9 CD-4 cartridges reviewed

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In my opinion, the best CD-4 cartridge ever made was the Pickering XUV/4500Q. Previous Pickering or Stanton CD-4 models were, by admission of the companies' owner, "lousy designs," but the 4500 was in a separate category altogether. Unlike other CD-4 cartridges, the 4500 sounded phenomenal when used as a standard, stereo cartridge, and was the only such cartridge capable of tracking at 1 gram. It had the misfortune of being introduced almost simultaneously with the total collapse of the quad market, and as such, was a sales failure.

Fortunately, and likely for the first - and last - time, both sales and engineering departments got together and a stereo-only model was introduced - the XSV-3000 - for less money, but incorporating many of the designs of the 4500. The XSV-3000 was a phenomenal success, and is still talked about on numerous audio websites.

Most in the business - myself included, even though I went to work for Pickering in 1976 - never thought Pickering capable of making a top-flight cartridge. When I first installed a 4500 in my quad system, I was blown away by it, and like many others asked, "Did Pickering really make this?" With the phenomenal success of the XSV-3000, many high-end audio salespeople bought one, but rarely did the dealers themselves, feeling that they didn't want to be associated with the unwashed masses to whom Pickering normally sold its products.

Now, there's a memory!
 
Any opinions on the UV-15?

In my previous post, I stated that even the owner of the company said that previous designs were lousy. Those "previous designs" were the Pickering UV/15 series of cartridges, though I don't remember what the Stanton model equivalent was. All tracked at very heavy weights (in excess of 2 grams), and with the need to add an additional gram to offset the brush assemblies, having to set the weight of a tonearm over 3 grams was quite a turnoff. On top of that, they all sounded just plain lousy. The XUV/15-4500Q was a radical departure in design from the rest of the UV/15 family.
 
My original CD4 cartridge was a UV-15/2400Q, back in the mid 70's. Unfortunately, it was stolen during one of my military moves. I thought it sounded very good, although I did have to run at least 2g to prevent skipping. I used it for both CD4 and stereo. Wish I still had it.
 
The equivalent Stanton is the 780 with a "Q" or "4DQ" stylus.

I actually don't think they sound too bad. They just don't have the "sparkle" the 4500Q has. Tracking is fine.

Doug
 
I'll stand by my Audio Technica AT20-SS as the best CD-4 USA built CD-4 cartridge. Love my BIC 1000 CD-4 turntable also. Best tonearm I've ever found.
The Pickering was shrill by my ears. I've had the Pickering UV-15/2400Q, Shure M24H, Audio Technica AT14S, and The Audio Technica AT 155 LC (linear Contact, which worked well. Present stylus: ATN-440).
 
One problem I've been having with my Ed Saunders and Grado F-1+ CD-4 cartridges is that when playing a CD-4 record there is a constant high frequency whining noise at relatively low level which is masked by the sound from the record, but is audible during silent parts. This seems to be caused by lack of separation above 15 kHz, which results in the generation of beat frequencies between the two carriers (left and right channel). Lack of seperation probably also results in some intermodulation distortion between the two carriers. FM detectors typically have a capture effect meaning they tend to demodulate the strongest carrier, but when other signals are present they can cause interference and distortion when demodulated. The Pickering patents listed below claim they're design gives good separation throughout the audio range and even up to 50 kHz in Stanton's patent which should help eliminate the problem. I put in a switch in my Sansui QC-04 which allows me to switch off the power to the audio preamp while still providing power to the quad demodulator board and mixer. When its off, I can hear the sound from the demodulated carriers alone to give me some idea of how well its working. This sound is lower quality compared to the base band (front + back audio) and sounds like it has a lot of reverb in it, but somehow it seems to give good 4 channel separation when everything's on and adjusted right.


US 3546399 INDUCED MAGNETIC MOVING IRON STEREOPHONIC PHONOGRAPH PICKUP WITH
REPLACEABLE STYLUS ASSEMBLY
Pickering

US 3646279 INDUCED MAGNETIC MOVING IRON STEREOPHONIC PHONOGRAPH PICKUP WITH
REPLACEABLE STYLUS ASSEMBLY AND ONE COMMON POLE PIECE
Pickering

US 3846592 PHONOGRAPH PICKUP CARTRIDGE FOR FOUR CHANNEL RECORDINGS
Walter O. Stanton quad

US 3964751 Phonograph cartridge replaceable stylus assembly
Pickering

US 4140321 Phonograph cartridge replaceable stylus assembly
Pickering


Others

US 3881073 Replaceable stylus-lever generator module for an electromagnetic
cartridge
Grado

US 4031336 Electromagnetic pickup with magnetic gap displacement generator
Grado

US 3299219 Stereophonic transducer cartridge
Bang & Olufsen
 
I believe you are correct, scifi, that the whine/tone is caused by carrier crosstalk. I'm sure that's why Technics included adjustments on the SH-400 for minimum crosstalk of the carriers. It also reinforces the importance of good separation all the way up through the ultra-sonic frequencies.

I have quite a few CD-4 cartridges but not one of the top AT models like the AT15Sa, AT20SLa or AT20SS. I would like to hear one. Someday.

It's nice to hear at least one other person likes BICs. I have a 1000 too but my original 980 gets the honor of playing CD-4. It's the same tonearm and I agree it's very good. CD-4 tracking is excellent.

Doug
 
Here's some patents from my collection. Some of them discuss FM carrier beat distortion and interference.

US 3985978 Method and apparatus for control of FM beat distortion
CD-4

US 4204091 Cancellation of interference distortions caused by intermodulation between FM signals on adjacent channels
Victor Company of Japan, CD-4

US 3936619 Four-channel stereophonic reproducing system for reproducing discrete CD-4 four-channel stereo disc
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., muting and noise reduction, CD-4

US 3943303 Abnormal sound eliminating system in record disc reproducing apparatus
Victor Company of Japan, CD-4, var LPF

US 4152550 Apparatus for reproducing a multichannel record disc
Victor Company of Japan, CD-4, harmonic filter

US 3843850 FOUR CHANNEL RECORD REPRODUCING APPARATUS WITH MUTING OF SPEAKERS NOT USED FOR STEREO OR MONAURAL RECORDS
Victor Company of Japan, CD-4

US 3944755 Composite Filter circuit
Victor Company of Japan, CD-4

US 3991283 Multichannel record disc reproducing system
Victor Company of Japan, CD-4

US 4001518 Discrete four-channel disc reproding system
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., CD-4

US 4075425 Multi-directional sound signal reproducing system
Nippon Columbia Kabushikikaisha, CD-4

US 3631345 MONITOR CIRCUIT
transistor switch controlled lamp

US 4198609 Phase tracked loop frequency demodulator



The CD-4 FM carrier is in the range between 20 to 45 kHz. Compare this to FM radio and the TV FM sound carrier (ie. old NTCS) where the deviation for FM radio is +/- 75 kHz and TV sound is +/- 25 kHz.

http://books.google.com/books?id=D9...wAw#v=onepage&q=tv sound fm deviation&f=false

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
 
On the 3rd page of the attached article, the author says he tried 3 B & O MMC6000 cartridges and none functioned satisfactorily and seems to need to be used in a tangential player for which it was designed. Also, the B & O MMC5000 cartridge is ideally suited for the B & O 3400 unit which has a low-mass arm...
The Pickering UV2400 and XUV4500 cartridges are also disussed.


Some remarks on B & O turntables:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?230-B-amp-O-Beogram-4004-4002-turntable

https://web.archive.org/web/20060826023551/http://www.beoworld.co.uk/beosystem6000a.htm
 

Attachments

  • WW-July76-p65-68.pdf
    641.5 KB · Views: 97
Article about the Pickering XUV4500 from Stereo Magazine summer 1976 attached.
 

Attachments

  • XUV.pdf
    535 KB · Views: 314
Another article from the same magazine, the Heath Modulus.
 

Attachments

  • HeathModulus.pdf
    1.3 MB · Views: 145
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society April 1973 pp 166-171
article about CD-4

:51banana:
 

Attachments

  • JAES1973Apr-p166-171.PDF
    565.6 KB · Views: 114
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