Fidelity Research cartridges

T-Bone: Both the FR1 and FR7 were air-core MCs, so in a v-e-r-y general sense you could regard the FR-7 as being an integrated headshell version of the FR-1. In reality the 7 had a radically different coil former (cube-shaped), likewise for the magnetics (dual magnets, quad polepieces). IMO, the FR7s were by far the most interesting of FR's MC designs, but the 7's basic design concept dictated that they would always be big, heavy monsters, suited for relatively few modern arms. Even if FR had tried to make a non-integrated headshell version of the 7, the weight would have almost certainly remained daunting, and far heavier than any FR-1 variant.

My favorite FR-7s are the f and fz. I am not familiar with the 702, so cannot comment on it.

AFAIK, the FR-1 was one of the first stereo air-core MCs and can be considered groundbreaking as a result.

The PMC-3 is far less popular than the FR-1 or 7, but was influenced by the FR-7's thinking, and is certainly worth searching out. http://www.hifido.jp/KW/G0303/J/80-10/C08-42162-39384-00/

FR also had quite interesting MM designs. I'm not too fond of the electrical characteristics of most MMs (nor how they sound), but the low-inductance FR-5E is a notable exception. FWIW, the later FR-6 doesn't sound nearly as good.

Here is a webpage in Japanese that lists the Japanese-market cartridges that Isamu Ikeda was responsible for. http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/cart.htm

regards, jonathan carr

T_Bone, I would easily be willing to pay up to the low 30's for a PMC3. At 40 I'd probably think about it, and buy it after all (grin).

The very low coil inductance of the FR-7 implies that loading can be fairly flexible, so I wouldn't be so concerned with the low impedance. Also, none of the FR-7s are overachievers in detail, and the top end extension is a little curtailed. so the downsides of transformer stepups won't be overly apparent. However, in consideration of the low coil inductance, should you choose a stepup transformer, I would look for a toroidal-core type.

I don't know the inductance data for the signal coils so cannot do any proper loading calculations, but I'd suggest keeping the loading capacitance as low as possible, and this includes the capacitance of the cable. 25kohm or 50kohm coupled with as little capacitance as possible sounds workable, especially if your Jadis preamp includes an RF attenuation network at the input.

I agree that the FR-66S would be somewhat better than the SAEC, but truth be told, I'm not overly enamoured of the "S" family either (and I say this as the long-time owner of a 64S with Elevation Base and Arm Stabilizer). The stainless steel is great to look at, but less great to listen to, and when I run mine I prefer to keep a compression wrap around the tube.

FWIW, I've known Isamu Ikeda for many years, and not once has he suggested that the FR-7 was any kind of successor to the FR-1. Even today he appears to remain proud of what he accomplished with the 7 (also the Ikeda 9), but the FR-1 hardly ever comes up in our discussions.

BTW, here is more eye-candy for the FR-7.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/images/fr-7fc.jpg
Drawing of interior structure

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/FR-7B.htm
Drawing of cantilever with cubic core

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zh7y-tkyn/images/FR-7_cat.pdf
One-page catalog

http://www.nippaweb.net/myroom/kt/

Here you can see just how huge the magnet structure is, and if you understand cartridge design, the uniqueness of the 7's innards will be very apparent. The magnet structure alone would spill over the body sides of any non-integrated headshell MC cartridge (at least that I am aware of), and underscores why FR never made a non-integrated headshell version of the 7.

From my perspective (that of an active cartridge designer), the closest thing to a non-integrated headshell version of the FR-7 was the PMC-3, but even this remained quite a way off.

I have a lot of experience with Micro Seiki turntables and tonearms, less with the MC cartridges. However, I did own the LC-80W, and I recal the output as being around 0.1mV, which at least was less aggravating than the JewelTone ribbon cartridges. I last used my LC-80 during the late 80s (probably amplified by something like a Yamaha HA-2), so I wouldn't know how it would do on a current SOTA phono stage. The cool feature of the LC-80 was that the stylus was user-replaceable, but the funky aspect was that Micro relied on the magnetic attraction of the polepieces (yokes) to the magnet as the clamping mechanism. How the polepieces are secured to the magnet is a critical area for performance and sound, and the situation on the LC-80 was made even more tricky because the polepieces also carried the cantilever, the mounting of which is likewise a critical area for performance and sound. I rather doubt if a performance-oriented cartridge designer would have opted for these design choices, and it is entirely possible that these are why the 3-ohm LC-80W produced so little output voltage (compared to other cartridges of similar impedance). Still, the thinking behind the design was very interesting (and brazen!).

Ah, managed to link to a defunct Yahoo auction. This link is via Google's cache, so probably won't last long.

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:FeVEVjdz-osJ:page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f75052193+%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E7%B2%BE%E6%A9%9F%E3%80%80LC-80W&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=jp

regards, jonathan carr

Hi Dertonarm: Yes, I am aware of that the FR-7 was referred to as "FR-1 MK7" prior to launch. But I am also aware that the marketing department (in many companies) can twist and turn things in a way that may be at odds with the intentions of the designer (grin). It happens all the time.

Admittedly I've made similar mistakes myself, like when I decided to name the Clavis and Parnassus successors as Clavis DC and Parnassus DCt, when in reality they had absolutely nothing to do with their predecessors (other than that the same guy designed them). In recent years this has become something of a problem for me, since the original Parnassus can be used as a donor to create an Olympos, but the later Parnassus DCt cannot. I sometimes receive letters from audiophiles stating that they have been able to buy a Parnassus DCt, and asking me what additional procedures are required to build an Olympos for them. I am forced to disappoint them, but it really pains me to have to do so. If I hadn't called the Parnassus DCt "Parnassus" but something else more in keeping with its radically different engineering approach, life would be easier today.

>you might - if you haven't already done so... - give your Titan i a test in your FR-64s. The combo gives astonishing good results - despite the less great mass/compliance combination.

Yes, I've already done so with the Titan i. Likewise the Olympos. I agree that the results can be quite OK - as long as you wrap a damper strip around the armtube or take measures to dampen it better. Otherwise the "fx" or "fc" variants are far more friendly to use. By the time Ikeda did the IT-345 and IT-407, he had gained a much better awareness of resonance control as compared to his FR days.

Apologies to T-Bone for derailing his thread.

T-Bone, I will be interested in hearing of what you think of the LC-80 when you get it, what amplification and/or stepup you find works best, and how you like the sound. At least you can't complain about the 10k price!

BTW, are you familiar with the technical audio magazine "Rajio Gijutsu"? I believe that they were offering a rebuild and overhaul service for out-of-production cartridges, with the work performed by one of the former heads of Roundale Research. I have some recollection that the magnet on the LC-80 is Alnico. If so, the magnet would almost certainly benefit from a recharge, and you may get a bit more output voltage if you can have this done.

cheers to all, jonathan carr

Hi Marco (Heradot): I didn't see your post for the longest time, apologies for the tardy response!

First, I removed anything on the arm structure that wasn't absolutely essential for playback. That means in particular the armlift, also the armrest. IIRC, I remade the armrest as a separate piece which was secured to the armboard/plinth. I normally have no need for an armlift, so I simply removed that.

I would have liked to have removed the horizontal plate that holds the armlift, but IIRC you would need to dissassemble the arm to achieve this, so I grudgingly left the horizontal plate in place. But I did use blocks of paulownia wood between the horizontal plate and the armboard (or turntable plinth). Paulownia is somewhat like a high-strength version of balsa - it is light and strong, internally lossy, and is also somewhat compressible (albeit less so than balsa). This will help control the ringing of the horizontal plate and will clean up the sound.

And as Raoul suggested, I use the Warren Gehl armwrap, which is far more effective than heatshrink. It dampens the resonances of the armtube by compressing it radially, and works on a similar principle to how you play harmonics on a bass or guitar.

The armwrap's radial compression of the armtube makes the 64S and 66S operate a bit more like Ikeda's later arm designs like the IT-245 and IT-407, although these added interference damping by force-fitting multiple concentric tubes of various materials together.

FWIW, from the resonance-control point of view, Ikeda's personal favorite among his own designs is the IT-345, which I believe has a three-way concentric armtube structure. The person who's been building these arms for the past 20-odd years is of the same opinion.

As an aside, I normally used a combination of dynamic and static VTF, and balanced the contributions of the two to achieve a sound that was subjectively most pleasing. Note, however, that the turntable that I preferred to use with the FR-64S was a Micro-Seiki SZ-1S, which has a vacuum clamp and therefore little LP warpage and little vertical arm movement to speak of.

Finally, the headshell has a major impact on the sound, but I am sure that you are well aware of that.

best and hth, jonathan carr