MoFi MM cartridges - AT generators, with an aluminium body wrapped around them?

[DSJR]

The once very popular Linn K5, 9 and 18 cartridges were AT 95 based I remember, with different mounting brackets and stylus types, the bodies later painted grey. Goldring also use a modified AT system for their E series, but not sure they really perform any better than the rather cheaper VM95 relatives.

It was discussed on VE once that Shure had about five bodies they could use as base for their entire ranges, one or two with laminated pole pieces, saved for their earlier top line models. They seemed to downgrade at the end, the down-tilting responses then giving a 'beefier' rather than 'duller' tone I recall (no idea why, but that's how I remember them)

 

[dlaloum]

FYI, I will buy the AT-VM95E and ML stylus for my old Clearaudio Aurum Alpha cartridge, cut it to fit, replace the old stylus and measure it. While clearly these are AT-derived the coil spec seems different from the current ATs ( Clearaudio spec are 0.66 kOhm @ 1 kHz, 0.42 H). The stylus is identical in the original Alpha, Beta, Beta-S and Virtuoso = the AT95E, bonded elliptical. What Clearaudio did with these was to make them, measure them and classified them into groups with increasing spec (channel balance, channel separation).

I have some old measurements that may indicate that the Clearaudios measure different from the ATs though. We’ll see. Clearaudio has the same principle with their current line where the model Concept V2 is the entry model with poorest specification. Also measured so in the library. Now, replacing the stylus in the Alpha with a new one might cause it to perform better or worse. It might perform as a Beta or Beta-S or worse like their ”Classic” or ”Concept” models. The interesting swap would the ML stylus.

I have (or had!) a lot of bodies from this family - and there was a wide range of inductances - so clearly AT have maintained the format while varying the internals with more or less coils (higher or lower inductance) - to match various styli fitted over the years.

As a result, it is possible to get a wide range of differently specced bodies, and use them to tweak the performance to match a specific stylus, in combination with adjusting R & C, it is one more variable we can work with.

 

[Thomas_A]

I have (or had!) a lot of bodies from this family - and there was a wide range of inductances - so clearly AT have maintained the format while varying the internals with more or less coils (higher or lower inductance) - to match various styli fitted over the years.

As a result, it is possible to get a wide range of differently specced bodies, and use them to tweak the performance to match a specific stylus, in combination with adjusting R & C, it is one more variable we can work with.

We´ll see when the stylii arrive.The inductance is similar enough to other and previous ATs, 420 mH, but the impedance @ 1 kHz looks odd at 0.66-0.68 kOhm. Current AT-VM95 is at 3.3 kOhm.