it is NOT anecdotal the matter of if I have quad records or not has nothing to do with it. I used the quad as an extreme example. if conical styli is superior to all others, why all Denon moving coils conical? oh I guess they charge more for those because of their inferior tracking ability compared to their lower end MC's. I have a Grado gold I use to play clean lp's and 45's. I have a second table that has a Stanton 500 conical cart on it, on my old Kappa ( speakers the conical seemed to give the grado a good run for it's money all things considered, now that I have more revealing speakers ( on the same system other wise) the stanton with a conical, falls far short in detail reteival and now I know why the grado gold sells for more than the stanton 500. This can be a double edged sword however, play a beat up record on a higher end cart, and you hear more noise. Elipticals track better ( and mistracking does not mean skipping or getting stuck in a grroove, like a lot of people think)
That 103 was a DJ ( as in radio) cartrige when it was introduced. and there is a reason DJ's used conicals after others styli shapes were developed. Elliptical styli weren't invented to save a dying format. Any groove a styli can not track perfectly, it will carve into it BECAUSE it cannot track it properly. Conicals are also good for wide grooved 12 inch single because they are forgiving. But that is at the expense of detail. Don't believe me? go up a few models in denon's line and you will see, the 103 is best for 45rpm records and any record with slightly elevated amounts of noise.
I don't know what your point is, or why you're upset
No one said that conical styli were superior to all others
Plenty of DJs used the Stanton 681EEE series of carts and styli (just one example) when records were still played on air and the Stereohedron is no simple cut (it sure ain't no conical)
The Denon DL-103 was developed for professional use and that includes A&R professionals not just or limited to the broadcast industry (although back in the day, radio broadcast was "hi-fi", think the BBC)
It is still in production today (and I don't think there are too many radio stations here in the U.S. still playing records live on air, not enough to warrant it still being produced just for that purpose) so someone beside DJs are (still) using it wouldn't you think?
The more expensive DL-103r is a conical stylus as well
The DL-103 sells for the price that it does for two reasons - the cost of R&D have long been amortized, decades ago and two, it is still widely popular with audio enthusiasts who own the equipment necessary to support it (and I doubt too many DJs are in that group, meaning using it for their gigs)
But I will say it again, NO ONE in this thread that I have read said it was "superior" to anything. In fact the thread title invites the discussion of which is preferable and why
You are the one that made the factually erroneous absolute statement that conical styli engrave records, and again, all I am saying is that if set up properly on a good tonearm that is just not the case
If it were the case then no one would buy it
Why aren't all Denon cartridges using a conical stylus? For the same reason that all automobiles aren't V-8s
