Playing With Panasonic Strain Gauge Cartridges (And A Dedicated Phono Stage)

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No, I haven't. I plan to get one fairly soon, but the retips are expensive so I am in no rush.

I have also had problems identifying suitable new candidate styli for retipping.

I bought some cheap and cheerful EPS-46ST type replacements and found that they work fine on the 465 and not on the 451s which I actually use.

Not all styli interchange, I would not use one intended for use on a 450CII/451C on a 460C/465C or vice versa particularly if OEM.

There are some replacements that are universal like the Bliss I mentioned in a previous post that works fine on all of them.
 
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Finally packaged in the boxes I had planned.

Current set up is 451C with OEM Panasonic stylus on an ET2.5 tonearm with magnesium wand.

This table is actually going to get a TD-124 Papst 3 phase motor in the near future, it will be powered by a 550W Siemens MicroMaster 410 inverter driving a multistage LPF that removes the HF PWM artifacts and converts the stepped sine into true sine wave. I'll share pictures when it is done, along with impressions.
 

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I recently went to Sound Smith for re-tipping a Denon DL-103R and had a long conversation with Peter regarding re-tipping Panasonic SG cartridge. In his opinion, it may not be worth to do it. He said Panasonic SG cartridge was not a high end cartridge to start with. Original Panasonic diamond stylus in fact was very good stylus. You may re-tip the stylus but there are so many factors, body, sensor, etc., to influence the performance of SG cartridge, re-tipping may not be able to lift the cartridge to the level of hi-end performance.
 
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This is rather amusing considering he charges incredible prices for the same basic overall design.
There is nothing considerably different from a stock version other than an optimizing mass with stronger casing and it appears the same donut and cut cantilever is used.
The same VTF is used also, so draw your own conclusions on pricing. There are rich Doctors who know nothing about all this and this is his market..,.

With Panasonic’s being rather plentiful per se, I can see him wanting to distance himself as much as he can from a business perspective.

Not taking away from his nicely done cartridge clone , it would would be interesting to hear it with Kevin,s circuit swapped in for comparison.
I would wager Kevin’s version would eat it alive and considerably more reasonable in price

Regards
David
 
I think that your observations are spot on. There are retipped ones available from other sources, and from what I have heard on a system here in Dallas, it does make a significant difference in the sound, and for the better. Having listened to several builds of Kevin's strain gauge amp with equalization, I would expect it to eat any amp without equalization, even an expensive tubed version.
 
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I'm planning on getting one of my styli done by Dave at some point, KA what sort of stylus did you provide for the retip?

I bought several of the spherical replacements and discovered that they are definitely designed for the 460/465 and have a slightly larger coupler that fits my 465 just fine, but not the 451s I am currently using. So these are a no go for retipping since I don't currently plan to use the 465.

The Bliss types I referenced look like a good retip candidate except that the cantilever is somewhat massive. I also have Panasonic OEM one of which is trashed and another which I think might be a good candidate.

What would you recommend?
 
I have a Namiki boron micro ridge on the way. The shaft only , 6mm in length, with a 23 degree orientation (boron tube to diamond angle)
The stock angle looks about 21-23 degrees so in the ball park for a proper rebuild

I need to watch Antman again for some perspective !

Regards
David