Help with vintage cartridge ID? Very obscure.

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soapy

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Hi,
I'm not an audio person at all, this is for a weird project I'm doing. There's this obscure, ultra-rare STAZI (Yes, East German intelligence!) tool, and I looked at the image the other day and thought "That's a gramophone needle and pickup!"

It dates from around 1980, East Germany. The top edge has a small dovetail on it, about 5mm wide. This is the only known photo!*
1719841927417.png
Can anyone help ID this? I'm right that it's a record player cartridge, at least?
Thanks for the help, audio experts!

*There's actually two photos of the device, but this cartridge is only really visible in this one.
 
Last edited:
soapy said:
Hi,
I'm not an audio person at all, this is for a weird project I'm doing. There's this obscure, ultra-rare STAZI (Yes, East German intelligence!) tool, and I looked at the image the other day and thought "That's a gramophone needle and pickup!"

It dates from around 1980, East Germany. The top edge has a small dovetail on it, about 5mm wide. This is the only known photo!*
View attachment 207387
Can anyone help ID this? I'm right that it's a record player cartridge, at least?
Thanks for the help, audio experts!

*There's actually two photos of the device, but this cartridge is only really visible in this one.
Click to expand...
I'm skeptical since the "cantilever" looks too massive to be a phono cartridge. But the resemblance certainly catches the eye!
 
I know that the other end of this goes into an audio circuit, because I've identified the 3.5mm headphone jack. It's vaguely possible they made the "needle" thicker. Also, there's a really sharp shadow that makes everything look far thicker with a black outline.
 
Splunders said:
Is the photo upside down?
Click to expand...
That’s what I keep trying to figure out. How is it mounted? what kind of crazy ass VTA do you need for this thing? If that is the cantilever to the left then how does that big bump on the right not tear up every record you put it on?

@soapy can you circle the jack?
 
Splunders said:
Is the photo upside down?
Click to expand...
Sort of, possibly? I rotated it 90 degrees. Possible I went the wrong way. It's mounted entirely sideways in the device. It's not a record player! It's a bit of spy gear. This is the other photo that exists.
1719904463876.png
The way I think it worked is it used the record player cartridge to listen to the lock, or possibly just to listen to the other side of the door. That's definitely a key blank on the tip.
1719904705206.png
This is a close-up of the audio socket, on the right. I think the gain/volume is that flathead screw in the middle.
 
I'm going to call this confirmed, as a German man, via a Dutch friend, has come back with photos of the DDR (East German) cartridge.
FB_IMG_1719907683355.jpg

FB_IMG_1719907689334.jpg

FB_IMG_1719919439990.jpg

A pretty good match! The middle photo is the dovetail thing that the cartridge slots in to. Curiously, it appears the device only uses the L & R pins, and nothing is connected to the ground pin. Possibly it returns through the metal body of the tool.
 
soapy said:
I'm going to call this confirmed, as a German man, via a Dutch friend, has come back with photos of the DDR (East German) cartridge.

A pretty good match!
Click to expand...
Damn, you could send a telegraph with that cantilever.
 
I’m still skeptical. The “cantilever” in the original photo extends far beyond the cartridge and the round metal disc is missing on the bottom on the actual cartridge photo. And there is that phono plug…

Since this is spygear, could it be a microphone masquerading as a phono cartridge?
 
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