Bang MMC-6000 (c. 1974–1978)
Little standalone documentation survives for the Bang MMC-6000, but the period record says a fair amount. It was Bang & Olufsen's CD-4 phono cartridge, first announced in 1974. B&O's advertising in HiFi-Stereo (July 1974, p.83) presented it as a major step forward in quadraphonic playback. The ads stressed its very low effective tip mass of 0.22 mg. The company claimed its testing showed effective tip mass to be the factor most directly related to record and stylus wear, especially in the high frequencies. The cartridge used a Pramanik stylus with a moving micro-cross construction. By the 1978 buyer's guides it was listed at about $125 (HI-Fi-Stereo-Buyers, March 1978, p.47).
Known specifications from the period reviews:
- Output: 0.6 mV/cm/sec
- Frequency response: 20–20,000 Hz ±1 dB; 20–15,000 Hz ±1.5 dB
- Channel separation: 25 dB at 1 kHz; 20 dB at 400–10,000 Hz
- IM distortion: 1%
- Effective tip mass: 0.22 mg
- Compliance: 30 × 10⁻⁶ cm/dyne
- Tracking force: 0.75–1.25 g
- Input load: 47,000 ohms/ch; 300 pF/ch
Beyond those figures, almost nothing else is on the record. The MMC-6000 was significant enough to be advertised and listed in equipment directories, but its fuller history doesn't appear to have been written down anywhere accessible.
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