Cart Choices

[danj]

IMHO, the Ortofon OM5E would not be an upgrade. The OM10 would be and the OM20 and higher models would be huge steps up. I'm not a big fan of the AT95e and its numerous iterations but it's a very viable choice for the money. A properly oriented and polished .4 X .7 stylus will exhibit less record wear than a .3 X .7 or smaller cut. A micro-line (or the equivalent from other manufacturers) costs a bit more but can sound better and wear vinyl less than an elliptical. A ML or other long-contact cut requires stringent alignment. It's a bit more of a pain to set up but worth the effort, in my experience. Of course, elliptical cuts also need careful setup.

My favorite is a Shibata, simply because it's been great for me and I have always loves the way it's gentle on records and low on noise pickup. Plus, they tend to cost a bit less than most other ML styli.

 

[Multiplex]

While a lot of cartridge manufacturers claim wide VTF ranges, (like Shure's typical .75-1.5g range, for instance,) for the most part, I would simply call that a marketing ploy. It's kind of like saying, "Oh look at how versatile our cartridges are. They mate well with ALL super light to mid-mass arms, on any turntable with no problems at all!" Sounds great, right? Trouble is, the cartridge will perform quite poorly at either extreme, particularly at the low end of that scale.

Most cartridges have a "recommended" VTF that falls somewhere in thier range, and usually, you don't want to exceed that figure by about any more than +/- .2g, unless we are talking DJ styli. You might have pretty big issues, if you do. (Grado is another great example. They claim to track from 1-2g, 1.5 being optimal. Actually, 1.65g is usually optimal. And try tracking one at 1g, and see what happens.)

In the case of this particular Shure stylus, I'm thinking that it was probably optimal at it's top end to comply with Pmount spec. It was probably never any good at 1g or lower, pretty much like any other Shure.

That is not to say your stylus doesn't have issues. Sounds like it must. Guess you just never know. I have a handful of vintage USA Shure styli from probably the late 70's/early 80's and they are just fine. I have experienced suspension failures in other brands, though, and it always sucks. It's possible that this particular stylus was made to be more compliant than most, which led to its early failure. Who knows.

 

[Trekkie4]

IMHO, the Ortofon OM5E would not be an upgrade. The OM10 would be and the OM20 and higher models would be huge steps up. I'm not a big fan of the AT95e and its numerous iterations but it's a very viable choice for the money. A properly oriented and polished .4 X .7 stylus will exhibit less record wear than a .3 X .7 or smaller cut. A micro-line (or the equivalent from other manufacturers) costs a bit more but can sound better and wear vinyl less than an elliptical. A ML or other long-contact cut requires stringent alignment. It's a bit more of a pain to set up but worth the effort, in my experience. Of course, elliptical cuts also need careful setup.

My favorite is a Shibata, simply because it's been great for me and I have always loves the way it's gentle on records and low on noise pickup. Plus, they tend to cost a bit less than most other ML styli.

Thanks for the help. Yes, Ortofon was one of my optional choices right from the beginning... I was going to buy 5E, but I've been hearing a lot of reasons not to do it. Meanwhile I came across Grado Black 1, which seems to have a lot of issues of its own. Also, people say it's bright, they are comparing Black 1 to AT95 which I personally dislike. So with that in mind, I'm more open to Ortofon idea. Oh well, I better start saving money for OM10

And yes, I've heard a lot about Shibata styli. In fact, I would personally prefer Shibata over MicroLine/MicroRidge styli due to wear factor, especially on dusty, worn & off-center albums. Come to think of it, Shibata would make a GREAT addition to my Shure M94 cart, but to be completely honest I can't afford one at the moment.

While a lot of cartridge manufacturers claim wide VTF ranges, (like Shure's typical .75-1.5g range, for instance,) for the most part, I would simply call that a marketing ploy. It's kind of like saying, "Oh look at how versatile our cartridges are. They mate well with ALL super light to mid-mass arms, on any turntable with no problems at all!" Sounds great, right? Trouble is, the cartridge will perform quite poorly at either extreme, particularly at the low end of that scale.

Most cartridges have a "recommended" VTF that falls somewhere in thier range, and usually, you don't want to exceed that figure by about any more than +/- .2g, unless we are talking DJ styli. You might have pretty big issues, if you do. (Grado is another great example. They claim to track from 1-2g, 1.5 being optimal. Actually, 1.65g is usually optimal. And try tracking one at 1g, and see what happens.)

In the case of this particular Shure stylus, I'm thinking that it was probably optimal at it's top end to comply with Pmount spec. It was probably never any good at 1g or lower, pretty much like any other Shure.

That is not to say your stylus doesn't have issues. Sounds like it must. Guess you just never know. I have a handful of vintage USA Shure styli from probably the late 70's/early 80's and they are just fine. I have experienced suspension failures in other brands, though, and it always sucks. It's possible that this particular stylus was made to be more compliant than most, which led to its early failure. Who knows.

In my personal opinion, VTF range claim is a good place to start, but indeed - not necessarily a rule. M94E/M97xE confirms that statement. But this is the way I see things - if it's not broken, don't fix it. And since I never had a mistracking or skipping issues on either of my cart(s), at least not on my current Audio Technica LP120, I'm not worried or paying much attention to VTF. Now, on my old Akai ATT022U ... that was a whole other story. It came with conical AT 3600L which had a whole bunch of issues. And it was tracking at 2.5g, which is 0.5g higher than what the Akai manual recommended (2.0g). In fact, Audio Technica specifically wrote on their website that 3600L tracks at 3.5g since it was primarily designed for low-cost, budget models without VTF adjustment ability. So ever since I adjusted VTF & swapped out the headshell for another one (because the original was apparently bent, out of alignment) it was tracking somewhat better. I'm saying "somewhat" because Akai still had loads of issues with tracking, even balancing the tonearm due to tonearm base (mechanical joints) sticking & flexing. And that is why I never used Shure on this Akai unit, I didn't want to damage my stylus &/or records.


Speaking of Shure, one thing that still bugs me is the tonearm design... From what I understand, it was primarily designed for low-mass tonearms, where the S-shaped tonearm on my LP120 falls into mid-range category. In fact, my old Kenwood KD1600 had a low-mass tonearm, which is one of the reasons I got M94E in the first place. I'll admit, I'm far from being an expert on this issue, but perhaps that's what caused additional wear or mechanical stress on my old M94?


I would also like to point out that over the last couple of years, Shure was kept in a very humid, damp environment. In fact, I had a serious water issue last year which even caused permanent damage on one of the old computers, from my retro collection. To the point where the entire motherboard stopped working & had to be replaced. So again, I'm not an expert & don't know if this could (and did) cause any serious issue to a phono stylus but at this point I guess it doesn't really matter... *shrug*