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Shake rattle and roll

Ingvar Ahlberg

Ingvar Ahlberg

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 9, 2023
Messages
263
Location
The Swedish Westcoast
A couple of years ago Johan @Agaton Sax, wrote about the findings of Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and the impact those findings has had on the audio/music industry and in our hobby.

Especially regarding the phenomena that occurs if You put a bunch of wire, for instance a coil, in a magnetic field and then put an ac signal through this wire it would shake and rattle in time with this signal, turning that coin around and attaching a rod to that coil and then shake vigurously the coils will produce a signal that You can connect to a speaker this will produce something You can dance to as long as the rod holder keeps shaking.

The German manufacturer EMT took this to a new level when they reversed their cutting head technology and made their cartridge, the Tondose, which is still a mythical piece of equipment, sought after by many but totaly unobtanium today, later JVC copied and refined this in their "direct coupled" MC1 and MC2-E cartridges.

I stumbled on a MC-2E around the same time as Johan wrote about Mr Faraday, didn´t know what it was, listened and was absolutely baffled by the quality of that cartridge.

Conscience after a while forced me to send that to my friend who had a dream about this cartridge, a dream shared with another friend that had gone on the last, long hike, he was Johans friend actually but I was fortunate to talk with him a few times and we became friends on distance.

Then I found out that the source of that first MC2-E also had one more and one MC1, unopened in original packaging so I bought them both and was happy as a good midnight drunk for a while, mainly used the MC2-E, the MC1 was mounted and tested but I was in some way content with the little brother.

So that PITA of a conscience once again told me what to do with the MC-1, consequently it also moved to SA.

After that had finally passed through the rigmarole and labyrinth of SA customs, I was very happy that I sent it there.

Just for fun i checked the net last week for that final refinement of the JVC direct coupled cartridge series, the MC-L1000 and there was an ad, I had seen it a year or so ago, obvioulsy no buyer that time, so I hit the BUY button, it arrived today.

IMG_E2818.JPG

This time Johan, I will fight tahat conscience till come hell or high water.

Ingva
 
Very nice Ingvar. Pease hold on to this one as they get even better with time. It will also help diminish my personal guilt complex about the MC1.
 
No problem Johan, will hang on to this until it dies, it was not included in that dream either.

A note on those cartridges if someone else finds one, they are regarded as fragile/unreliable, fragile they are, both to mechanical abuse, accidentaly dropping on the record can be fatal, not suitable for schratching even if it is a good party.

But I think the worst problem is dust and debris being sucked up in the magnet gap where the coils perform their shake, rattle and roll routine, that is a very, very tight little space, it is protected by a fabric sheet but of course has an opening where the microscopic squash raquets protrude into the gap and that magnetic field is strong.

Now I don´t think You regularly have iron filings on Your records but everyting is actually magnetic, everything that is electrically conductive is naturally magnetic, just to different extents, but everything that can be electrically charged is also magnetic when charged, as a record very easily becomes charged dust on a charged record is also magnetic and can be sucked up into that magnetic gap.

In reality You have to regard everything as magnetic, which Nicola Tesla knew and John, aged 4, unintentionaly proved to me.

So using those cartridges keep the records free from dust.

Those cartridges also work very well on Warren Zevon records.

IMG_E2821.JPG

Ingvar
 
I haven´t found any words to describe this cartridge yet, there perhaps are no such words, listened to this now:

IMG_1565.JPG


Yes, I have the original too,

IMG_1571.JPG

The original probably sounds just as good as the MOFI, released the same year, just more worn than the MOFI that I bought unopened 2 years ago.

Need to go get a shower now after that listen, perhaps find the words then.

Ingvar
 
There are very few ferromagnetic materials, quite a few paramagnetic materials and many diamagnetic materials. Most ambient dust (silicate or calcite based) is diamagnetic and therefore not an attractive problem (in some cases, exposure to a magnetic field makes diamagnetics actively less attracted and therefore repelled minimally by a magnetic field), so, keep anything metallic away in dust form and you should be fine. Mind you, in Gauteng, there may be metallic sulphides in the dust, so if you have a cart with the ability to pull iron filings, you may attract very small dust particles (sub 20 microns)
 
Then again, breathing those will not be nice, so not really sure whether savi g the cart is that important
 
Listenining to Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown, with this cartridge was something new, I always knew how well recorded it is, the resolution, the magic guitarr sound,
never knew how much power and force there is in the bass and drums/percussion, never heard that before.

Opposites attract each other, wheter electric or magnetic, that is exactly the same thing, electric or magnetic, according to Nicola Tesla, then it can be static or dynamic, exactly the differences between magnetic and electric atraction I don´t know, Nicola Tesla said that they were the same, I don´t know/understand what he understood, probably no one does, but all cartridges attract, suck up, dust from a record, not only that which get stuck on the stylus but everywhere on the surface facing the record,

Wheter this is a magnetic effect or electrostatic I dont know, could also be electrodynamic as when You shake a coil in a magnetic field, or shake a magnet close to a coil that is conected to a circuit, especially with a ground reference, You also create an electrodynamic field.

Simple conclusion, keep the records dustfree and not electrostatically charged.

Ingvar
 
Listening to an old favourite record, T-Bone Burnett, same title, I think this may be the best cartridge I ever listened to, good enogh for me at least.

R-8206421-1522684305-4947.jpg

Ingvar
 
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Williams' dad was a professor of English literature, as was Suzanne Vega's dad and I think Lhasa del Sela. What a pleasure it must be if you can instill that kind of love for a subject in your children.
 
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So You buy those gadgets, cartridges or whatever, in order to make You that guy with all those priceless cartridges, (nobody knows anything about those things today, my friends, that already thinks I´m an idiot, looks another way when I tell them what I just found/bought) but when that gadget arrives You listen a lot, I have a routine for newcomers this and that record so I know what i bought.

Then after a couple of days I´m there again, rummaging through the records shelves, nothing to listen to, then suddenly, today, I hit P, and found Graham Parker & the Rumour, Howlin´wind, put it on and wondered why I bother with cartridges, would be better time spent looking for records as good as this.



Ingvar
 
So I´m spending money, quite a lot, on old things/gadgets, a 41 years old cartridge for instance, to what avail I wonder?

With retards/monsters at the helm in Russia, Noth Korea, China, Hungary etc. this 58 year old record is still getting more up to date by the day, perhaps should buy wine instead of cartridges and other stupid gadgets?


Ingvar
 
When You find this cartridge make sure that You have this record to listen to with the JVC Direct Coupled cartridge.

IMG_E2829.JPG

If You don´t find a JVC direct coupled cartridge, make sure You listen to this record with another cartridge You like..


Ingvar
 
Put a record on and suddenly there was a polar wind blowing into my nothern ear and straight out the other side, not strange, no resistance in the middle, free passage, beside that wind thou there was something uncanny, a new level to something I thought I knew by heart.

But the snow never was this yellow before, other cartridges probably cant replay realy deep husky yellow.


Ingvar
 
By the way, love the way that the still picture of Francisco Zappa winks at you occasionally during the video - or was that the shrooms kicking in?
 
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