Sony XL-55
(nov. 1976 - 1980)
Sony XL-55Pro
(nov. 1977 - 1985)

Superlative cart with an innovative coil : wound like an 8 ! And with a beryllium, aluminium and carbon cantilever !
A few versions were produced, from the original XL-55 to the hand-picked XL-55Pro version (made for the PS-X9) or XL-55 Mono.
The "lower" XL-44 shared the same Figure 8 coil and round air-core armature ; the XL-44B did as well. There also was an XL-55II and, highly desirable, the ultimate XL-55ProII...

Bar the original XL-55, all of these have an integrated headshell but, unfortunately, all of these 55s are very rare outside Japan :(

The original XL-55 was developped at the same time the PS-X9 professional LP player was under development ; the hand-picked version of the original 55 was at first kept for customers who bought a PS-X9, then made available separately, even for those who had a little PS-X7, big TTS-8000, new PS-X70 or old TTS-4000.
The XL-55 and XL-55Pro/II are heavyweights moving coil cartridges - so a PUA-7 fits, a PUA-1600L fits but it won't do on a PS-X600 or a Denon DA-401 !

Sony's cartridge department was enhanced when the fully-Sony affiliated SoundTec Corporation was formed in 1976/77 to carry on research on stereo cartridges. Needless to say, SoundTec had by 1983 less horizon ahead and the fully-Sony owned corporation closed its doors circa 1985.
But in the meantime, SoundTec gave us the XL-55Pro and many excellent siblings. It is too bad Sony advertised so little the efforts of its own offspring...

This post was made possible thanks to Meinhard Bajus who loaned an x-rare '78 brochure printed in Japan dedicated to the XL-55.
More from american, german and japanese sources soon :)