This item is a SONUS Gold Blue moving-magnet phono cartridge from the late 1970s. It is like new and complete with stylus and mounting hardware. The cartridge was originally installed on a Luxman (Micro-Seiki) turntable. But soon it was determined that the Luxmans tone arm lacked the required characteristics to allow the SONUS to perform optimally. At that point the SONUS was replaced with another cartridge. The SONUS has been buried in a drawer, in its original box, ever since. It is estimated to have a total playing time of 80 to 100 hours.

This cartridge was purchased NOS and only got a few hours of use before going open-circuit. It then sat for several years untouched but was recently repaired and re-sealed by me. Cosmetic imperfections due to the repair are obvious (see photos) but otherwise acceptable. The assembly was mechanically shock-tested and the terminals were electrically checked with an ohmmeter to confirm that the cartridge is in operating condition. However, absolute polarity of the terminals is still unknown. That means R+ and R- could be swapped, and the same goes for L+ and L-. Hence, this cartridge is being sold as-is despite being in working condition. If you have a Pro-ject turntable, this is a high compliance cartridge that should work well with your tonearm. I originally bought this as an upgrade over the stock Ortofon 2M red but am now running a 2M bronze so i no longer have any use for the Sonus. Otherwise, if you already have a Sonus cartridge you can buy this and keep the needle for spare parts. Edit: it appears that the cartridge has been retipped. One ebayer pointed out to me that the original styli do not have the red mark that this one exhibits. Make of that what you will...

Used for less than 50 hours when one of the channels went out. Needs to be re-soldered and glued. Stylus is present and in good condition. Sold as-is.