Bang & Olufsen - Bang & Olufsen MMC 20 CL-C – Sapphire Cantilever / Contact Line Diamond – Complete Set Cartridge and/or needles

Bang & Olufsen MMC 20 CL-C – Sapphire Cantilever / Contact Line Diamond – Complete Set – ~20 Hours Use

For sale is a well-preserved Bang & Olufsen MMC 20 CL-C, the top cartridge in this series or pretty much every B&O series, perhaps only rivaled by the Pramanik MMC-6000 for Quadrophony.
It fits a wide range of Beogram players, but what you can also do with this set, is mount this on a standard tone arm of any non- B&O turntable, it comes with a headshell and adapter for that.
This set was actually one of the only times B&O was praised by audio critics for it's remarkable quality but not at the same time looked at as over the top pricing.
THis is how BeoCentral says it:

"The MMC 20 CL was the top of the range of the MMC 20 range. Designed to work with the tangential tracking turntables of the time, MMC 20 CL was the first B&O cartridge to use a single crystal sapphire cantilever. This offered a very rigid but light structure and was fitted with a naked contact line diamond, a simplified version of the Pramanik diamond found on the MMC 6000. The profile was such that this cartridge was recommended as a replacement for MMC 6000 should quadraphonic reproduction be required. The CL was available with either ½" or P mounts so that it could be used with other turntables. It received a number of glowing reviews at the time of its introduction from the audio press, not normally renowned for their love of B&O."

A similar item is still available at Sound Smith for $999 https://www.sound-smith.com/lookup/bo-cartridges/137

This item comes with its full accessory set, original blue box, documentation, and the factory calibration sheets with individual left/right frequency graphs. I added a few arrows in one of the photo's to show the pen line of the measuring equipment, it's only very faintly visible, a greenish blue line. The second arrow on the right shows it stops at 20000 hz.

The cartridge itself is in excellent, near-new condition with approximately 20 hours of total use. The sapphire cantilever is fully intact, the Contact Line diamond is clean and sharp, and the body shows almost no wear. The macro photos in the listing show the true condition.
Body clean with intact lettering.
Electrical contact pins clean.
Tracks properly at the recommended 1.0 g.

Stylus guard
The original plastic guard had dried glue and became loose with age.
It was reattached carefully using CA glue. This doesn't affect the playback quality whatsoever.

Storage box
Blue presentation case in good condition.
Lid printing clear and intact.

Included
Everything photographed is included:
MMC 20 CL-C cartridge
Stylus guard

Cleaning brush
Alignment ruler / gauge bars
Original hex key
Tonearm connector tool / adapter
Additional small mounting accessories
Original B&O manuals and information sheets
Factory calibration sheet:
Left/right frequency-response curves /channel-balance measurements

Measurements dated 29 May 1981

The documentation is complete and legible.

Technical specifications
Type: Moving Micro Cross (moving-iron)
Cantilever: Single-crystal sapphire
Stylus: Contact Line nude diamond
Recommended tracking force: 1.0 g
Frequency range: 20–20,000 Hz
Channel separation: ~30 dB at 1 kHz (factory spec)
Load: 47 kΩ / ~220 pF

For collectors
This is a clean, original, low-use MMC 20 CL-C with all factory paperwork and accessories still present. The condition of the cartridge itself is excellent, and the documented calibration sheets add confidence in the unit’s originality and performance.

Complete sets like this are increasingly difficult to find, especially with the sapphire cantilever version in such low-hour condition. They are fragile!

I had it installed on a Beogram 1700 for a short while and decided I don't like this player, it's not doing this stylus justice and it's too inaccurate with it's platter speed and tonearm lift. It will go on sale tomorrow as well.
I had my eyes on a Begram 4002 but it's too large and my wife didn't like it :) Back to Luxman for now.

I hope you like this object and you can come pick it up in Eindhoven the Netherlands or I can ship it for you. Check my feedback, only positive notes about my shipping and item quality.
It's always a bit of disadvantage with Catawiki to only have the auction and no way to speak with the seller. Therefor drop me a mail at rob(at symbol)id3d
. nl in case of any inquiries!
Happy bidding folks!!