Classic Hifi Care

I have an old crystal (?) stereo cartridge in a tone arm. It is a replacement unit that was used back in the day. I'm not really sure what it is. The symbol on it looks a little like Audio Technica, but I don't know if they ever built crystal cartridges. My question is this. There is a black wire, a blue wire, a red wire and a white wire on the cartridge. Resistance across the black and the blue wires was 5K ohms. No continuiity between any of the other wires. This is a flip cartridge that, if good, will work in a little GE stereo I have. What wires are for the individual channels. I'm guessing black/white and blue/red. I suppose the best way to see if it is good would be to install it into the stereo then see what it does. I have had this thing for probably 30 years and never had a use for it. Ideas?

do you have a scope to see if any output from the cartridge ?

Yes and no.

I have a little Heathkit scope, but it doesn't work right. That project is on the list. Probably just as easy at this point to install the cartridge in question in the stereo then see what happens. I am not sure of how to connect it.

How about a photo or two ?

Okay. Here you go. These aren't very good. Maybe you can tell what I'm dealing with.

Yes it's a crystal stereo cart.
Cross-indexed to EV 5442.

Have you removed the wire/clips and cleaned
clip and prong contacts ?
They could be dirty/oxidized.

If that doesn't help, the crystal is probably degraded.

Red & White wires would be R/L channels
as you surmised.

This cart seems to have the R/L channels on one
side and the grounds on the other.

Not a conventional wiring set-up.

The wires appear the same in this old e-pay listing.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/294984908754?n ... 7675.l2557

Hi-Fi-Mogul wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:00 am Have you removed the wire/clips and cleaned
clip and prong contacts ?
They could be dirty/oxidized.

But clean gently. Some of them were silver-plated. I read somewhere that silver oxide is conductive (yay!) but copper oxide is not (boo). I'm sure that if they did plate with silver, it was as thin a coating as they could get away with. Best to preserve it if it's silver.

Chris Campbell

Thank you both for the information. Should there be continuity across the red and white wire? I'm guessing no, because they are different channels. And I'm also guessing the cartridge I have is not an EV, per se, but is an un-named model made in Japan. Is it even fooling with if it's good?

Greg,
I would think even if the cartridge functions,
it's on its last legs.

I remember reading that some crystal carts were
apparently sealed well,
so that they still function well after decades.

I don't remember which crystal carts those were.

I'd say you were right about the cartridge. At this point, I have nothing to lose trying it. I need a cartridge in any case and this will be good practice installing this one then noting how it works. We might be surprised, but I'm not holding out much hope.