[Montague]

I have inherited a Mark Levinson cartridge I'm trying to identify. It was described as the Signature cartridge and was a gift from Mark to a friend of his.

It looks like the MLC-1 photos I see at the google cached version of marklev.com. Round, black with a white alignment line on the front. Mark Levinson logo embossed on the bottom. No model number, just the word Japan and the number 0280 (looks like crude handstamp) on the top. Were they all sold without a model number anywhere on the body?

I don't know how to post a picture on this site, but can e-mail pics of the cartridge and a 100X picture of the rather unusual looking stylus.

John

[Montague]

I have received an answer to my question.  The cartridge is apparently a prototype made by Miyabi for Mark Levinson.  And for $1500 they will rebuild it to the specs of the Miyabi Standard ($4000 new). I'm happy.

John

[Montague]

Now convinced, thanks to help on another site, that the cartridge I have is #280 of the production run Miyabi did for Mark. Still a special piece, but not really a collector's item. To correct another mistake in my post, the Miyabi Standard is going for $3200 or less these days, not $4000 as I believed earlier.

I'll give it a spin on the new (to me) Sota/Rega combo and see if I can get some music out of it.

Thanks for all the valuable info.