Doug G.
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
I just bought a NOS Panasonic EPC-450C-II and it truly IS incredible. I can play even my worst CD-4 record without any carrier mistracking or distortion. My worst record being a copy of Hugo Montenegro's "Love Theme from The Godfather", RCA's first Quadradisc. It's the worst, CD-4-wise, anyway. My copy of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is the worst, over all with many scratches, rendering it unplayable. Oddly enough, the Montenegro record has very few ticks and pops.
Before this, I had various levels of success with different cartridges, the best cartridge, so far, being my XUV-4500Q but it still has problems in the inner grooves. Others mistracked even farther out on the record.
This record is not in the best condition. First of all, it has the tell-tale signs of being cleaned with a carbon fiber brush with fine scratches all through both sides in the typical swirl pattern. Although these scratches may be expected to be close to the surface and not affecting tracking/tracing, if the brush bristles are small enough to enter the grooves, they will damage them, particularly the very fine ultra sonic engravings.
It has the earliest RCA label (light orange with the rings around the outer edge) and probably was not pressed with "super vinyl". I don't know if there were enough of these pressed to have extended into the newer labels.
So anyway. I encourage anybody interested to get one of these if one becomes available even if you have to pay a dear price for one.
I also have another EPC-450C-II I got years ago but the stylus is worn and I have an EPC-451C with like new stylus but it doesn't seem to be quite as adept as the 450C-II. The resolver is a bit bigger in diameter and fits into the elements a bit tighter and thus, stiffens the compliance.
Doug
Before this, I had various levels of success with different cartridges, the best cartridge, so far, being my XUV-4500Q but it still has problems in the inner grooves. Others mistracked even farther out on the record.
This record is not in the best condition. First of all, it has the tell-tale signs of being cleaned with a carbon fiber brush with fine scratches all through both sides in the typical swirl pattern. Although these scratches may be expected to be close to the surface and not affecting tracking/tracing, if the brush bristles are small enough to enter the grooves, they will damage them, particularly the very fine ultra sonic engravings.
It has the earliest RCA label (light orange with the rings around the outer edge) and probably was not pressed with "super vinyl". I don't know if there were enough of these pressed to have extended into the newer labels.
So anyway. I encourage anybody interested to get one of these if one becomes available even if you have to pay a dear price for one.
I also have another EPC-450C-II I got years ago but the stylus is worn and I have an EPC-451C with like new stylus but it doesn't seem to be quite as adept as the 450C-II. The resolver is a bit bigger in diameter and fits into the elements a bit tighter and thus, stiffens the compliance.
Doug