This summer there came to me the hare-brained idea of testing how good ceramic phono carts are - or are not. I know they are a relic of bygone days, but almost all the old consoles and record players I've restored used ceramic cartriges.
Ceramic carts are high output and need little to no EQ if the proper preamp is used. I have a nice new Sonotone (AKA Garrard) cart and a good old EV from my Clairtone. How well can they perform? I mounted the Sonotone on my AT tonearm with a new headshell and gave it a spin. The ceramic cart and headshell are so light that they float where the AT95E has 2.5g of tracking force. A dime on the headshell and a little balance adjustment got me to the 4.25g needed for the Sonotone.
It pugs right into my USB sound card and at 0.48V output, as more than enough level. It does suffer HF roll off, even tho the instrument input of the soundcard is supposed to me 1 Meg ohm. Below you will see two graphs, the shaggy one from RightMark shows the FR from a song on an old mono LP. White is the AT cart with RIAA, green is the ceramic straight in. The smoothed graph used the AT cart as reference and the plot is the FR of ceramic.
A more suitable preamp is the next step. That should fix the HF roll-off. Why all the bother? Because it's too damn hot to go out and work in the garage. This can be done in comfort. 😉
Ceramic carts are high output and need little to no EQ if the proper preamp is used. I have a nice new Sonotone (AKA Garrard) cart and a good old EV from my Clairtone. How well can they perform? I mounted the Sonotone on my AT tonearm with a new headshell and gave it a spin. The ceramic cart and headshell are so light that they float where the AT95E has 2.5g of tracking force. A dime on the headshell and a little balance adjustment got me to the 4.25g needed for the Sonotone.
It pugs right into my USB sound card and at 0.48V output, as more than enough level. It does suffer HF roll off, even tho the instrument input of the soundcard is supposed to me 1 Meg ohm. Below you will see two graphs, the shaggy one from RightMark shows the FR from a song on an old mono LP. White is the AT cart with RIAA, green is the ceramic straight in. The smoothed graph used the AT cart as reference and the plot is the FR of ceramic.
A more suitable preamp is the next step. That should fix the HF roll-off. Why all the bother? Because it's too damn hot to go out and work in the garage. This can be done in comfort. 😉
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I love ceramics. Special the Grado B model and the Philips GP390. You can use these on a normal MM Riaa pre. They sound special like there is nothing in between if you know what i mean. More a "real to real" sound than a "Shure Moving magnet" sound. To bad they stop building and devolopment of ceramics. The old ones are faling apart, the compliance are hardend and the cantilivers and diamonds are not state of the art.
I used Sonotone 9TA HC ceramic cartridges on my BSR MP60 disco decks back in the 70s - HC standing for High Compliance.
Their tracking ability was impeccable, even in the harsh disco environment - and they sounded great!
At home, in the same era, I used a Decca Deram ceramic cartridge in my Garrard SP25 Mk 2 - pretty hard to distinguish it from the Goldring G800 MM cartridge which succeeded it.
Their tracking ability was impeccable, even in the harsh disco environment - and they sounded great!
At home, in the same era, I used a Decca Deram ceramic cartridge in my Garrard SP25 Mk 2 - pretty hard to distinguish it from the Goldring G800 MM cartridge which succeeded it.
Interesting! Thanks for the info.
Arnold, I had a Grado B that came with a Rek-O-Kut Rondine but it had the dreaded "1 bad channel" fault so I never got to really experience it.
Arnold, I had a Grado B that came with a Rek-O-Kut Rondine but it had the dreaded "1 bad channel" fault so I never got to really experience it.
This was a rabbit hole I was about to go down until I realised I had waay to many projects on the go. Some of the later high compliance designs from micro-acoustics were getting pretty good, although they had built in EQ so I'd have wanted to remove that to use my preferred preamp. Found a man that could do that, but then had a rare attack of common sense.
BTW are you going to correct the thread title?
BTW are you going to correct the thread title?
Ceramic cartridges have their own voices, just like magnetic carts do.
I've got some phonos around the house that use them, and they sound just fine for what they are.
The one favorite that I lean towards is the Electro Voice EV149D - 2-4g, .55v.
I've got some phonos around the house that use them, and they sound just fine for what they are.
The one favorite that I lean towards is the Electro Voice EV149D - 2-4g, .55v.
Yes - I just stumbled across it on a Lenco thread I think. Thanks for posting that.
Well, yeah. But then it would not be true to my mode of many typos. Only Planet 10 outdoes me on typos. 🙄
Pano - I presumed you'd say that (about the typo).
It shows how humans can make mistakes and aren't perfect at times.
But the grammar nazis always bite about mistakes.
It shows how humans can make mistakes and aren't perfect at times.
But the grammar nazis always bite about mistakes.
This looks like a simple and easy preamp for ceramic.
Ceramic Cartridge Preamp Circuit -- The Revitalizer
Or I might have a couple of SSM2019 that would have high input impedance. Using a load like the paper Galu posted could work. Don't need much gain, 6dB would likely be enough since the cart is high output.
Ceramic Cartridge Preamp Circuit -- The Revitalizer
Or I might have a couple of SSM2019 that would have high input impedance. Using a load like the paper Galu posted could work. Don't need much gain, 6dB would likely be enough since the cart is high output.
I remember as a kid, when I first heard a magnetic cartridge - oh, there's no going back. Ceramics are such a POS. Same when I first built a speaker with a separate W & T; now, that whizzer cone speaker is such a POS.
Perhaps if there was financial incentive a ceramic - or is it more correctly piezo-electric - cartridge could be built that does all the magic. Who knows?
Perhaps if there was financial incentive a ceramic - or is it more correctly piezo-electric - cartridge could be built that does all the magic. Who knows?
Someone once told me that ceramic cartridges work a lot better when loaded with a virtual ground, but I didn't ask him any details. If I remember well, he was talking about a current to voltage amplifier with RIAA correction (or just a charge amplifier, that is, integrating current to voltage amplifier?). He taught electronics at a university of technology, so he generally knew what he was talking about.
Did anyone ever try that?
I understand it is conceptually better than a high-impedance load because you can use good-quality capacitors for the conversion of the charge from the cartridge into a voltage, while with a high-impedance load, you use the capacitance of the cartridge itself. The capacitance of piezoelectric ceramics is usually non-linear. No idea how much difference that makes.
Did anyone ever try that?
I understand it is conceptually better than a high-impedance load because you can use good-quality capacitors for the conversion of the charge from the cartridge into a voltage, while with a high-impedance load, you use the capacitance of the cartridge itself. The capacitance of piezoelectric ceramics is usually non-linear. No idea how much difference that makes.
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You just have to go back further in time to get the good ones. By the time they started making 3-in-1 stereos with a TT, 8 track and AM/FM, with cheap 1 and 2 watt IC amplifiers, the ceramic cartridges used went to absolute $***. Absolutely no bass whatsoever, ruined records within 5 to 10 plays. Back when record players had tubes and germanium transistors they had better ceramic cartridges with the EQ magic built in. And wouldn’t ruin your records.
Yeah, it was financial incentive. To not buy the $199 stereo and buy the $399 one with a MM cartridge and 10 watts per channel instead of only 1.
Yes, diyrayk, the G800 is an induced magnet cartridge.
When you remove the stylus you can see the little round ceramic magnet which produces the magnetic field with which the 'iron' carried by the vibrating stylus cantilever interacts.
I called it MM merely for convenience.
When you remove the stylus you can see the little round ceramic magnet which produces the magnetic field with which the 'iron' carried by the vibrating stylus cantilever interacts.
I called it MM merely for convenience.
The specs for the "New Series" Decca Deram, the one with the translucent white body, are as follows:
Compliance: 9/5 cu
Separation: 20 dB
Output at 1 kHz: 200 mv at 5 cm/sec
Frequency range: 18 Hz - 18 kHz
Attached is the circuit to allow the Deram to work with a standard MM input.
Compliance: 9/5 cu
Separation: 20 dB
Output at 1 kHz: 200 mv at 5 cm/sec
Frequency range: 18 Hz - 18 kHz
Attached is the circuit to allow the Deram to work with a standard MM input.
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In the old days I tried it. Our family had a Garrard record changer with crystal pickup. It had a reversible sapphire stylus for 33/45 and for 78 if reversed. I applied an 1k load on it and connected to a standard phono preamplifier. It worked 😛 Sorry no measurements were done.
There is no lack of bass in my Sonotone cart. It's on par with the Audio Technica MM cart. It's the high end that suffers. My goal is to find a proper loading so as to not roll off the top end.
I'm sure that the ceramic will never sound as clean as the magnetic cart, but I'd like to give it a fair chance. Same turntable, same tonearm.
I'm sure that the ceramic will never sound as clean as the magnetic cart, but I'd like to give it a fair chance. Same turntable, same tonearm.