Presto 1-C vs Fairchild 541a vs RCA 11850 heads

[mratx]

I was looking for opinions as to which of these three mono heads is better, assuming all three are in prime functioning condition. I know the Fairchild is supposed to have a more limited frequency range, but in my past experiences with one it seemed to have a higher output than a lot of heads, and didn't seem to be that much duller. However, I can't say for sure how well maintained any of the heads I've tried were in terms of rebuilds, replaced damping etc, although they all were adequately functional. I'm looking to get a backup head for my 1-D, these three are available, and I am more than willing to get whichever of the three rebuilt or modified. So if one of them is capable of reasonable mods that will make it clearly superior that's also a consideration.

I'm not up to date on all the newer heads people are making, if there's something out there for less than a grand that would be better than either of these I'd also be interested in that.

Thanks,

Mark

[piaptk]

They are all in the same middle range. Quality depends more on the head’s current condition. If i was to roll the dice on them, my order would be RCA (if that is the silver square hifi version. I believe that is the model), Presto, Fairchild.