Is a Ortofon Black a step down from a Pickering XSV 3000

Dear @mijostyn : I agree with what you posted and only some " doubt " in who really design/manufacture the Clearaudio MM cartridges.

I remember years ago that I made the Virtuoso Wood review and all " signs " told me that Audio Technica was who manufactured to Clearaudio specs.
That Virtuoso is a great performer and its stylus was the FG80 that AT cartridges never used, better stylus shape than the Shibata and  cartridges with  radius in the 80um to the 100um in the Ortofon Replicant are extremely sensitive to VTA/SRA set up and I had that experience with the Virtuoso.

I like Clearaudio cartridges MM and MC ones.

R.

It would appear that the only thing wrong with LP Gear’s replacement styli is that they are not the originals and may even surpass the original using a better stylus and modern production methods. The Stereohedron stylus was nothing but a "hyperelliptical" stylus.

Yes, all problems solved by LP GEAR, just buy their $79 fake Stanton CS-100 stylus instead of $450 original and be happy. You must be proud, because hundreds of Stanton owners worldwide are slower than you, maybe not so smart, they just don’t know there are $75 stylus made with modern technologies and much better than Walter O. Stanton top of the line design from the golden age of analog. It’s so silly that some people don’t know that everything NEW is always better, especially when it comes to vinyl in 2021. Stereohedron is nothing compared to LP GEAR, you’re so right. Thank you for clarification. Your opinion is very important.

As a big fan of ClearAudio and Goldring MM cartridges I hope you tried all Stanton and Pickering top models with original styli and compared them to Jico, LP Gear and others.

Now let me tell you this:

Do you know that original SC-100 W.O.S. cantilever is Red Sapphire coated, you will not find anything like that today, the $79 LP Gear is way different (look at the rating on their site). Sadly it’s not so popular as you expected, even if it’s new (pretending to be better as you think).

Genuine CS-100 stylus is Stereohedron mk II (second generation of Parabolic profiles). There are first and second generation of Stereohedron if you don’t know. They are different!

Do you know what is Samarium Cobalt magnet and why this type of magnet has been chosen.

You mentioned "Hyperelliptical", but is just name, it’s a word, you’d better provide some data. All those styli are parabolic type, so what? Nothing changed much since Micro Ridge and it’s an old profile even if you like different name for same profile!

Paratrace is the closest modern profile to Stereohedron. The reason why Stanton owners service their cartridge in UK (not at Soundsmith or whatever). I believe you know who manufacturer Stereohedron and where.

Stanton made so many different models of cartridges to release their best stuff like 981 and CS-100 series (and low impedance versions). These are the most expensive Stanton cartridges and styli, but there are tons of different Stanton styli for 10 times cheaper prices in their vintage catalog (you can check here).


P.S. I stopped to read post from some members who contradict to themselves, probably it’s because of the age, but I remember well their posts from 5-10 years ago on the same forum. If you want your cartridge to perform as expected you can only buy an original (MM or MC) and if you want to step into unknown area then you can make your Frankenstein and tell everybody it’s equal or even better than the original. Unfortunately, you can’t just clone the original.

There is no doubt that the stereohedron stylus is a special stylus and I have been listening for many years.  That is why I started this thread because I do not think you can do better unless you spend a considerable amount more money.  It lasts long time as well.

Dear @tzh21y : " ereohedron stylus is a special stylus "

well the AKG analog6 it’s too if we take your statement as true but unfortunatelly it’s not and that stylus has nothing of special: it’s a copy of the Shibata but a bad copy because the Shibata is a better design. Huges who patented it was not really an inventor about he just copy-cat and as I posted Huges did it a tiny modification to the Shibata design to be accepted his patent but that mod gaves nothing in change of advantage over the Shibata was only for to be patented.

The Paratrace is not really an invention but a mod over the VDH stylus.

Look, if you die for the cartridge you own stay with and makes no sense to go for something different. Btw, LPGear stylus comes from Nagaoka and Namiki.

R..

@chakster , hyperelliptical means that the short radius is shorter than a normal ellipse. In reality elliptical styli are not true ellipses. They are conical styli that have had two opposite sides ground down and the short axis polished on both sides. A hyperelliptical stylus just has more ground off creating a narrower contact point. Point being there is nothing special about the Stereohedron stylus. 

Now, I used very nonspecific terms like, "appear" and "may" Because I do not have these cartridges now and have never used an LP Gear product. I can not say what the real truth behind all this is. But, I have had several Pickering and Stanton products in the past and have always viewed my styli under magnification. I can say for an absolute fact that styli from Clearaudio, Soundsmith, Grado, Koetsu, Ortofon and Lyra are all much cleaner and better cut and mounted than the styli in those older cartridges. I remember returning two top of the line Pickerings because of cantilevers headed in the wrong direction. It would not be hard for a modern manufacturer to make better stylus replacements for these vintage cartridges. Using modern profiles is an added benefit.  

@rauliruegas , Musical Surroundings the Clearaudio importer in the US says all their cartridges are designed and built in house. The factory tour does show them building cartridges. So, unless somebody can give me solid information to the contrary I have to assume they do make and design their own cartridges.