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Is this cart from LPgear a shibata?

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It's a Vivid Line stylus. More like a Hyper Elliptical, and not a JICO stylus (I asked them). I bought one for my Pickering and think it's quite good, but I don't have the original to compare it to.
 
Interestingly if you check the specs on vivid line (as quoted by LPGear) and compare the to the specs for shibata (from the patents) - the proportions are the same...

It may be a Shibata, or it may be a modified Shibata (like Audio Technicas LP needles which were a modified Shibata design) - but it sure as hell should perform very very close to a shibata given that its minor and major radii are the same!

bye for now

David
 
I decided to go with a yellowed OEM Audio Technica NOS ATS - 12S Shibata from Ebay. I liked the seller Mike and he had good feedback so I took a chance. Research on VE told me the plastic on the first gen originals tended to yellow. Reading on here about the Shibata reminded me that long ago the seller a high end retail stereo shop told 16 yo me that my Audio Technica M-12e was fully upgradable and a smart choice. I have always used a blue stylus with this cart and the AT-12e stylus is what I am replacing.

Whatever I bought it really sounds great. It really evens out the music range and fills in the sound instead of just blasting the mids and peaking at the highs and lows. What I like best is now I can play music at a lower level and still hear the full range plus some small intricate parts of the music I never heard with the 12. It's more mello and not as bright and sharp as the 12. Posts say to track the 12S toward the high end of the .75g to 1.75g suggested tracking range so I set it about half way between 1.5g and 1.75g on my dual 506-1 and moved the antiskating to a little past 2g per a Youtube video suggesting .5g over the TF for the 506. This upgrade seems to me to give a good undistorted sound that I'm happy with . This is far from a technical analysis but I really appreciate the wealth of info on this site and wanted to follow up. My old system powered by my SX 636 has never sounded better thanks to this plug and play upgrade.

Rich
 

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I've had a AT-12s since about 1979. It did yellow some, but it is still working wonderfully on my Pioneer PL-3F.

Mark Gosdin
 
Hi, the original ATS12S and ATN12S are not bright white. The color is called "Ivory" by Audio Technica. Sure, it will get darker and yellower over the years.

If anyone can compare the NOS 12S with this Vividline replacement or other alternatives, this would be very appreciated. I still have a spare NOS at home though :)

Stephan

atspecsbuoiz.jpg
 
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