Anyone familiar with Ikeda 9 series (cantileverless kind) MC cartridges?

It seems there was a wide range of different requirements for each member of the original Ikeda 9 family. I own Ikeda 9 Rex, but I'm not sure if this is the R version ddriveman is referring to.

The Rex supposedly was one of the top models in the range and according to the spec sheet the recommended VTF is 1.5 gram. I prefer it slightly higher at 1.75 gram, where tracking capability does seem to improve a little. But more importantly bass notes go deeper, are more solid and more tuneful. The soundstage also seems to blow up like a balloon, both in width and depth. A remarkable effect!

Calling it low compliance is an optimistic description, it's actually more like a no compliance cart. So alignment and SRA really need to be spot on. That's impossible to accomplish visually, so you just have to trust your ears. Feickert+ software (or something similar) would probably be very helpful here. I don't have access to it, so patience and a little luck are my only companions.

You will also need to limit yourself to perfectly flat discs, or it will jump all over the place. Definitely not a cart for everyday use, but when serendipity is in the house, there is nothing quite like it.

Dear Nandric,

I meant ’different versions’ of the 9 series, assuming Mr. Ikeda administered equal treatment to ’each member’ of his family.

But I have always wondered why there’s such a wide range of recommended VTF within this ’family’ (ranging from 1,5 to 2,5 grams) when they supposedly all share the same construction.

When I inspect the Rex up close it looks like the stylus is glued to a brace or bridge (for want of a better term) around which the coils seem to be wound. There’s no visible suspension (but that may be hidden from sight) and obviously no cantilever, so I don’t understand where any compliance could be derived from. Sorry for my hopeless description.

The available information on the 9 series is very limited and I do not know which was the last and/or best, although I do remember reading somewhere that the 9 Musa (the one with the integrated wooden headshell) was indeed the final version before Ikeda the man retired and Ikeda the company returned to more conventional cartridges. I don’t know if Ikeda the man was still responsible for the design of the current 9 series, or if these belong to someone else’s ’family’ with the same name.....

I’m sure you will have noticed by now that I do not know any more than you do. So I share your hope that other ’members’ of this forum can shed some more light on the ’family history’ of these carts and on their sonic ’pecking order’.

AFAIK, the Ikeda 9 started with the 9C series (From Mk1 to Mk 3) then moved to 9R and then 9REX came and then 9MUSA.