Description: Moving-magnet phono cartridge with an elliptical stylus. Stylus radii: 0.2 mil by 0.7 mil. Frequency range: 20Hz–20k Hz. Output: 5.7mV. Separation: >25dB at 1kHz. Recommended load: 47k ohms. Inductance: 720 mH. Recommended tracking force: ¾ to 1½ gm.
Weight: 6 gm.
Price: $39 (1968); no longer available (2017).
Manufacturer: Shure Bros. Inc., Evanston, IL 60204 (1968). Shure Inc., 5800 W. Touhy Avenue, Niles, IL 60714-4608. Tel: (800) 257-4873, (847) 600-2000. Fax: (847) 600-1212. Web: www.shure.com/americas.
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Sidebar: Specifications
While many of the "modded Philips" firms simply replace the plastic "Philips" or "Magnavox" logo with their own after completing all their internal circuit mojo, for the Sonographe SD-22 ($895), Conrad-Johnson goes quite a bit further by wrapping the stock plastic flimsy-luxe box with their own heavy metal skin, making for a much stronger and nonresonant chassis. Unlike many of the modkateers, C-J doesn't replace the fairly flimsy stock RCA jack assembly of the Philips machine; in my experience, this is one of the first things to go bad on such a unit, as the contact integrity is usually poor…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Frequency response: 5Hz–19kHz ±0.5dB. Output level: 640mV RMS. S/N ratio: 90dB relative to 640mV output level.
Dimensions: 11.25" (288mm) D by 17.125" (435mm) W by 3.75" (95mm) H. Weight: 12 lbs (5.5kg).
Price: $895 (1992); no longer available (2017). Approximate number of dealers: 100.
Manufacturer: Conrad-Johnson Design Inc., 2800R Dorr Avenue, Fairfax, VA 22031. Tel: (703) 698-8581. Fax: (703) 560-5360. Web: conradjohnson.com.
Sidebar 2: Aunt Silly Airy Gear
The player was broken-in for roughly a month before I sat down to listen. I fed it CDs, set it for infinite repeat, and hooked the fixed outputs to a 10k load (you can make this by soldering a 10k resistor between the signal and ground of an RCA plug, or alternately, you can just hook the player up to an input on your preamp, turned all the way down), which ensured that signal would flow through the audio circuitry, output coupling caps, wire, etc. If you leave the output jacks unterminated there's no signal flow, and all you accomplish is a ha'pen'orth's…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The SD-22's frequency response (fig.1) is flat over most of the range, though its definite high-frequency rolloff beginning about 6kHz would likely translate into some softness in the upper octaves. The ripples in the top two audio octaves are typical of the Philips digital filter used. In fig.2, the SD-22's de-emphasized response tracks the HF rolloff of the player as a whole. The squarewave response in fig.3 is typical of the players in this group—a good rise-time combined with the moderate ripple indicating a linear-phase digital filter, though more overshoot…
The first time I saw Thomas's Sandwich Size English muffins on the shelves of my local supermarket, I thought, This is it: the English muffin has now been perfected, and I need never buy another kind. I bought a four-pack—their awesomeness is so potent that to supply them in greater quantities would apparently be dangerous—and prepared one the minute I got home.
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ah but gee!
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In consultation with, first, Acoustic Analyst Bob Hodas, and then retailer Brian Berdan of Pasadena-based Audio Element and John Quick of dCS (…