ADC 10/E Mk II
A hand-built induced-magnet cartridge that ADC's own ads priced at $59.50 and dared you to compare against anything on the shelf.
Overview
Start with the compliance figure: 35 × 10⁻⁶ cm/dyne, with a recommended tracking force starting at a half gram. Cartridges that track this light are after one thing, keeping the stylus riding the groove instead of gouging it. ADC built the 10/E Mk II around an "induced magnet" generator that takes mass out of the moving system and pushes compliance up. According to the company's own specification sheet, output is 4 mV at 5.5 cm/sec recorded velocity. Frequency response is 10 Hz to 20 kHz within ±2 dB, and channel separation is 30 dB from 50 Hz to 12 kHz. The vertical tracking angle is 15° and the nominal load is 47,000 ohms.
ADC's advertising from the period did not whisper. One campaign billed the 10/E Mk II as the "Critic's Choice" and leaned hard on durability. The copy promised it was as durable as any cartridge made regardless of price and would work with virtually any changer or tonearm. The "any tonearm" claim is a stretch for anyone who has tried to tame a half-gram tracker on a mid-fi arm. Low-compliance-era arms and ultra-high-compliance styli are not always a happy pairing, whatever the brochure implies.
The independent press took it seriously. In a July 1967 group test of eleven stereo cartridges, HiFI-Stereo (July 1967, p.59) measured the 10/E Mk II's frequency response as very smooth, holding within roughly ±1.5 dB from 40 Hz to 20,000 Hz. It found channel separation better than 25 dB through the midrange, tapering to 13 dB at 20 kHz. The same report noted the cartridge handled almost any record at a 1.5-gram stylus force and was simply an easy cartridge to listen to.
Cheap it was not, and ADC said so itself. The $59.50 suggested resale put it at the top of the company's line. A competing dealer's trade-in advert from early 1970 valued a used 10E Mk II at $32.50 against a replacement. The same ad priced a Shure V15 Type II trade-in at $48.50 and an Empire 999VE at $47.50. So the used market respected ADC's flagship but did not pay Shure money for it. Buyers chasing a "10/E" should confirm exactly which generation and stylus assembly they're getting, because the model designations blur together in listings.
The stylus matters here. ADC's period copy describes a miniscule, geometrically designed elliptical diamond with a 0.7-mil lateral radius and a 0.3-mil contact radius, cut to track the tightest modulations without the distortion that plagued cruder tips. Whether that elliptical profile survives on a given used example is the real question in 2026. Original styli are scarce, and a worn or substituted needle turns a $59.50 classic into a record-shredding liability. Budget for a proper replacement stylus, and be skeptical of any "tested, sounds great" listing.
The 10/E Mk II was engineered to be gentle on records and honest in the midrange, and the period test bench largely confirmed it. It won't out-track a modern moving coil and it won't win a bass-slam contest. A well-sorted example tracking at a gram and a half is still a low-wear way to play records.
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