Well there is only one cantilever that is not coming from the BIG manufacturers of the styli/cantilevers and this is Bamboo Cantilever of Miyajima Madake modern MC.
Jico SAS vs Neo-SAS(S) vs Neo-SAS(R)
For those analogue ‘tragics’ comfortable enough in their own
skins to keep playing MM cartridges despite the media and peer-pressure
propaganda towards MCs…….the success of Jico and their after-market replacement
styli has been good news.
Of particular delight to that minority still playing vintage MM cartridges……the success of the SAS stylus from Jico.….. has transformed cartridges like the Shure V15, Victor X1 and Z1 and Garrott P77 into world-beaters amongst the cartridge elite.
What is so special about the SAS stylus?
It seems that Jico has invented a profile more radical that the standard ‘Line-Contact’, VdH or Shibata…..
An inspection of the diamond under a 60x loupe displays cutting-edge profiles I have never before seen on a stylus.
Jico claims that this profile better fits the record groove and is more akin to the profile of the cutting-lathe stylus.
The better the stylus fits into the record groove, the less distortion is caused by high-amplitude reproduction
But claims are pretty meaningless in the analogue world unless they are backed up……
And with the SAS stylus, the performance matches the ‘hype’….
In all three cartridges I have used….original 35 year Garrott P77, Shure V15/III and Victor Z1….the SAS has transformed each one, from a very good performer to a superlative one.
The improvement over the original manufacturer’s stylus is muti-faceted…
From frequency response (bass and treble in particular) to transparency to sound-stage (both width and depth) but most importantly……to the emotional content able to be extracted from the vinyl grooves.
My three SAS-equipped MM cartridges leapt into contention as ‘the best’ of the 80 or so cartridges I have owned and bettered all but 3 or 4 of the 20 LOMC cartridges I have owned……
So imagine the reaction when Jico announced 2 years ago that production of the SAS stylus was being suspended……?
The original SAS stylus came with a boron cantilever and there appears to be a problem with the world’s supply (or price) of boron….?
Now I have a preference for beryllium as a cantilever material but because of safety standards surrounding the toxicity of beryllium during the manufacturing process……it is no longer offered as a cantilever material.
Why they can still use it for dome tweeters is a mystery to me….?
Boron is used as a cantilever material by many cartridge manufacturers…..Dynavector, ZYX, Lyra to name but a few….so why Jico is no longer supplying it is puzzling.
Six months ago, Jico announced the re-introduction of the SAS stylus but this time with a choice of sapphire or tapered-ruby cantilever….both at massive price hikes to the boron.
The tapered-ruby is almost 4 times the cost of the original boron cantilever…..
A comparison of the three SAS assemblies is revealing……
With the original boron cantilever, the actual stylus is buried under an epoxy glue sarcophagus in a manner that can only be described as rather crude….
Just the tip of the faceted diamond is visible poking out of the epoxy…
The new synthetic jewel cantilevers are different animals entirely.
The sapphire appears translucent (not blue) with the nude stylus expertly and neatly cut into the jewelled rod whilst the ruby is even more impressive, again having a nude diamond cut into the ruby rod which has been ‘shaved’ down 2 or 3 sides to create the ‘taper’. And this rod glows ‘pink’…..justifying its premium pricing ?
I picked the Garrott P77 for this test because the neo-SAS(R) was not yet available for the Z1 and the V15/III, though wonderful…..was not quite up to the standards of the other two……
When I received the two new SAS styli, I was in two minds about them…..
Could the simple change in cantilever material make a noticeable difference in performance?........and for the price increases, it had better!!
There is little doubt in my mind that the SAS’s performance boost was due primarily to the radical stylus shape and as noted earlier…..boron is a respectable cantilever material utilised by high-performance exotic MC cartridges the world over.
If sapphire or ruby were to offer even increased performance benefits over the boron…..then why wouldn’t other manufacturers have already changed over?
These thoughts mingled with the aesthetic appreciation of the ‘nude’ mounting and the ‘glowing’ jewelled rods as I swapped out my original SAS and went straight to the neo-SAS(R)….
If I was expecting a revelation…..I was disappointed.
In fact, if I was expecting a difference …..I was disappointed.
No matter how many albums I played (and each album side I would change styli)….I could discern no differences.
And I really tried to hear differences….
At one point I thought I had picked the only audible difference as being slightly better bass response with the two jewelled cantilevers….
This was revealed by albums from Massive Attack and Dead Can Dance.
So I brought in the decider for bass reproduction…..the Barber ‘Adagio for Strings’ on Gary Karr’s ‘En Aranjuez con tu Amor’ (Firebird) sends even my Vandersteen 2Wq subwoofers into fibrillation mode…..
But no……seemingly equal bass response…..
So there you have it…..
For two weeks I have exhausted my test-record catalogue, loosened the stylus-plug-insert on my Garrott P77, annoyed my wife and angered the neighbours….
And I can report that I am able to discern no differences….absolutely none….between the original SAS the neo-SAS(S) and the neo-SAS(R).
I’m sure that there will be those who will claim they can hear differences and the differences are like ‘night and day’…..
Good luck to them.
Maybe they can….maybe they can’t.
At least I will have no need to buy replacement neo-SAS styli for my Z1 and V15/III.
The good thing to take away from this exercise is this:-
The neo-SAS stylus assembly from Jico is just as good as the original SAS and for that…..the analogue world should be eternally grateful….
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Dear Dover, Because my friend Axel Schurholz (retip service) got more customers than he was able to ''service'' I wanted to help him by his search for styli and cantilevers. For the Japanese ''jewel comapnies'' I asked J. Carr for help but except their address he was not able to provide any help. So the choice among styli ''kinds'' by Axel's retips become very limited. My guess back than was a kind of ''conspiracy theory'' by which cart producers wanted to prevent cart retippers to get the needed parts by the same supplier for both. Axel also complained about 100% price increase by the two (?) Japanese ''supplier'' without any consultation because he was consequntly forced to increase his retip prices. My other ''conspiracy theory'' in this context was ''monoply position'' of the Japanese ''jewel companies''. About ''boron shorage'' I heard in this (SAS) thread for the first time. From my other friend Vidmatas the desigener/owner of the Reed (tonearm) company I got information about saphire bearngs which he use for his tonearms and was stunned by their prices. So to speak ''for free'''. This may explain why SAS uses saphire however not the new prices for their ''styli''. My conclusion from those ''facts'' (facts are true statements) was the ''lack of choice'' for both professions . This however imply that cart producers can't chose styli and cantilevers as they would like. This means that they can ''choose'' only among what is available and this seems to be saphire and/ or aluminum (alloy) at present. |
I just want to comment that before we get too convinced about this "boron shortage", the comment from jcarr I referenced above was explicitly that Namiki (probable primary supplier for Jico) has run out of their stock of tubular boron cantilevers. Jcarr has an alternate source for boron rods which he still uses in his cartridges. If there is any shortage it is for the tubular boron (not boron in general) jcarr320 posts07-01-2014 2:34am Fleib: Namiki still keeps stocks of tubular sapphire cantilevers, and possesses fabrication abilities for the raw sapphire material (I believe). OTOH they do not have any more tubular boron cantilevers, and I do not believe that Namiki were ever capable of making the raw boron material or fabricating it into tubular form. Studying the patent literature on tubular boron suitable for use in phono cartridges reveals that the majority are by Matsushita (Panasonic). https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/who-needs-a-mm-cartridge-type-when-we-have-mc/post?highlight=... ps: I’m still loving my new Z1/neo-SAS. If there is any "problem" it is just that it is so revealing that my attention keeps shooting around the performance (like watching fireworks, wow hear that bass, oh wow can really hear the room ambience now...) and it is a bit hard to just relax and take in the whole performance. But I suspect after the newness wears off, I should be able to holistically enjoy the performances again. |
Dear @chakster / friends: Now that I remember exist one cartridge " designer " ( England. I think? ) that is using chromium as cantilever material. I understand he manufacture it. Chromium measures very good on stifness and hardness. He says that performs extremely good and obviously is not inexpensive. I can't remember if other cartridge experts/designers choosed chromium in the past. I never had opportunity to listen the Madake so I can't speak about that cartridge design with bamboo cantilever. Anyway, the boron point it is very clear and in the near future is the material we will see in top cartridges till appears something else but I'm sure that Lyra or Ortofon or other true experts and well regarded cartridge manufacturers decides other thing. Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. |
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