Garven
Active Member
Just curious if anyone has ever seen any mention of why Jico doesn't make any SAS styli for Ortofon cartridges.
I've often read speculation that they have some sort of agreement not to produce SAS styli for AT cartridges since they source the SAS styli from Namiki, which also makes the AT microline styli. However, it seems strange that they don't produce any SAS for Ortofons (yes I'm aware that Jico currently aren't selling SAS, but that's because they dropped their prices late last year and got overwhelmed by a bunch of orders). Ortofon cartridges are certainly quite popular and a good microline/microridge/SAS-type stylus is missing from their line. Yes they have line contact (which is really quite close to the old Shure hyper-ellipticals), Shibata, Replicant and Fritz Geiger, but only the latter is similar to microline/microridge/SAS and there's a rumor the company making FG styli has gone out of business.
I know Jico makes elliptical styli for Ortofons and there are vendors selling a Shibata supposedly made by Jico for the OM cartridges, but an SAS for OMs, 500 MKIIs, VMS, Vinyl Masters, and even 2M cartridges would likely sell quite well (also interesting to note that there've been no 3rd-party styli yet for the 2M cartridges. You'd think there'd be a big market for them).
Anyway, just curious. I like the Ortofon voicing (or sound if you want to call it that) but there's nothing I've tried that tracks certain records as well as microline/microridge/SAS styli so it'd be great to have that for an Ortofon. Right now when I want that kind of tracking and the Ortofon sound I turn to my OM40 , which really does sound nice, but if Fritz Geiger really are going to be gone soon, I'd like to have another option (I have a 2M Black but the OM40 blows it away, as do my AT150MLX, AT150Sa and SAS-equipped cartridges).
I've often read speculation that they have some sort of agreement not to produce SAS styli for AT cartridges since they source the SAS styli from Namiki, which also makes the AT microline styli. However, it seems strange that they don't produce any SAS for Ortofons (yes I'm aware that Jico currently aren't selling SAS, but that's because they dropped their prices late last year and got overwhelmed by a bunch of orders). Ortofon cartridges are certainly quite popular and a good microline/microridge/SAS-type stylus is missing from their line. Yes they have line contact (which is really quite close to the old Shure hyper-ellipticals), Shibata, Replicant and Fritz Geiger, but only the latter is similar to microline/microridge/SAS and there's a rumor the company making FG styli has gone out of business.
I know Jico makes elliptical styli for Ortofons and there are vendors selling a Shibata supposedly made by Jico for the OM cartridges, but an SAS for OMs, 500 MKIIs, VMS, Vinyl Masters, and even 2M cartridges would likely sell quite well (also interesting to note that there've been no 3rd-party styli yet for the 2M cartridges. You'd think there'd be a big market for them).
Anyway, just curious. I like the Ortofon voicing (or sound if you want to call it that) but there's nothing I've tried that tracks certain records as well as microline/microridge/SAS styli so it'd be great to have that for an Ortofon. Right now when I want that kind of tracking and the Ortofon sound I turn to my OM40 , which really does sound nice, but if Fritz Geiger really are going to be gone soon, I'd like to have another option (I have a 2M Black but the OM40 blows it away, as do my AT150MLX, AT150Sa and SAS-equipped cartridges).
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