Well, the last post did cause a few questions to arise. I assure you, I am not an expert of phonographs, turntables, or their parts and accessories. However, I did discover that I had this little gem stashed away in a drawer. I am fairly sure there’s a story involved, but I am not going to try to sort it out.
What we are looking at, on the right, is a turntable cartridge from “back in the day”, probably the late ’70s or early ’80s, although particular cartridges were, and are used over a span of many, many years. This is an ADC XLM MKII, which, as you can see, is “improved”. It is a discontinued model and if you can find one, well, to the turntable fan it might be a little bit of gold. I found one reference that indicated when it was last available the cost was around $300.
The cartridge mentioned in the last post is a “P-Mount”. That refers to how the cartridge attaches to the tonearm. In that case it is a plug-in affair with a little retaining screw. This cartridge, the ADC, is (I believe) a 1/2 inch mount. It is secured to the tone arm using a pair of very small screws. You have to be very aware of the wiring because the wires are connected individually to the back of the cartridge. I understand that it is important to be aware of your colors!