versions but there are still some MkI versions in the channel and we have seen some MkI models being offered as the latter versions, the MkII models of the RS line have MkII clearly marked on the packaging and usually have a 02 printed on the front of the pickup so you should be in no doubt as to which is which while the MkII versions of the R 100 series are marked as such on the packaging they are not marked as such on the body but can be differentiated from the older models by the fact that the 02 models feature a black plastic body while the original models had bodies made out of clear plastic. Note also that the company also sell weights that can be added to the top of the cart for those tonearms that need it.
47 Labratory
Makes a high end MC cartridge in association with Myabi (it's not 100% the same as the Myabi cart itself NB), coils are made out of AlNiCo. Stereotimes has reviewed the cart along with the RIAA preamp from the same company and Enjoy the music has also reviewed the cart.
Next Page : Discontinued Pickups