"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...

"Keith G" wrote

I'm confused about the mention of a 'ceramic cart' - unless I'm mistaken
the output from a ceramic cart is/was 'line level' (give or take) - if
that's so, what happens if it is replaced with a magnetic cart or are
they talking about stylus replacement only?

Baffled am I - musta got it wrong somewhere.....???

Stylus replacement only. They offer a diamond alternative to the sapphire
original.

Ceramic cartridges normally give out 100mV or thereabouts, and if fed into
a high impedance input (2M) are more or less self-equalising for the RIAA
characteristic. In the seventies when there were still a few "hi-fi"
ceramic pickups around (Decca Deram, Connoisseur, Sonotone etc) a few amps
tried to provide "proper" equalisation for ceramic cartridges, but the
need for higher compliances (especially vertical) for stereo effectively
killed off ceramic cartridges. That, and new magnetic cartridges coming
available relatively cheaply. I bought my first magnetic (Audio Technica
AT6 for £5 in 1967) - A lot of money then for a student, but just about
affordable.



Interesting and informative.