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JICO SAS Discontinued

needlestein said:
I totally understand hoarding in this hobby. Things come and go. Really great stuff just ups and disappears. Sometimes it reemerges at triple the price or worse. A stitch in time kinda...

I'd have bought a couple myself if I could have afforded it, but I'm going to have a $400 bill real soon for a couple of Expert Stylus retips with Paratrace diamonds and sapphire cantilevers. If they sound at least as nice as the SAS, I'll be very happy. If they sound better than the SAS, my SAS might go up for auction.

Naaahhhh!!!!

I had you going for a second, right?
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What styli/ cartridges are you having re-tipped? I would be very interested to hear your comparison.
 
I just got confirmation of shipment for a Jico SAS ordered form LP Gear after reading the OP from noisemodule. Thank you for letting the AK community know about this.

Cheers!
 
noisemodule said:
...So you're saying the M97xE has a linear decline in freq. response from 1-2k Hz downard at 2 db/8ve? or a maybe linear from 1 or 2k Hz down to 10k Hz and then level, like a low-shelving EQ or filter, as opposed to a negative logarithmic curve? I really need to do some testing of my own, I still have much to learn. your experience is greatly appreciated, however!
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As I should have said, we owe a debt of thanks to those forumfolk who've taken the time and expense to add measuring software, and who then share their measurements with us. Yes, the posted xE curves are very odd in my experience in looking more like a tilt (or a tilt, then a shelf) than a rolloff. I'd like to know how they managed it.
 
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noisemodule said:
So you're saying the M97xE has a linear decline in freq. response from 1-2k Hz downard at 2 db/8ve? or a maybe linear from 1 or 2k Hz down to 10k Hz and then level, like a low-shelving EQ or filter, as opposed to a negative logarithmic curve?
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M97xE frequency response graph (red = outer grooves, white = inner grooves) below:

shure-m97xE frequency response.gif

The rise at the bottom end is where it's starting to rise towards resonance in that particular tonearm, so is fairly typical for all cartridges and most conventional tonearms. The M97xE isn't unpleasant-sounding, but the early drop off starting in the midrange frequencies is quite noticeable against better cartridges with flatter frequency responses.:wtf:
 
Christian B said:
I just got confirmation of shipment for a Jico SAS ordered form LP Gear after reading the OP from noisemodule. Thank you for letting the AK community know about this.

Cheers!
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Me too, for a m91ed

So, when they announce they are making them again, and the price goes back to $133 bucks, do we have any attorneys here that can spearhead the class action suit? :)
 
Without knowing the test setup and loading, that chart doesn't really tell us much.
 
The test loading for that M97xE frequency response was 250pF and 47kΩ, the standard load recommended by Shure.

You should be able to make the M97xE sound brighter, by loading it differently. However, bringing the electrical resonance too low will just introduce a nasty peak in the response, followed by a rapid roll-off, which may sound worse than what you were trying to cure!:no:

needlestein said:
The rising low end looks to be mostly well below 20Hz if the first vertical graph line is 20Hz, so that's totally normal for vertical and horizontal resonance which is ideally placed by design and carried out by competent cart/arm matching to be between 8Hz and like 15Hz (whatever my test records say).
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Yes – I’d say that the cartridge and tonearm were probably reasonably well-matched.

However, if the resonance is too high (much above 12Hz) you will notice a rise within the bottom end of the audio range. I have seen a frequency response for a reasonably low compliance Dynavector cartridge, which had been paired with a too-light tonearm. They’d used the same SME tonearm to compare a number of different cartridges, and it was too light for the Dynavector. It's the typical problem you have comparing cartridges - if you change the tonearm as well as the cartridge, are any changes you hear a result of the tonearm or the cartridge?:dunno:

On that Dynavector frequency response, the arm/cartridge resonance was at 16Hz, and the rise to resonance started happening up near 50Hz! So that would obviously be sounding very bass-heavy.
 
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I just ordered one from the Jico site for my Shure V15 Type 4 for $133 plus 13 dollars and change for shipping that had been in my cart for about a year. It went through and I received a confirmation email from Jico too. I had put it in my cart way back then but had gone with lpgear instead. We'll see. Fingers crossed!
 
drummergrl said:
I just ordered one from the Jico site for my Shure V15 Type 4 for $133 plus 13 dollars and change for shipping that had been in my cart for about a year. It went through and I received a confirmation email from Jico too. I had put it in my cart way back then but had gone with lpgear instead. We'll see. Fingers crossed!
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Isn't the $133.00 price for the HE?

John
 
needlestein said:
That's strange because I had one for the M91 in my shopping cart on the day of the announcement and when I went to order it, it just disappeared. If you try to even find an SAS on the Jico site, you can't get anywhere. In any event, GOOD LUCK!
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I think what drummergirl is getting is the hyper elliptical rather than the SAS. The price she paid is consistent with the HE but not the SAS.

I doubt she'll be disappointed though.

John
 
Here's what my confirmation email says:
Products
------------------------------------------------------
1 x VN35HE SAS (e007446) = $133.00
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Sub-Total: $133.00
EMS (Express Mail Service) (Oceania, Middle East, North America, Central America : 0.13 kg): $13.33
Total: $146.33
 
Nope, here's another email from them: We are refunding your purchase of the VN35HE SAS as we are no longer able to produce this item. All SAS products were recently discontinued due to a lack of necessary parts. We apologize for the inconvenience. Sincerely, JICO.

Oh well, at least I have one already. Will continue to look for a back-up though.
 
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needlestein said:
If that's a rebadged Pfanstiehl hyperbolic, that's a good price. I just tried mine out in my V15V body and it sounds so close to the original VN5MR that I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the difference between the two in a blind test. Definitely sounds much more stock than the SAS.
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Is it a rebadged Pfanstiehl hyperbolic? Are you saying that you have listened to the lpgear replacement for the VN45HE and the Jico SAS and like the lpgear needle better?
 
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