cartridge recognition

[floydfan]

Hi All

Just bought an old Hitachi HT 350 to try out DD, one channel was dead so I checked out the cartridge and one of the leads came off. Needless to say in my attempts to solder the lead on I bust up more leads and I will have to sort it all out. Anyway I was wondering if anyone could help me recognise the cartridge. The stylus is for an AT cartridge (ATS11 I think) but the cartridge has no AT logo; it has a DM on the front and an 848 on the top of the body.
If you recognise the cartridge is it any good? I do have an Ortofon ff15e,shure m75 ed ,shure m93e and a Goldring of unknown type all needing a needle. Would any of these be any good?

Cheers

[jammy395]

Im afraid its a bit of a tall order....Have tryed to punch some data into google but cant seem to get anywhere,,,,
Dont suppose you could post a pic or 2 floydfan..............Would help a lot........

Arm / headshell wires are a bugger to fix eh.............

[ninetynine]

The old Hitachi HT-350 may well have come supplied with an Audio technica VN87D cartridge so it could be one of those? If it is this series you could try a replacement stylus with one of the higher up the range elliptical profiles? Good uni-torque motor in those Hitachi decks.

[slinger]

For what it's worth, and from a post by someone who has the service manual for that TT...

Original cartridge: Hitachi VFS-261, 0.7mil diamond stylus DS-ST26, 2g tracking force

Source - http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_fo ... php?t=8237

[floydfan]

Hi Thanks for the replies.

Jammy I know it's a tall order but there are loads of knowledgeable people on this forum and I was just trying my luck. I will try to put in a couple of photos but I haven't tried that before so may end up badly.
I will also investigate the VN 870 and the VFS 261 cartridges but it is a bit difficult at the moment as I am babysitting the grandkids and the snow is coming down. They are stuck in front of Wallace and Grommit which ends in 15 minutes. Then I will have to feed them and find something to interest them ; they are a bit small to appreciate my "big CD player" and are liable to give my vinyl a prod as they don't see that at home.

[Helge Gundersen]

I see people on the Net say that DM is some Hitachi cartridge made by Audio Technica. Try searching for Hitachi cartridge dm without "848".

[floydfan]

H again

Have set up my new deck and sounds quite good but there seems to be a bias in the soundstage with one speaker slightly louder. It's not much but just noticeable. The cartridge is the original, I think, so is 30 years old at least is there anything else I should check before getting a new cartridge.
Could the antiskate have this effect, I have set it to the same as the stylus pressure.
If I have to get a new cartridge do you have any suggestions for this deck. Any ideas which won't need a mortgage will be gratefully received

Cheers

[slinger]

I'm far from being a vinyl expert but as you obviously know the rule of thumb is to set the anti skate value to the same as the tracking weight, and from trawling the net it seems that it's that ratio that is recommended for your deck with the original cartridge so in my long-winded and excuse ridden way I'd have to say no, the anti skate weight is probably not causing your problem.
New cartridge? Sorry, can't advise on that but I do think it may be the cause of your imbalance problem, assuming you've had a deck set up on your system previously and it sounded OK?

[floydfan]

Hi
I did some digging online and it does seem that the antiskate would not affect the system in that way.I did have another deck and it did not have this problem so I will investigate the cartridge a bit more. Maybe test the resistances on each side but I will also try to get some info on a replacement cartridge.

Cheers