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The Universal Part Number System - "Pfanstiehl®"

Needles stocked on the website are organized where possible using the Pfanstiehl® aftermarket part number system. This allows grouping needles by "families" where customers can select a needle based on what needle tip material (diamond or sapphire), needle tip size and style (conical versus elliptical, sizes for 16/33/45 rpm records or larger size to play 78 rpm records), and needle tracking force (for magnetic cartridge needles). In general, for ceramic and crystal cartridges, any needle within the family can be chosen and it will work fine. For magnetic cartridges, tracking force differs and in a few cases, the needle mounting style even differs within the family. If the latter is the case, this will be noted on the needle page (example, Pickering 609 series).

The needles themselves may be any brand - Astatic, Electro-Voice/EVG, or other brands, depending upon availability.

Needles not included in the standard part number system are assigned unique part numbers. Use the Search by Specialty Category search box on the Needles/Styli page and choose the Hard to Find option to see examples.
 

Why do we call this the universal part number system? Some history now on its origins

Back in the early 1960's, representatives from the major needle manufacturers developed a standard part number system. At the time, it was hoped that all manufacturers would adopt it, but only Pfanstiehl® did, in 1963. A block of numbers was set aside for each cartridge manufacturers' needles. Only one number is applied to each basic kind of needle. Differences in tip materials and radius are described in the uniform suffixes. This was later expanded to include different cuts (conical, elliptical, shibata, etc) and tracking forces (for record changers, manual turntables, and semi-automatic turntables).

This system made it possible to add new numbers to any given brand, and still keep all of that brand in numerical sequence. This helped dealers organize their stock.
 

Meaning of Blocks

The starting numbers for each block originally contained manufacturers of needles sold in other countries. Today, the starting numbers for each block are as follows, keep in mind these are cartridge manufacturers, not record player brands (some are both if they also made some of their own cartridges):

In the above, the ADC and Acos blocks overlap. Newer ADC needles were assigned with the same part number as older Acos needles. To separate them, V-M Audio Enthusiasts has added 1000 to the old Pfanstiehl® Acos part numbers. Hence, 114 is a family of ADC needles and 1114 is the new family for older Acos 114 needles.

Originally, each new Tetrad needle was given a new number and it soon became apparent that the block would run out of unassigned numbers. So they were reorganized by relative cantilever length (853 are the shortest, 856 the longest) and a pre-fix added to indicate the length of the handle:


The growth of the Japanese manufacturers was also not foreseen, and so there are various blocks for those, scattered wherever it appeared that unused numbers were available. As original equipment needle manufacturers ceased production of needles, aftermarket manufacturers stepped in to make "generic" replacements, and this further put pressure on the Japanese blocks - soon all the numbers would be gone if something wasn’t done! Pfanstiehl® decided to put a "4" in front of the needle part number as a prefix for subsequent release of replacement needles still popular with the public, including less expensive versions of needles still in production:

For example,
     206-DET is a genuine Audio Technica needle
     4206-DET is an aftermarket made replacement

Whereas before this system was put in place:
     200-D7C and 200-D7T are genuine Audio Technica needles
     629-D7 is an aftermarket made replacement for both
 

Meaning of Uniform Suffixes

Some combination of the following will describe both single tip and double tip needles:




In the 1970's and 1980's, many needle suppliers switched over from making double tip needles with LP and 78 tips to making these needles with both tips for LPs. They were not always careful about updating their needle packaging and many still claimed needles with LP and 78 tips were inside.

At V-M Audio Enthusiasts, when someone buys a needle with LP and 78 tips, they get a needle with LP and 78 tips, because each needle is removed and inspected before shipping. The needle package description of the needle inside, if bought else where, may not be accurate!