ADC QLM 36 Mk III
An induced-magnet ADC cartridge with messy documentation. The manual excerpts filed under this model describe a 16-bit S-100 computer board, not a phono cartridge.
Overview
The ADC QLM 36 Mk III is a phono cartridge from ADC's QLM line, the budget-oriented sibling family to the company's better-known XLM models. Period phono cartridge indexes from the early 1980s list other ADC QLM models with their specifications. The QLM 30 Mk III, for one, is listed with an output of 3.75 mV at 5 cm/sec at 1 kHz, a frequency response of 10 Hz to 28 kHz, and 30 dB of channel separation at 1 kHz (High Fidelity, 1981, p.168). That much is consistent across the material. Almost everything else is not.
The PDF documentation indexed under this model name does not describe a phono cartridge at all. The excerpts attributed to the 36 Mk III are for the Advanced Digital Corporation SUPER 16, a 16-bit 8 MHz S-100 bus single board slave processor built around an Intel 80186 CPU with 256 KB of on-board RAM and four serial ports. That is a different company with the same three letters, and the indexing process misattributed its literature to this cartridge. Nothing from those documents applies here. Anyone hunting for a service manual or owner's manual for the QLM 36 Mk III should know that the top-ranked PDF results under this name are for a computer board.
What the archive does have is period coverage. ADC's QLM cartridges appeared in phono cartridge indexes through the early 1980s, and the QLM 32 Mk III was listed as an induced-magnet design with 1.5 mV output and a frequency response of 20 Hz to 18,000 Hz (HiFI-Stereo, 1983, p.69). Whether the QLM 36 Mk III shared those figures is not documented. These are different models, and they should not be treated as interchangeable on paper. The QLM 30 Mk III was listed with a 3.75 mV output at 5 cm/sec at 1 kHz, a 10 Hz to 28 kHz response, and 30 dB of channel separation at 1 kHz (High Fidelity, 1981, p.168). Those are the 30 Mk III's numbers, not the 36's.
Very little can be said with confidence about the QLM 36 Mk III itself. Period listings from the early 1980s show ADC's QLM 30 Mk III specified with an output of 3.75 mV at 5 cm/sec at 1 kHz, a frequency response of 10 Hz to 28 kHz, and 30 dB of channel separation at 1 kHz (High Fidelity, 1981, p.168). There is no verified original MSRP, no confirmed production window, no output voltage, no frequency response, no tracking force range, and no stylus profile that can be attributed to this exact model. The QLM 36 MkIII, with the space dropped, appears elsewhere in this archive as a separate entry. Flag the naming difference between "QLM 36 Mk III" and "QLM 36 MkIII" before assuming they are the same product or that their specifications cross over.
Historical Context
The documentation does not give a production window for the QLM 36 Mk III, so this page is unfinished. Period cartridge listings from the early 1980s survive in the archive and cover ADC models including the Astrion, QLM 30 Mk III, and QLM 32 Mk III, with output, frequency response, channel separation, stylus dimensions, and tracking force ranges printed alongside prices (HiFI-Stereo, 1982, p.95). A listing like that could pin down the QLM 36 Mk III. Until one turns up, no year or price should be attributed to it.
Collectibility & Value
With no verified MSRP, no confirmed production run, and no established collector demand, there is no market to report. Anyone quoting a launch price or a production year for the QLM 36 Mk III is working from something other than documentation. The advice is the same as for any under-documented ADC cartridge: verify the part number against the cartridge body itself rather than trusting a cross-reference to the QLM 30 or QLM 32 families, because the Mk II and Mk III designations do not always interchange.
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