In article 441a6e41.0@entanet, Ian Bell wrote:
AZ Nomad wrote:

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 21:21:59 +0000, Ian Bell

I am surprised there has been so little development of cartridges
beyond the two basic magnetic types and good old ceramic. What about
an optical cartridge for example?

Are you talking about bouncing a laser off the record groove? It was
a failu it was too expensive and worked worse than traditional
methods as it was best at reading the crud in the groove instead of
just pushing it aside.

No I was thinking more of a small low mass pair of mirrors in place of
the MM for example with perhaps fibre optics to carry the data - no hum
issues for a start.


IIRC Denon did this about 25 years ago, but the result was not a commercial
success.

People have tried various 'exotic' methods, but for whatever reasons, they
did not catch on. Bear in mind that audio is largely a 'fashion' industry
and people tend to consider what is recommened or repeatedly mentioned in
magazines.

Slainte,

Jim

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