I own a longhorned/potted blue1 that I've posted about many times in other threads. Last year Needlestein sent me a retip stylus that included a .2X.7 elliptical and I really enjoyed the cartridge, but swapped it in and out of rotation frequently.
I recently put it on my PLX-1000 and loved it except for a bit of sibilance at the end of record sides. Under 20X I convinced myself that there was a small chip in the diamond, although I wasn't sure. In any event I lost confidence in it and decided to order a red2 stylus. When I ordered from the auction site, the seller notified me the next day that he had run out of red2 styli but instead would swap in a silver stylus. Cool!
The silver2 arrived today and under magnification I could see additional damping material on the cantilever, and the stylus body was a very firm, tight fit in the cartridge body. When I started playing it I could swear that it sounded tighter and better than the blue stylus. It's only been a side, but sibilance is noticeably better; actually, everything is better. This cartridge sounds so nice I'm going to consider getting a hold of a silver or gold body to see how good this can get, and this from a guy who has loved simple, cheap, conicals for a while now.
I'm pretty surprised. In no way did I think this stylus change would make for such improvement in this cartridge. I was aware of the legend of the 8MZ in these carts, yet this surprises me.
I recently put it on my PLX-1000 and loved it except for a bit of sibilance at the end of record sides. Under 20X I convinced myself that there was a small chip in the diamond, although I wasn't sure. In any event I lost confidence in it and decided to order a red2 stylus. When I ordered from the auction site, the seller notified me the next day that he had run out of red2 styli but instead would swap in a silver stylus. Cool!
The silver2 arrived today and under magnification I could see additional damping material on the cantilever, and the stylus body was a very firm, tight fit in the cartridge body. When I started playing it I could swear that it sounded tighter and better than the blue stylus. It's only been a side, but sibilance is noticeably better; actually, everything is better. This cartridge sounds so nice I'm going to consider getting a hold of a silver or gold body to see how good this can get, and this from a guy who has loved simple, cheap, conicals for a while now.
I'm pretty surprised. In no way did I think this stylus change would make for such improvement in this cartridge. I was aware of the legend of the 8MZ in these carts, yet this surprises me.