JVC MC-L10
(1981 - 1983)

Part of the L10 series, part also of the ultimate efforts to perfect LP replay, the MC-L10 is a Direct-Coupled cartridge with a Beryllium cantilever - if beryllium wasn't an exclusive of Victor, the DC system was.

DC however didn't mean what it means in amplifier design, for it was a way to convert the stylus vibrations into current much sooner than conventional systems by placing the coil... on the cantilever itself, only a milimeter away from the stylus! To avoid obvious tracking problems, the coil itself is a (very) thin air-core conductor photo-etched on a poly-imide wafer.

The smaller MC-5E shares the same basic design and specs with the MC-L10 but uses a conventional elliptical stylus rather than the Shibata mkIII of the Victor MC-L10.
Victor would produce two more DC MC cartridges later in the 1980s (MC-L1000, which I'll soon bring online) before withdrawing from the high-end and quality audio markets alltogether.