Shibata (S70EX4) recommendation for Goldring/Excel ES-70S Cartridge

I set my Dutch DN-25-ST "Quadro Tip" (Shibata) at 1.75g. Performs very well on a low/medium mass arm.

John
 
As you see, with generics, one gets to establish one's own specs. Which is fun, though a little unsettling. You try to get the cartridge to tell you where it's happiest. You squat down next to it, getting down on its level, as if you were about to ask it things like "How's it goin', bud?"
 
Found an ES-70S catridge body for under $30, and I already own an At95E, so I ordered both. Now @wualta and I can both give our comparison of the budget-leader advanced stylus shape carts.

Funnily enough, the cartridge body is also coming from the Netherlands. The body is a "Marlux" brand, which is probably some house brand over there.

I'm interested how you would rate the two. The Excel ES70EX4 was the last MM cartridge I used before I went MC, and I really liked it. Didn't like the AT95E at all. Way too bright and "CD-like" for my tastes.
 
Each of these two bodies is no better than the best stylus that will fit them, and then you're limited to what you can afford, of course. If I absolutely had to pick one, for my system I'd pick the AT3400 (AT95) body with the 710-HE hyperelliptic stylus I got from Gary. A very close second would go to the now-doubled-in-price DN-25 Shibata in any of the ES-70 bodies except the ES-70EX4. The DN-25 now costs more than the 710-HE. They track at the same VTF, and the HE tracks just that little bit better when the going gets tough. But that's a small sample size, using different headshells, which means slightly different VTA, azimuth, etc etc. You can be delighted with either, but if you have an old AT3400 body in your junk box, get the 710-HE before they disappear.
 
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It's going to be fun, I'll do a three way shootout with the Acutex + Tonar stylus (also from pickupnaalden) I just picked up.


I think you'll like the Acutex....too bad you ddin't have the STR ( Symetrical Tri Radius ) stylus as that is what makes the really special.

When I get up the nerve and time im going to try to re tip a stylus with a panansionic shibata .

Nashou
 
I'll give you pointers. No pun intended.


Whats nice about the Acutex stylus assembly is that you can remove the cantilever and suspensions from the housing.
That should make it easy to re cantilever . The hard part is realigning the rabbit ears for equal stereo sound. I removed one
to get a feel for it and it took me a little effort to line it back up again. I am sure with more practice it will be a breeze.

Nashou
 
If you get comfortable with the Acutex I might send mine among with a donor Shibata or other line contact stylus for you to do some magic on. :)
 
Their system probably automatically bumps the price when things get below a certain stock level. Or one of their guys looked at all the orders we've been placing and said, "WE LISTED A SHIBATA AT HOW MUCH?!?!"
 
Wualta will be able to confirm this (because he bought one) but I recall that these D.F.R. "Quadro-Tip" DN-25s first came to our attention when PUN listed them on eBay for something like $18.00(!) These D.F.R. brand styli are a mystery. I'd never heard of them until PUN listed them. My guess is that PUN purchased them as a wholesale lot of old stock from a defunct importer or manufacturer and that when they're gone, that's it. It's a real shame.

John
 
The Onkyo DN-25 stylus first came to my attention a year ago on another forum thanks to a Dutch guy calling himself Japi Roelofs. He had bought the last DN-25 from his trusted vendor in Germany, so I didn't bother looking further.

When last fall AKer KSM74 also pointed out the DN-25, this time from PUN and sold on eBay, I bought one. It came in a Tonar-looking snapcase but labeled DFR. Thus began my DFR adventure among the quadro-tips.
 
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I had one at home the last weekend . . . didn´t track at 2.5g but worse, it produced random, I guess static discharges, that popps randomly between 5 to 15 seconds, very anoying but PUN took back the needle whitout complain(they had rise the price since I bought it);)
 
I had one at home the last weekend . . . didn´t track at 2.5g but worse, it produced random, I guess static discharges, that popps randomly between 5 to 15 seconds, very anoying but PUN took back the needle whitout complain(they had rise the price since I bought it);)

Mine started doing that the last time I installed it. I've had other styli that did that and the solution I found was to put a tiny bit of BluTack between the stylus and the cartridge body. (I've found that this works on cartridges that are "microphonic" too.) With the Excel, I found that the BluTack Treatment didn't work the first time but I removed and then reinstalled the stylus and the problem went away.

This raises the possibility that it's the way the stylus seats itself that determines whether the problem will occur and not than the BluTack. But the BT may keep the stylus assembly from moving from the "ideal spot" inside the body once it has found it.

Also, it's possible that the problem is related to humidity. My stylus worked just fine during the summer and autumn and didn't start popping until winter when the humidity is much lower.

John
 
We end up having assortments of Summer Cartridges, Winter Cartridges and Year-round Cartridges, a little like tires.

John
 
My Shibata from Pickupnaalden arrived at the weekend and it played fine straight off from fitting at around 1.8 gms and seems to track everything I throw at it.
The first stylus I ordered never arrived after almost three weeks and they sent me a replacement out immediately, no questions asked.
Brilliant customer service and I bought mine at the €40 price.
Both product and vendor highly reccomended.
 
Well, I decided to try my DN-25 again to see if the cure took. It didn't. The static discharge is back. It seems to go away on its own after a period of continuous play but returns once the table's been idle for a time.

As a control, I fitted a different stylus, a blue elliptical that I can't remember the source for, and it works fine.

Humidity here is 30% today. That's fairly low. I'll try it again on a more humid day to test my theory.

John
 
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