Shure Cart ID

Don't know about comparison to JICO, but my $13 EVG stylus on my Radio Shack "rebadged" M75 cartridge sounds really good on my Kenwood KD5070. Far better than a $13 stylus has any right to sound!

I've read that statement, worded exactly the same way numerous times in this forum.

If you take that $13 needle and spend some considerable time comparing it to better made ones on a variety of recordings, in quality turntables, the differences are quite clear.

For the casual listener, that $13 needle may produce the desired results. Hopefully it won't ruin your records in the process.
 
I've read that statement, worded exactly the same way numerous times in this forum.

If you take that $13 needle and spend some considerable time comparing it to better made ones on a variety of recordings, in quality turntables, the differences are quite clear.

For the casual listener, that $13 needle may produce the desired results. Hopefully it won't ruin your records in the process.
Didn't know I was a casual listener....and agreed, a quality table is a relative thing....

By contrast, the pfansteihl on my Pickering XV15 really sounds bad...lots of sibilance...whether on my KD5070 or my KD550.
 
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M75...pick your suffix.

The brown stylus grip indicates a N75EC which is a .4 x .7 mil elliptical and tracks between 2 and 4 grams. It has an output voltage of 9.3 mV

Also, Jico makes great styli for the M75 from conical to HE. Very excellent tracking and comparable to Shure originals. My favorite classic Shure platform.
 
I will never understand why people would bother putting cheap styli on great cartridges like Shure. Listen to Malden he knows what he is talking about! On his advise and others I have Jico styli coming for my M75 and M97 carts both HE. I just wish I could come up with a good combo for my V15 V cart!
 
I will never understand

why people would bother putting cheap styli on great cartridges like Shure. Listen to Malden he knows what he is talking about! On his advise and others I have Jico styli coming for my M75 and M97 carts both HE. I just wish I could come up with a good combo for my V15 V cart!

Those of us who find success in using certain less expensive generic needles, as well as some original needles, get that there is an element of the community who "will never understand." We get it. But we are not embarrassed by our own practices. We know what sounds good on our own systems, playing the records we have and like. So maybe those who don't understand us will have to just live with us being part of the conversation. I am happy to learn of wonderful needles that cost more than I spent on my turntable and receiver, but don't hold your breath waiting for me to buy one of those needles, no matter how good they are. I am happy that other forum members learn about those needles when they ask about needle options for a particular cartridge, but I also think they deserve to know about all of the options available, if they haven't specified interest only in a certain upper price range. I think someone saying something like only a particular pricey needle is worth putting on a certain cartridge is a disservice to fellow AKers who might want to hear a more broad selection of views before deciding what they want to do.

I don't want this to sound like I am picking on Cylontymany and Malden, since I am always interested in what they post. I mean only to speak, in a broad sense, on behalf of a view of this subject they seem less receptive to than are some of the rest of us.
 
I have no time for inconsistent results on styli. I need to buy 10 styli or however many, and 90 if not 100% of them be as advertised, and specific to the application, not one size fits all generics which usually are lowest common demoninator, i.e Heavy Duty. Jico's are application specific, they manufacture them, they're consistent from sample to sample like Shure's own were. Any less for me is not acceptable. Quality costs less in the long run. Tracking for me must be consistent from sample to sample, I need to get the specific stylus necessary for my application. Jico does that. The who knows who manufactured it or where manufactured stylus, and who knows what force it tracks at in reality to meet standard does not work with this engineer. Consistency and performance is demanded.
 
I also have a Shure M35X with N35X needle and an Ortofon Concorde 10 cart (not the weighted DJ one) with no stylus as of yet. I had looked into getting one of these needles for that one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ortofon-St...567647?hash=item5d28543c5f:g:yd8AAOSwHnFVpN8i

Only issue I have found is that the Ortofon Concorde 10 cart is way too light for all my tables.

I've got a Concorde 20 like that. I also have the light counterweight that came with the cartridge when new, which I have to use to mount the Concorde on my Technics SL-1700Mk2. The numbered Ortofon styli have also changed since the LM/early Concorde days. I have a 20 stylus that I bought NOS a decade ago that sounds better on my Concorde than the current production ones. The old ones have plastic over the stylus tip; the new ones have a cut-out over the stylus tip to make it easier to see when cuing a record.
 
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Well, I have the choice of using the following carts on a newly acquired Denon DP-62L, wondering what the AK experts think would be a good fit:
  • Shure M75 with N75HE
  • Shure M91ed (currently mounted)
  • Grado Blue Prestige
  • Ortofon 2M Red
  • Or..... I could go all out and get the Ortofon 2M blue stylus for the red cart.

Do you have the straight arm, s-arm, or both? That will be a factor in which cart will work best.
 
I have no time for inconsistent results on styli. I need to buy 10 styli or however many, and 90 if not 100% of them be as advertised, and specific to the application, not one size fits all generics which usually are lowest common demoninator, i.e Heavy Duty. Jico's are application specific, they manufacture them, they're consistent from sample to sample like Shure's own were. Any less for me is not acceptable. Quality costs less in the long run. Tracking for me must be consistent from sample to sample, I need to get the specific stylus necessary for my application. Jico does that. The who knows who manufactured it or where manufactured stylus, and who knows what force it tracks at in reality to meet standard does not work with this engineer. Consistency and performance is demanded.

That's an excellent point. JICO manufactures a consistently high quality product. This is true for all of their styli, high end or low. I'll take a $22.00 JICO conical, plus the requisite shipping, over a EVG or Pfanstiehl elliptical any day. Regardless of tip profile, the JICO variant is overall a better made stylus assembly.

EVG, etc, don't manufacture anything, they purchase their products from various manufacturers and put their name on it. Could be from x, y or z manufacturer. They are not of the same quality as JICO or the originals.
 
I understand now and agree. I have some lower end AT11E and PRO11E 12E and 13E carts that's I put those 629-DE from voice of music which are .2x.7 ellipticals from Japan and what an upgrade for very little money.
 
I have another hobby in which some of the excellence in achievement can also come with a hefty price tag: Photography. On another forum, I regularly converse and share photos with folks, some of whom have individual lenses that cost more than my entire collection of cameras and lenses are worth. Although that doesn't mean some of the ones who most appreciate the finer points of the finest and most technically advanced (and most expensive) lenses might not also have great appreciation for a cheap department-store-branded lens, also in their collection, that can -- in their hands and with their eye -- take some of the pictures they are most proud of. It might even be that, due to the kind of inconsistency of production that KentTeffeteller warns of about styluses, they have an especially good copy of that off-brand lens, but if a number of other members of that forum also have pretty good copies of that cheapo lens and also have good success with it, maybe others deserve to hear about it.
 
I can get damn good images with an old Pentax screw mount lens in my digital camera, so no argument there.

But we're not talking about styli with heavy price tags. The OP's M75 cartridge body can perform like it did when new with a JICO $33.00 stylus (plus shipping). If a stylus lasts 600 hours, plus or minus, and we round up the overall cost to $60.00, that's 10 pennies per hour. When I buy from JICO, I always buy 2 styli to split the shipping cost between the two.

https://www.jico-stylus.com/product...cts_id=1429&osCsid=33r9tdc73ru4k1mvv97cjh5mt3
 
Really appreciate everyone’s input. Will definitely go the Jico route when purchasing new needles.
 
I understand that JICO, bought from JICO, is the best way to minimize chances for problem styli, but for some of us their prices are off-putting. I recently wanted a new stylus for the m97xe because it sounded dull and lifeless in my system(s) with the OEM stylus. I wound up buying a TVOM EVG 97HE, which with a bit of trimming fits in the m97xe beautifully and makes it the cartridge I wished for.

I would have considered the 97xvl from LPGear, but they cost more than the cartridge itself. The JICOs, certainly the SAS, cost well more than that, enough that I kept on balking while the cartridge sat in a drawer. In the context of finding a suitable stylus for the $99 m97xe, for those of us who find the OEM to be dull and boring, these "lesser" styli and mismatches allow us to find ways to get this cartridge back into the mix without spending a ton of money.

I understand the user who looks for a great stylus for a vintage V15, and who might be best served to shell out $$$ for the JICO SAS, but the value-driven and "experimentatious" among us are looking for different answers at different price levels and/or the potential to mix and match to suit our needs. I find threads about mixing, matching and frankencarting to be some of the most useful ones here.
 
Some of us, who are old enough to have bought mono LPs when they cost half the price of the new-fangled stereo LPs, are on not-high fixed incomes, and, while we might call a 20-29 dollar purchase fairly comfortable, we find ourselves having to plan and ponder over a $60-plus purchase, and maybe would need to skip other planned spending when we do take those $60-plus leaps. We are not bargain-averse and, as I said before, not ashamed to be pleased if we find good-to-excellent results from what for us is a smart buying decision. I am happy for, in fact I celebrate, those who are less monetarily constrained, and I love to hear about the equipment they are using, including the things that are bargain-basement-priced for them that aren't in that range for me. But, you know, there are some AKers, who could go out and plunk down $300 for a cartridge or just a stylus alone without thinking that much about it, but who also very much like some very cheap generic styluses that are out there for certain cartridges. That seems to suggest to me that there is quality to be had at a bargain price some of the time, and the low-priced options should not be dismissed out-of-hand.


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