I am with you brother. I have gone down the Jico trail too, and am happy to have the option, but there is no substitute for the real McCoy. I wish Shure would get back in the game.
In Praise of the Humble Elliptical Stylus!
I bought a modern JICO SAS/B stylus replacement for my 1970s Shure V15 Type III thinking I would be upgrading the original VN35E elliptical with unknown hours that the Ebay seller I got it from, kind of tossed in. Two years on, I keep going back to that old VN35E.
The Jico SAS with its boron cantilever and MicroRidge tip is designed to pull everything from the groove. With the Shure stylus, it doesn't feel I’m losing detail, at the same time detail isn't the point either. It seems to better capture the feeling in the room where it was recorded. I love these old cartridges, and I’m grateful that high-quality replacements like the SAS exist. But those engineers back then were at the top of their game and seemed to have access to some powerful analog pixie dust.
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The VN35G was not on my radar! thanks for that @viridian! I have been searching hard for a VN35HE or maybe VN35MR but the ones that pop up on Ebay are pricey! |
Way back when I was in audio sales and purchased a Philips AF 877 turntable and a Shure V15 Type V cartridge at employee prices. My nostalgia brain remembers that combo as a very smooth sounding without excessive treble roll off. If I remember correctly, the Type V was advertised as having an "hyper-elliptical" stylus. Does anyone know if that was similar to the Shibata or the Microline styli profiles that were just coming into vogue, at the time? |
I just switched from my $1500 Goldring Ethos SE MC cart with a micro ridge stylus to my Stanton 680 EL and have to say the heavy-tracking Stanton isn’t that far behind. The Goldring sounds fantastic with everything I’ve thrown at it. But with 60s/70s rock, the Stanton sounds more alive. Such a great elliptical. |