Vinyl Asylum

Posted by jcarr (M) on January 25, 2008 at 17:38:38

In Reply to: RE: Madrigal, Spectral, Levinson cartridges - all SONY???? posted by marknoir on January 24, 2008 at 15:31:09

AFAIK, the ad is largely (but not totally) incorrect. The original Madrigal Carnegie I was indeed based on a Sony design, but although the generator portion undoubtedly had an air-core figure-of-8 coil which was like that of the XL-55 family, I believe that it featured polepiece-less (yokeless) magnetics, based on the later double ring-magnet repulsion designs (like the XL-MC5), rather than the older polepiece generation (XL-44, 55, 88). Although the Carnegie 1 was quite an advanced and sophisticated design for its day, I was told that it was rather tricky and demanding to produce and rebuild, and so the later Carnegie 2 was changed into a completely different (and much more conventional) design, which did not incorporate Sony design IP.

Regarding the Spectral cartridges, I did the design work for all of those (including the drafting as well as the design concepts). And although I did know Mori (then of Sony Soundtec), I never felt the need to ask him for design input, nor the need to utilize any Sony design IP.

I don't know so much about the Mark Levinson-branded cartridges, but I do know that Takeda has played a significant role. I am not aware of any design connection between Takeda and Sony Soundtec. hth, jonathan carr