RE: set up tips for Cello Reference mc cartridge

Thankyou so much for taking the time to send me the pics and other site links. The pictures of the Ikeda cartridges look very similiar if not identical to my Cello reference! It appears to be the same concept anyway and the body on mine comes off so it can be run nude which improves the sound dramatically I was told. So now that you can see what I am dealing with do you think I will be best to get set up instructions for an Ikeda cartridge? and then proceed? Cheers Daren

Daren, that's a hard question for me to answer because, as far as the electrical specifications are concerned (and assuming the ones I found are correct ;--) the Cello is more like a Miyabi.

But you say it doesn't have a cantilever, and it weighs 13gm about the same as an Ikeda. I'd go with Ikeda. Why don't you e-mail Ikeda-san? Maybe attach a pic of your cartridge for him to identify? Write to these people, they are apparently the only contact for Ikeda-san:

http://www.schopper.ch/static/contact/index.html
.

Hi , well I'am wondering if the Specs you found are maybe for the other Cello which had a cantilever. As when compared to the pics showed ont ehe sites you gave me they appear to be made with the same type of cantileverless design as they show the 2 copper coloured pieces that surround where the diamond tip is mounted. But I will email like you suggested as I'am sure they all are friends and maybe he can set me straight but who knows? Yhanks Daren

As far as I know, one of the Ikedas was sold for a time under the Jeff Rowland brand, maybe there was also a Cello version?

If Daren's cartridge (whatever the brand is) is a cantilever-less MC, it would have been designed by Ikeda rather than Takeda. I just had dinner with Ikeda last week, and he gave me the clear impression that there was so much specialized know-how in those designs that no one else would be able to pull it off.

As far as I have seen, Takeda prefers fairly conventional designs in terms of both cantilever and magnetics. I can't recall any design that he has done so far which attempted to push the technological envelope (not that there is anything wrong with that approach).

The specs that Nsgarch posted clearly look to belong to a cantilevered cartridge - the Ikedas have quite stiff compliance, and 23 x 10-6cm/Dyne is in comparison far too high.

"Copper-colored pieces" sounds like an Ikeda design - I know that Ikeda used copper plating on the polepieces (yokes) of at least some of the Ikeda 9 family.

Hope you solve the puzzle!

regards, jonathan carr

Dear Daren: Jonathan is right, that non-cantilever Cello cartridge was build by Ikeda.
I own the Ikeda REX9 and if in any form the Cello one has the same sound signature than mine then you will be really happy with it.

The Ikeda cartridges are really low output ones, around 0.16-0.18mv so you need not only a high gain ( with out step up transformers ) phonolinepreamp but a very low noise too.

These cartridges performs well in a medium/high mass tonearms ( which yours? ), likes to see 100-200 Ohms impedance and a VTF around 2.4 to 2.6grs.. The cartridge needs too like 200-300 hours to be at its best performance and with a minute negative VTA.

If your system are not really flat from the high midrange through the high frequencies you could be in trouble with the Cello performance in that frequency range.

I like the Ikeda I own but the audio system has to be up to the task.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.