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My $55 M97xE arrived today

When I bought my m97xe last year, the price on it dropped too. It was sold out everywhere for a short time after that. When it became available again, the price had gone up. Still, it's a steal at twice the price for sure.
Can anyone post a link to the Jico stylus?
 
Here is an older pic with a 97 on my 1200MK2. I got mine on special too at the time, hard to pass up! In the end I sold it and stuck with my reference cart, but I am now curious what the SAS stylus sounds like :scratch2:
 

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When I went from the Ed Saunders to the Jico SAS stylus on my V-15 III the big difference my ears noticed was more detailed mids.
 
Pio1980 said:
So how does the Ed Saunders V15-III compare to the 97XE?
Click to expand...

Well, that's a whole different animal. Saunders' stylus will restore a V15-III to spec. The SAS will improve it, but subtly.

In many ways, I preferred my M97xE to my V15-III, but that had as uchto do with the function of the damping brush on old LPs as anything.

I can't do a strict comparison, as my systems have too many variables, and the cart heads are not interchangeable. I think I would just say that I enjoy them both, before and after SAS.
 
I have one of these en route due to the reception it seems to get here.

Just hooked up my turntable for the first time in 10 years. It sounds great in some ways but bad in others (kind of scratchy distortion in some parts). Replaced the RCA cables tonight, which made a big difference (they crackled if they weren't positioned just so). I'm hoping that replacing the 15 year old Stanton 500-AL II will help further! Maybe it's my preamp though (using an old two channel mixer's cueing headphone jack).
 
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G'day all, a quick question re the Jico SAS styli. I had the impression that all SAS styli were assembled on a boron cantilever as mine for the Shure M97xE and Shure M91ED are, however looking at the pictiure for the SAS stylus for the Shure V15 type 3 it appears not to be boron, but some light metal.

This is interesting as I've always had the belief that the use of boron was part of the 'secret' to the SAS stylus superb performance. :scratch2: I've actually sent off an email to Jico enquiring about this. Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
markwo said:
I have one of these en route due to the reception it seems to get here.

Just hooked up my turntable for the first time in 10 years. It sounds great in some ways but bad in others (kind of scratchy distortion in some parts). Replaced the RCA cables tonight, which made a big difference (they crackled if they weren't positioned just so). I'm hoping that replacing the 15 year old Stanton 500-AL II will help further! Maybe it's my preamp though (using an old two channel mixer's cueing headphone jack).
Click to expand...

The Stanton 500 is a fine cartridge, but the AL-II version came with a heavy tracking conical stylus, for DJ use. (Works great with old mono 45s though!) Light tracking elliptical styli are available, ie: the D71EE.
 
Recieved my M97xe in the mail yesterday and installed it onto my Thorens TD-150 when I got home.
I was careful to set it up perfectly, which wasn't too hard to do with this cartridge. It took about thirty-five minutes and that included setting the right shim height on my Rega RB300 tone arm. I've done this enough times that I have it down to almost NASCAR pit stop times, plus I have a great selection of custom made aluminum shim washers for this arm.
I'm very impressed with the sound of this cartridge right out of the box. I did experiment with loading and settled on 100ohms for the time being. I will probably drop it back down to 50ohms after some good break in time. After three LP's (Queen; Day AT THE Races, The Romantics, Emmylou Harris; Cimmaron) I find the cartridge already opening up and presenting a punchy base and reasonably good detail. In trying this cartridge I have found why I was not as enamoured with my new AT95SA as I should be. I had too much shim and thus too steep of a VTA causing excess brightness in that cartridge. I may try the AT95SA again over the weekend with the same VTA shim that I am using for the M97XE as the cartridges are basically the same size. The other ones I am throwing in the mix coming up are a Signet TK3ea that I have an AT140lc stylus arriving for today, and a Stanton 881s. I'm anxious to compare the 881s to my 681eee that I love so much. However, for now the M97XE is going to be tough to beat, and at this price I doubt that there is anything that will compare. I look forward to getting the Jico stylus for it and giving that a go.

Al. Wise
 
I'm still waiting on getting my cart and was going to put it on my P2 (RB250 arm I think), but after reading awise1961's post, will I need to shim my arm too?
 
TSheaZ28 said:
I'm still waiting on getting my cart and was going to put it on my P2 (RB250 arm I think), but after reading awise1961's post, will I need to shim my arm too?
Click to expand...

Most likely not. I had shimmed my RB300 arm because I was using an Adcom HC/E cartridge for awhile. That catridge and the Stanton 681eee are considerably taller than the M97XE cartidge, thus reuquring me to raise the height of the arm. Do you have any shim under the base of your RB250? I believe they standardly come with a thin one.

Al. Wise
 
As far as I can tell, it is all stock. I'll have to see when it comes, how much bigger (or smaller) the Shure compares to the AT7V I have on it now.
 
TSheaZ28 said:
As far as I can tell, it is all stock. I'll have to see when it comes, how much bigger (or smaller) the Shure compares to the AT7V I have on it now.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with the AT7V.
I have an AT95SA and it is about the same size of the M97XE.

Al. Wise
 
G'day all. awise1961 I'm a little confused about your loading for the M97xE. Do you mean 100 and 50 kohms and not 'ohms'? :scratch2:

I use 62 k on my DIY phono stages which I find much better than the 'standard' 47 k in terms of improved upper treble response. Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
Just put an M97xE on my first real table, a Kenwood KD-1033. Sounds great! I'm running it all through a TCC TC-750LC preamp, so the whole setup is really basic but from what I've read that's the kind of setup where the M97xE shines. It tracks like a champ, too! I haven't built a wall shelf yet so footfalls are an issue, but it takes quite a bit for this cart to jump out of the groove.

Here's a question that can only come from an inexperienced TT owner - is it normal for there to be a hum when you touch the stylus guard? I flipped the stylus guard down when I was done listening and I totally got a hum through the speakers. Touching the brush or the front of the cartridge body does the same thing. There's no hum during regular play. Is that normal, or is something wrong?
 
G'day mate, interesting on the 'hum' problem. I've not noticed that issue with any of the three Shure M97xE's, although I do get a 'burst' of hum sometimes when I either remove or insert the stylus for cleaning etc.

Is your stylus fully inserted? I presume that it is. Does your turntable have a separate 'ground' wire connected to the preamp earth terminal?

Also have you used insulating washers when you mounted the cartridge in the headshell? This is an interesting one as generally these washers aren't needed, however on one occasion I definitely needed them to stop a very bad (and loud) hum loop. Every set up tends to be different!

Also you did have any issues getting the overhang set up correctly? Some guidelines are in here: http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/vinyl07.html Regards, Felix aka catman.

EDIT: I've just noticed something quite interesting. Looking up some information on Shardina's TCC TC-750LC preamp I notice that the RIAA graph for it shows a very slight treble rise beyond 1 KHz into the treble range (.5 db). This would actually work out well with the Shure M97xE to compensate for the slight treble roll off of the Shure M97xE when working into 47 kohms. It's a good case for 'not' having a perfect RIAA playback curve, although .5 db is actually not a seriously bad error, but regardless it will certainly be quite benefical with the Shure M97xE, and I'm not at all surprised that it sounds great in that set up. Yes, interesting indeed. Felix aka catman.
 
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catman said:
G'day all. awise1961 I'm a little confused about your loading for the M97xE. Do you mean 100 and 50 kohms and not 'ohms'? :scratch2:

I use 62 k on my DIY phono stages which I find much better than the 'standard' 47 k in terms of improved upper treble response. Regards, Felix aka catman.
Click to expand...

I apologize, you are correct in that I forgot the K in front of my ohms. It's been a tiring day you know. I'd love to try 62K ohms, but my phono stage only has 30K, 50K, and 100K ohms. It does sound really good tonight.

Al. Wise
 
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