The P-Mount owners club
- Thread starter Bourbon
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Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
All righty then... I feel better and have showed my wife that my collection is "normal" compared to these displayed here. A question. Not all purchases come with stylus protection. Are there any good solutions you use to protect the stylus when you put them into there cubby holes here if the original stylus cover is not included? Thanks.
Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
I cut out a piece of the spongy type foam the size of the cubby hole. The foam is just thick enough to hold the cartridge in place when the lid is closed without touching the stylus.
SA-708
Appalachian-American
For the ones without a stylus guard (flip-down or cover), I keep the stylus in the cigar box in safe packaging, and store the cartridge without the stylus.
I'm curious-- on the N97LT, did Shure silently change over from the Era IV (telescoped) to the Era V ("Type II") cantilever without notice, or does this change show up in the enclosed documentation? Thanks.
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Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
The Shure V15 Type IV and it's p-mount cousin have a beryllium stiffener insert on the magnet end of the cantilever. Both have a telescoped aluminum cantilever. The V15 Type V series started with the entire cantilever being a hollow beryllium tube. It's confusing the way I described it. I will edit my posting. I'm not sure what happened with the N97LT stylus. The originals were the telescoped type as well as the N96LT which has similar performance. I have noticed that the cantilever changed when the Shure logo changed on the stylus grip from the rather plain looking font to the current font. At least that is what my samples suggest. It was kind of disappointing to see. I can try to take some pictures with my little USB microscope.
Edit: Walt, I removed the reference to beryllium for the V15LT on my original posting to hopefully stop any confusion. Thanks for pointing this out. -Davd
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Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
Here is a photo (bottom photo) I took of the newer style N97LT with a magnifying glass over my iPad camera showing a one piece cantilever. Lower photo is one I copied from a listing on the auction site. I looked in the documentation included with the stylus (the folded bit of paper in the box). I did not see any reference to the telescoped cantilever being changed. However, the box pictured in the listing showed it was manufactured in Mexico. Perhaps they changed the cantilever when they moved the factory? IDK
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Wow! Thanks for the photo. Well, if the "trackability" specs didn't change, and, more importantly, the new version doesn't mistrack, I guess it's okay. Mostly. Yeah, unexplained changes make me feel funny too.
David, I edited my earlier post as well. Thanks for the update.
I suppose here would be a good place to recommend a really good/cheap N96LT generic I've found, namely the one being sold by the Dutch operation pickupnaalden on US eBay. It's labeled "N-97LT" and it's red, but it's a 3x7 bonded elliptical, so it should be called an N96LT, but y'know, aftermarket. Has the telescoped cantilever and the tie wire. $24 shipped and it tracks tough stuff beautifully. In my system it's just a tad strong way up top, but I've come to expect that. While they last.
David, I edited my earlier post as well. Thanks for the update.
I suppose here would be a good place to recommend a really good/cheap N96LT generic I've found, namely the one being sold by the Dutch operation pickupnaalden on US eBay. It's labeled "N-97LT" and it's red, but it's a 3x7 bonded elliptical, so it should be called an N96LT, but y'know, aftermarket. Has the telescoped cantilever and the tie wire. $24 shipped and it tracks tough stuff beautifully. In my system it's just a tad strong way up top, but I've come to expect that. While they last.
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Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
I have one that looks identical to that one, but I have no idea where I got it from. Good price, though. I also noticed there are some NOS original N96LT styli available for 59.99. I have a few of these already. These seem to just sit on Ebay for some reason. They would make an excellent upgrade for almost any Shure p-mount cartridge with a high quality nude .2 x .7 elliptical polished diamond, telescoped cantilever and the same performance specs as the much higher priced N97LT. I can't tell any sound difference between the two.
malden
Addicted Member
That seems to be the case, the telescoped cantilevers didn't quite make the trip south of the border. My "Made In USA" ERA lV styli are telescoped but the same styli "Made In Mexico" are not.
I use Blu-Tack. It affixes them securely, but you can pull them off again without too much drama. https://www.amazon.com/Blu-Tack-060968-Reusable-Adhesive-75g/dp/B001FGLX72
I change out catridges every so often. These days, I'm running the Shure M111HE on my Technics SL-7 and the Stanton L727E on my Technics SL-5. Here are all of the P-Mounts cartridges/styli I own:
AT-95VL
AT-126EP with 215-DET
Audio Technica LS450/LT w EVG 4212-DEC
Empire 195LT with 246-DEX
Grado Black (just got an 8MZ stylus which I have not tried out yet)
Ortofon TM-14 with 4541-DEL. (I might try this: $66 from JICO , supposedly it is an OM30 equivalent: http://www.jico-stylus.com/product_reviews_info.php?products_id=726&reviews_id=217 =)
Shure M111HE
Stanton L720 w NOS stylus
Stanton L727E with EVG 4606-DEX
AT-95VL
AT-126EP with 215-DET
Audio Technica LS450/LT w EVG 4212-DEC
Empire 195LT with 246-DEX
Grado Black (just got an 8MZ stylus which I have not tried out yet)
Ortofon TM-14 with 4541-DEL. (I might try this: $66 from JICO , supposedly it is an OM30 equivalent: http://www.jico-stylus.com/product_reviews_info.php?products_id=726&reviews_id=217 =)
Shure M111HE
Stanton L720 w NOS stylus
Stanton L727E with EVG 4606-DEX
Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
I heard one of those years ago in the store in an SL-10 through some pretty high end gear and it sounded absolutely beautiful. That one is a low output moving coil. I couldn't quite afford that setup while trying to pay for college, so I settled for an SL-7. I absolutely hated the Ortofon TM14 that came with it. I put a Shure V15LT on it as soon as I could afford to. I was 100% satisfied with that setup for many years.
Others I would classify in the "best" category are:
Technics EPC P100 - Extremely rare in the US
AT-155LC/U
AT-322/332 - Rare LOMC
Shure 1200HRP
There are plenty of other great sounding p-mounts like these:
Any of the Pickering / Stanton MI with the Stereohedron styli
ADC PSX-40
Any of the Shures with Hyperelliptical styli, for instance the M97LT, DTP35, M-110HE, M-111HE, etc.
I'm sure there are many more I have missed.
JP
7480 74111110101115
Decent, but nowhere near their best efforts.
If “best” is accurate/neutral then it’s the P100CMK4. Next should be the P305MCMK2 (I’ve never seen one, but do have a couple samples of the 1/2” version), and the P205CMK3.
The P205CMK4 should be a top performer spec-wise, though my samples seem off. I did finally find some styli for it that appear healthy, so I need to give it another shot.
Vinylmasters
Super Member
Ok. I gotta try this on my spare L727 cart. First I've heard of it!
