Fairchild cartridge

[TC Chris]

I went to check on my storage unit Sunday after the lock had been cut. Nothing missing. While there I saw about 10 fun projects for the winter season an will have to select a couple.

One item was the Garrard RC-88 with my Fairchild 225A cartridge in the arm. The Fairchild is an early high-end mono moving coil cart from the 1950s. The have been recently rediscovered and highly praised by the golden ears. There are tech services that will re-tip and replace the rubber suspension on these. I may get that done and then mount it in the Rek-O-Kut Rondine Jr. turntable of the same vintage.

Chris Campbell

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

That sounds like a neat project, Chris.

Let us know how the cartridge restoration goes.

Some of those vintage Fairchilds look similar to the
G.E. VR carts of the era.

[electra225]

Please do keep us updated on this project. Pictures? I'm not familiar with Fairchild cartridges....

[William]

Me either, Fairchild is a new one too me.

Bill

[TC Chris]

Here' a piece about Sherman Fairchild's equipment, with a photo of the innards of a 225A cartridge:

https://www.psaudio.com/blogs/copper/fa ... lRpD3Cl5tx

Looks like this:

tp9MZBTh.jpg (132.52 KiB) Viewed 3749 times

It's a moving-coil device but with high enough output to play via mag phono inputs.

Chris Campbell

[Doug]

I need 1,000 of these to sub my retirement. They pay stupid money for these $1000
https://reverb.com/item/34748381-fairchild-225a
Sell one a month.
I have to check my old stored phonos.
Wonder if ev game ,static ever repackage them.
Is really good info you posted

[TC Chris]

There have been some absolutely gushing reviews of these cartridges, playing mono discs of course, in Stereophile magazine recently.

There are services that will re-tip them and maybe do other work. Often, old cartridges suffer from hardened rubber in the suspension. I notice that the ad for the 225A say the rubber is silicone, which normally doesn't deteriorate in that way, and Mylar, which is also durable. My plan has been to wait until the frenzy is over and then look for service.

Chris Campbell

[danrclem]

I haven't ever had anything Fairchild, but a lot of their stuff was high end. Will you need a step up transformer when using this cartridge? I know I've read about people using SUTs with them but don't know if it's required.

I have a mono moving coil cart around here somewhere and I'm pretty sure it's a GE VR like Hi-Fi-Mogul was referring to. I also have some Altec/Peerless SUTs but wouldn't know where to begin using them together.

[TC Chris]

The Fairchild must have a pretty good output because back in 1966 I was running it through the mag phono inputs on my Bogen DB-115 mono amp. I was the noisy guy in the college dorm with that 15-watt Bogen at a time when most people had flea-powered portable phonos. I got the cartridge from my uncle, an early hi-fi hobbyist, who would save old parts for me when we went to AL for visits.

Te GE VR cartridges are not moving-coil. They are variable reluctance, hence the VR name--there's a moving vane between two magnetic poles. The coil is wound between the two poles.

Modern MC cartridges have very low outputs and need either a step-up transformer or a high-gain preamp stage.

Chris Campbell

[danrclem]

Thank you for the information about the GE VR not being a moving coil. I'm pretty sure I do have one but don't know where or which turntable it might be on. I'm still pretty sure that I have a mono moving coil cartridge, but my memory isn't what it used to be so it's possible that I may not and I was thinking about the GE cartridge.

When you get the Fairchild cartridge up and running let us know what you think of it.