A few more ceramics

[wer]

No idea why I bought them 

[hatehifi]

 

They certainly found a loving home!


Cheers!

[jotarama]

So it was you, Werner, who bought it!

As indicated in the ad, I have not been able to check the operation of these phono cartridges, so I sold them as broken or non-functional, although they look in good cosmetic condition. I hope they are fine, work and you can enjoy them.

Best regards

[Wolfie62]

I’ve played quite a few ceramics over the last year or 2. Mostly I’ve been disappointed. They tend to be rather numb for detail. They produce decent sound, but I put them in the class of “white van speakers” as an analogy.

I use a pair of RCA jack adapters that came with the Weathers LDM stereo cartridge I have. Converts the ceramic output voltage to a MM phono preamp voltage.







The best sounding ceramic carts I’ve heard are the 1962 Weathers LDM cartridge (direct coupled and tracks at 1.0 gram!) and this one, below. It was on a Garrard AT6 table. Pivot mounted. Tracks at 2.5 grams. No idea who makes, though!




Weathers LDM (Low Dynamic Mass) cartridge:

[GP49]

For those curious about the internal circuitry of the Weathers LDM adapters, here is an informational page from Weathers, about the LDM cartridge, including the P-613 adapter network:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yCmYyXBbl0-B2SWYBlpwL0B5kCkJ4E8g/view?usp=sharing

[wer]

Thank you Gene. Unfortunately there was no Weathers cartridge in the collection 

[GP49]

Wolfie 62 says he uses them with his ceramics.  The circuit as described in text is easy enough to interpret and construct and may be useful for others.

[Wolfie62]

Drew this a few years ago. It works well with every ceramic I’ve got.




The Ronette (I’ve got 10 of them) are surprisingly good sounding, considering their chunkiness and that they look like an old Electrolux vacuum cleaner!

Below the stereo Ronette:



Below the mono Ronette:

[Wolfie62]

Weathers LDM:

Specs:

[wer]

Do they still exist in the wild?

[RR1957]

Do they still exist in the wild?

Ronettes are in Holland easy to find. Needles are still available (newly made).
I use them (the mono versions are good, the stereo version is not good at all
and they lost the market because it was overruled by the MM cartridges) f.e.
in my Triotracks for the 45's made in the fifties. And shellac's of course.
The Ronette TX88 fonofluid is even better than the 284. More hi-fi, but more rare too.

[Wolfie62]

Do they still exist in the wild?

Not that I’ve seen. My LDM was mounted to the arm of a NOS NIB 1962 Weathers Super 66 turntable.

[wer]

Hi Rene, it seems Ronette made a few stereo cartridges; are none of these any good?

There is an Astatic stereo in this lot, but it tracks at 9g and has a power frequency response.

[Devo]

Hi Werner, i also have a few Ronette 105 cartridges and sometimes play with the Ronette 105 stereo cartridge nut to my ears the sound is a bit thin.
And as Rene said the monoversions sounds better.

[RR1957]

Hi Rene, it seems Ronette made a few stereo cartridges; are none of these any good?

There is an Astatic stereo in this lot, but it tracks at 9g and has a power frequency response.

Most of them have a high t.f. because that was normal in the fifties. Even 12 g. in the beginning.
Records of that decade could stand that because vily was a different formula. 
I had a lot of them, but never used them for my precious LP's , not even from the fifties.
I use them only for 10 inch records, 45's en shellak. But even the stereo versions I did not
trust for these records. There was always a kind of distortion no matter which player.
The mono cartridges were always OK. Only for (vintage) mono records of course.