New, Searchable Cartridge Database

[soupdragon]

the www seems not to be displaying !

Liam

[monte verdi]

Ed, thank you so much for all your hard work. I've begun collecting new and vintage cartridges and use your site daily. If you have a fund for your site, I would be happy to contribute on an annual to semi annual basis. I feel it only fair from all the use I have gotten and will get in future from this site. When I have missing info I will naturally provide. Thanks again.
Ramon
PS I humbly ask any and all of you who use Ed's site to give a little money so we can help Ed to keep it going strong. I believe there isn't a site that comes close on the web for cartridge info.

[bauzace50]

Same concern here. The Vinyl Engine is great, and should receive all the pertinent support from members. Please say how.
bauzace50

[JaS]

Same concern here. The Vinyl Engine is great, and should receive all the pertinent support from members. Please say how.

Thanks for your kind words. We still accept donations of scans, images for the gallery and article submissions, but the most important thing is that people use the site!

Regards,
JaS

PS We also do out bit to support Ed's site; his original tonearm database was built from data supplied by me and his site has direct access to the cartridge manuals. There is nothing quite like the cartridgedb...use it or lose it

[caleb]

Hi Ed,
Ihave just visited your site.

I am interested to know how you use the dbx 224 unit in your system.

I have exactly the same unit, but cant find a use for it!

Regards
CBW

[davidsss]

I never knew the CartridgeDB had a tonearm database too. My tonearm (Micro MA101II) is there but no more info than is here. Great resource the cartridgeDB.

DS

[EdAInWestOC]

Hi Ed,
Ihave just visited your site.

I am interested to know how you use the dbx 224 unit in your system.

I have exactly the same unit, but cant find a use for it!

Regards
CBW

Caleb,
The only thing I use the dbx 224 for is for the few dbx encoded LPs I own. It can also be used in conjunction with any tape deck but I've never tried it when I had my last tape deck hooked up to my rig.

Ed

[EdAInWestOC]

I never knew the CartridgeDB had a tonearm database too. My tonearm (Micro MA101II) is there but no more info than is here. Great resource the cartridgeDB.

DS

David,
Actually the start for the Cartridge Database's tonearm database came from here. Jas was kind enough to give me a kick start. Unfortunately I don't have much time to spend on the site anymore. I had plans for additional integration between the cartridge and tonearm sides of the house.

Maybe later,
Ed

[lfleib]

Thanks Dale,
I'm glad it helped out. The Empire 600LAC may be a sleeper today, but it was quite noteworthy in its day. I've never heard one, but I did own an Empire many years ago. I can't remember the exact model or how it sounded.

Along the way I vaguely remember reading something about Empire Scientific. I believe they were originally an instrumentation company that tried their hand at cartridge manufacturing.

Good luck with the 600LAC,
Ed

The cartridge database is a wonderful contribution. Thank you very much.

I think that Empire Scientific was owned by Dyna Audio. If you look inside an old Troubador turntable it says so. It makes sense that Dyna would market a high end line of record playing equipment under a different name. Dyna had a reputation for making great kits and very good amps etc. but the high end was dominated by McIntosh and Fisher and a few others. I don't think they actually made the phono cartridges. I believe that B&O was the supplier. Back in that day B&O was on the leading edge of technology and had a reputation for outstanding quality.

I'm new to the Engine, and I found the database before I knew about this site. I sent you the spec sheet on the Pioneer MC-401. I believe this cartridge was made by Audio Technica. They probably made all of the Pioneer cartridges.

One of my favorite cartridge lines is misrepresented in the Database. That is the low output Monster cartridges of the late '80's and early 90's. The first Monster I owned was an Alpha Genisis 500. The 500 came out around 1987 and was virtually identical to the Alpha Genisis 1000. You could take the picture of the 1000 and edit the red lettering on the side to say 500 and you'd have an accurate picture. All the specs are the same except the frequency response went out to 50K, and the cantilever was boron without the coating. It had a microridge stylus. The 500 was $500. When the 1000 came out, around 1988, I traded in my 500. I was hard pressed to tell the difference. I still have my 1000, but the stylus is gone. One of these years I'll send it out to be refurbished. The info on the 1000 is accurate except for the date. In 1989 Monster came out with the Gamma 2000. I'm pretty sure it was a Gamma and not a Beta or Sigma. It was also identical looking with the same 4.2g body, but was dark brown. The Gamma I believe had a gold coil and was otherwise identical to the 1000. The Gamma was sweeter and smoother than the 1000. The 1000 was faster and cleaner. The price was $1000. I'm quite sure this all happened before the end of 1989, because at that time I left the retail end of the business, and went into manufacturing. I'll try to look up some of my old "partners in crime", to see if they have any old price sheets or other info. I'll send it in if I have any luck. By the way, these cartridges were all made in Japan.
Thanks again for the database. It has already become an essential tool.
Franklin

[bauzace50]

Hi,
Empire Scientific, also known as Empire was Never owned by Dynaco, Inc.!
Dynaco imported cartridges from Bang & Olufsen and also, ribbon microphones and a really good tape recorder/player called the Beocord.
I owned several Empire cartridges, which were invariably excellent...still own two of them and use them frequently.
Ortofon corporation was once purchased by David Hafler, founder of Dynaco, Inc. but such is not the case today (and Mr. Hafler himself passed away).
Peace to all,
bauzace50

[Karnevil9]

That Database is very handy indeed if you can actually load the pages at times.Bigger entries such as Shure take donkies to load if at all...

[EdAInWestOC]

That Database is very handy indeed if you can actually load the pages at times.Bigger entries such as Shure take donkies to load if at all...

It's entirely related to the connectivity and all that sort of internet type stuff...

I could have written the site to use paging and only given 10, 20 or whatever number of records at a time but I frequently find those type of search sites somewhat annoying. Your going to have to page through the results anyway so you may as well take another drink of that coffee tea, beer or whatever you have handy. It is the internet and there are times when things are tough so there are compelling arguments for both points of view.

I just tested it here in Ocean City, MD USA and it took less than 15 seconds to return all of the Shure results with the thumb nail photos. That's probably as quick as it gets so FWIW that my response time.

I would consider adding paging of the results but I have little time for the site lately and I'm fortunate it's up and running at all.

Ed

[JaS]

It's entirely related to the connectivity and all that sort of internet type stuff...

I can't say I've ever had connectivity or speed problems with the cartridge database? Other than obvious things like a slow network or busy server, any speed issues are most likely down to Internet Explorer trying to draw those huge (and useful) tables. I'm not a big fan of Firefox presentation but the cartridgedb is lightening fast with that browser

Regards,
JaS

[nailer]

Great site.

Just sent it AT-ML 170/OCC manual specs.