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Good styluses for Stanton 500?

Dandy

Dandy

Addicted Member
Last week I came across a DJ/music store having a closing down sale. I picked up a few cheap interconnects, and while paying found a bowl at the counter with a jumble of DJ headshells, marked at £1 each. I picked out four including one with an Ortofon cart that sounds quite good. Went back yesterday and picked out another six, including three with old Stanton 500 gold carts. Two even had just about usable styluses (with blue tab).

All three had been wrongly installed (both the mounting screws and the wiring), but when I corrected this, and tested the carts on a junk record, I liked what I heard. Big bass and lots of fun.

Now, my normal carts are Shures, from M75 through to V15IV, on a Garrard 401 with an SME Series Imp tonearm. So this result with a low compliance cart was a nice surprise to me. (This hobby constantly surprises me.)

My questions: What stylus should I get to play use these carts with my good vinyl? And can any track at 1.5g?
 
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Genuine Pickering DAT and DATE styli aren't that difficult to find, and those are what I use all the time (at 3 grams). I've found them on ebay. If you prefer lighter tracking, the T4P styli, like DLC and DLE, can track at very light forces (1.5 grams). The Stanton variety of T4P styli have also been available affordably at times. I think they are called D70E, I don't have mine right at hand to check. I have some of these and I think they sound very good, without any sibilance problems.

As for aftermarket, in the UK you can buy KYOWA brand needles inexpensively for the 500. A friend that I trust has used them and said they are pretty good. He bought four at one time and three were good and sounded good but one was defective.
 
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That happened to me once.

A guy came to my house and bought a whole bunch of heavy metal records I had up for sale. He said next time, I have a few old broken duals I’ll give you. The next time he came, I drove him back home and he gave a a 1019, a 510, and two small boxes of cartridges and head shells. Ortofon, Shure, Stanton, ADC, Audio Technica, and a few others I can’t recall with about 5 or 6 different Dual sleds, a slimline Sony headshell in metal, a Sansui head shell, a Pioneer, and a bunch of no name headshells.

I think the value of the cartridges outweighs the value of the 1019 in Dual plinth, and the parts I got off the 510. And I am very much enjoying trying out different styli on them. I think I have 5 headshells and some very nice cartridge styli combinations. The others have allowed me to complete a bunch of tables I got cheap with no head shells for simply the cost of the styli! There were only two dead cartridges in the whole lot. Total number was over twenty cartridges with headshells, with about 5 or 10 loose cartridges. All had bad or lost stylus.

In terms of my own musical enjoyment value, those two small boxes were my best score! And I’m still enjoying it!
 
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tubewade said:
Genuine Pickering DAT and DATE styli aren't that difficult to find, and those are what I use all the time (at 3 grams). I've found them on ebay. If you prefer lighter tracking, the T4P styli, like DLC and DLE, can track at very light forces (1.5 grams). The Stanton variety of T4P styli have also been available affordably at times. I think they are called D70E, I don't have mine right at hand to check. I have some of these and I think they sound very good, without any sibilance problems.

As for aftermarket, in the UK you can buy KYOWA brand needles inexpensively for the 500. A friend that I trust has used them and said they are pretty good. He bought four at one time and three were good and sounded good but one was defective.
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Thanks for the recommendation of the KYOWA styluses tubewade. I've seen them offered cheaply here, but wondered about the quality.

Bilbo, I agree that it is a simple score that opens up possibilities. I have a bunch of carts collected over the years, some with good styluses, so just being able to test them out without fiddling with my nice SME headshells is nice. But the Stantons are the surprise. As I say even on a high compliance tonearm, the Stantons sound good. I'll try them on my 12" SME (modified 3009) next.

Meanwhile, I'm spinning a battered copy of Ten Years After's Cricklewood Green and it's 1970 again!
 
Kyowa is anything but good quality. Even for conicals very bad sound, can't get rid of sibilance no matter what.
I had one brand new Kyowa white body red dot, it came sealed but defective!! Terrible sound!
I have 2 500 gold carts in mint condition. I tried the eliptical stylus from Thakker.eu (supposedly made by Jico Japan but it cost half the price than the one on Jico website so im suspicious.) Im not impressed with sound quality although it sounds better than a conical Kyowa.

I use these carts mostly for shellac.
Needledoctor in US falsely advertises the stylus as eliptical and 2.7mil for $48.
Instead i got 3.0 mil conical made in Switzerland. Terrible sound.
Never will i buy anything from them never ever again!!!

Good bless Audio-Technica 150mlx and VM740/750. The best mid range true hifi affordable carts.
 
DCDi said:
Kyowa is anything but good quality. Even for conicals very bad sound, can't get rid of sibilance no matter what.
I had one brand new Kyowa white body red dot, it came sealed but defective!! Terrible sound!
I have 2 500 gold carts in mint condition. I tried the eliptical stylus from Thakker.eu (supposedly made by Jico Japan but it cost half the price than the one on Jico website so im suspicious.) Im not impressed with sound quality although it sounds better than a conical Kyowa.

I use these carts mostly for shellac.
Needledoctor in US falsely advertises the stylus as eliptical and 2.7mil for $48.
Instead i got 3.0 mil conical made in Switzerland. Terrible sound.
Never will i buy anything from them never ever again!!!

Good bless Audio-Technica 150mlx and VM740/750. The best mid range true hifi affordable carts.
Click to expand...

I am not crazy about NeedleDoctor either.
 
DCDi said:
Kyowa is anything but good quality. Even for conicals very bad sound, can't get rid of sibilance no matter what.
I had one brand new Kyowa white body red dot, it came sealed but defective!! Terrible sound!
I have 2 500 gold carts in mint condition. I tried the eliptical stylus from Thakker.eu (supposedly made by Jico Japan but it cost half the price than the one on Jico website so im suspicious.) Im not impressed with sound quality although it sounds better than a conical Kyowa.
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Thank you for your feedback. Did you just try one 500 stylus? I'm wondering if you may have simply received a defective one. Some others have stated that theirs sounded pretty good for an economy aftermarket stylus, others did report theirs seemed to have some manufacturing problem, loose suspension, etc. So they arent perfect by any means.

johnjhazel said:
I have some KYOWA N44E, N55E, N75E, and VN35E that I am going to test. They have tie wires, are made in Japan and look exceptionally well made. Still will not know anything until I try them.
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I'm excited to hear the outcome of your tests. I haven't tried any of them but am always interested to hear of others experiences with aftermarket styli and especially those that fit cartridges that I am using or am likely to use at some time, i.e. Pickering and Shure.
 
tubewade said:
Thank you for your feedback. Did you just try one 500 stylus? I'm wondering if you may have simply received a defective one. Some others have stated that theirs sounded pretty good for an economy aftermarket stylus, others did report theirs seemed to have some manufacturing problem, loose suspension, etc. So they arent perfect by any means.

I n

I'm excited to hear the outcome of your tests. I haven't tried any of them but am always interested to hear of others experiences with aftermarket styli and especially those that fit cartridges that I am using or am likely to use at some time, i.e. Pickering and Shure.
Click to expand...

I am a huge fan of EVG and Pfanstiehl for Shure, Pickering, Stanton. Inexpensive so you can buy a bunch and have fun. I need to buy some Shures from my stereo dealer. He has a box of used ones. I have 5 never used AR headhshells. I can get them mounted at the dealer. So far, I will be buying a V15 III and a M44. I do not think he has any M75. I did not see any in the box.
 
I got 2 styluses with the gold 500 carts.
They are white with blue dot but also have the Stanton logo hologram on the side.
Not sure if they might be original styluses?
They sound really good for a conical strong bass good for DJing but the eliptical from Jico is louder and more clear and detailed.
The red dot kyowa was bad probably defective. I got it sealed with 500gold cart when i bought a classic Technics 1600mk1 from a guy in Greece 2 years ago.
I sold it with the 500 gold cart recently.
 
tubewade said:
Thank you for your feedback. Did you just try one 500 stylus? I'm wondering if you may have simply received a defective one. Some others have stated that theirs sounded pretty good for an economy aftermarket stylus, others did report theirs seemed to have some manufacturing problem, loose suspension, etc. So they arent perfect by any means.



I'm excited to hear the outcome of your tests. I haven't tried any of them but am always interested to hear of others experiences with aftermarket styli and especially those that fit cartridges that I am using or am likely to use at some time, i.e. Pickering and Shure.
Click to expand...

Thakker sells rebranded JICO's (along with many Swiss styli) as do many others. JICO and the Swiss manufactuer are the two biggest suppliers in the world. Thakker is number two in worldwide sales.
 
For vintage Pickering/Stanton best to stick with originals wherever possible. As indicated earlier in the thread, not that difficult to find, especially for the 500. And remember that Pickering V15 styli are interchangeable with the 500.
 
johnjhazel said:
Thakker sells rebranded JICO's (along with many Swiss styli) as do many others. JICO and the Swiss manufactuer are the two biggest suppliers in the world. Thakker is number two in worldwide sales.
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Yes it does say Jico on the stylus box.
Black body with black dot. No hologram.
Looks the same like on Jico website.
Thakker sells more styluses for 500E but on this one it was mentioned made in Japan. On others just says generic Stanton stylus.
I was wondering how can they sell the same stylus for €27 that costs €60 on Jico webshop?
 
sberger said:
For vintage Pickering/Stanton best to stick with originals wherever possible. As indicated earlier in the thread, not that difficult to find, especially for the 500. And remember that Pickering V15 styli are interchangeable with the 500.
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Actually not easy at all to find. I'm still searching for 500E original stylus. Both D5100E and D5127. Pickering website has most styluses soldout on their website.
 
DCDi said:
Yes it does say Jico on the stylus box.
Black body with black dot. No hologram.
Looks the same like on Jico website.
Thakker sells more styluses for 500E but on this one it was mentioned made in Japan. On others just says generic Stanton stylus.
I was wondering how can they sell the same stylus for €27 that costs €60 on Jico webshop?
Click to expand...

JICO just raised their prices. It will probably take some time for the price increase to take effect. Plus, I think some people will pay more for a laser engraved JICO. There may be other differences as well. With a laser engraved JICO there is no doubt that it is a JICO. That is not important to me but everyone is different.
 
DCDi said:
Actually not easy at all to find. I'm still searching for 500E original stylus. Both D5100E and D5127. Pickering website has most styluses soldout on their website.
Click to expand...

I have lots of 500 styli including the 500E that I've accumulated over the years just by hunting them down. There's a nice 500 w/ a 500EE on a Dual headshell on the auction site right now for a decent price.
 
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