Stanton 780/4DQ
A CD-4 cartridge with a new stylus design and a sound that split the room.
Overview
Stanton's 780/4DQ is generally regarded as the second U.S.-made CD-4 cartridge. It arrived in the middle of a format war with a lot of expectations on it. Stanton's advertising in HiFi-Stereo (1974-02, p.17) called its "totally revolutionary stylus design concept" the best solution for discrete playback. The headline feature was the Quadrahedral stylus, the first American-designed and manufactured stylus developed specifically for discrete four-channel records. It was engineered for the 780/4DQ and, according to Stanton's own advertising, was already the first choice of professional record reviewers anxious to evaluate the new discrete discs. That's marketing copy, not an independent verdict, but it shows where Stanton aimed the thing.
The numbers are wideband. Response is quoted at ±3 dB from 20 Hz to about 25 kHz, with the curve running +5 dB at 30 kHz, +3 dB at 40 kHz, and +0.5 dB at 50 kHz. As with most CD-4 cartridges of the period, the resonant peak sits at 30 kHz. That ultrasonic lift is the price of a carrier-based discrete format, not a bug. Separation averages about 19 dB to 9 kHz, drops to 17 dB at 10 kHz, and reaches 11 dB at 20 kHz. Output is 0.54 mV/1-cm/sec into a 655-ohm DC resistance and 291 mH inductance. Intermodulation distortion measures 1.2% lateral and 1.7% vertical, a very low figure by the standards of the day. Crosstalk comes in at −25 dB and channel balance at 0 dB. The whole assembly weighs 6.64 g. The diamond is a Quadrahedral, similar to the one used in the Pickering UV-15/2400-Q. Original price: $125.00.
Tracking is where the 780/4DQ earns its keep. High-frequency trackability (10.8 kHz pulsed) is rated at 24 cm/sec. Mid-frequency (1000 + 1500 Hz lateral cut) is less than 20 cm/sec, and low-frequency (400 + 4000 Hz lateral cut) is less than 15 cm/sec. In practice that means the cartridge holds the groove on demanding passages that send lesser CD-4 designs skating. Stanton's advertising also called the stylus "very kind to records in terms of wear," a claim that's hard to verify but consistent with the low tracking forces the design permits.
The 780/4DQ also turns up in Stanton's turntable advertising of the mid-1970s. There the company positioned it as the discrete-playback alternative to the 681 Triple-E, calling it the "magnificent 780/4DQ for discrete" alongside the stereo-focused 681. By 1976, Audio's CD-4 primer was calling the 780/4DQ the logical choice for disco CD-4 use, citing its high tracking-force tolerance and the low-wear Quadrahedral stylus with Stanton's patented V-Guard stylus protection.
What remains is a genuinely interesting piece of American cartridge engineering — the second U.S. CD-4 design, the debut of the Quadrahedral, and a tracking package that still holds up on paper. The sound is period-honest: wide, dynamic, and a little hard. Buy one to understand the CD-4 era, not to chase neutrality.
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