vinilossolo
New Member
In 1985 i was given my first turntable, a Sansui sl-1050 with a Pickering V15 AT2 cartridge. Everybody said "wow, it's a Pickering". But it didn't sound right. LOTS of sibilance and distortion, specially at the inner grooves. There was no Internet so i had no cartridge and stylus spec info and an alignment protractor was something i had never heard of (I was living in Chile). Then came the CD craze and my Sansui finished in the basement for a very long time.
In 2010 i saw on Youtube a video of a Pioneer turntable with a Grado Black cartridge playing Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker", a favorite of mine since i was a teenager. I was inmediatly bited by the new vinyl craze. I searched the basement and cleaned the dust of my old Sansui, conected to a Sony amplifier and speakers and played my old dusty records. I loved the ritual but again, it didn't sound right. But now we have Internet!
I searched for a new belt, headshell and stylus. Also i learned what an alignment protractor was. I bought a Swiss aftermarket DAT2 stylus for my Pickering V15 but now i understood i had to increased the tracking preasure. The sound was much better but not great. So i searched for an original V15 stylus and found a D5E on PickeringUK. The sound now was really great! I began to understand why a lot of people said "wow, a Pickering". Unfortunally that site has run out of supply. I found an original V15 DAME2 on The Voice of Music but they are also gone.
The new vinyl bug is terrible so now i had a big bunch of cartridges new and old, better Pickerings and Stantons cartridges, AT, Shures, Ortofon, etc. But a lot of times i found myself going back to my old and humble Pickering V15. Maybe it's nostalgia but there is something in that sound that i really love! My old Sansui is in my sister's home with a Stanton 500 cartridge mounted on it. I kept my Pickering...
Now the question. Pickering is out of business and LPGear and Jico have a lot of aftermarket replacements. Which are the best aftermarket stylus for this cartridge? Anyone has used LPGear and Jico replacements?

In 2010 i saw on Youtube a video of a Pioneer turntable with a Grado Black cartridge playing Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker", a favorite of mine since i was a teenager. I was inmediatly bited by the new vinyl craze. I searched the basement and cleaned the dust of my old Sansui, conected to a Sony amplifier and speakers and played my old dusty records. I loved the ritual but again, it didn't sound right. But now we have Internet!
I searched for a new belt, headshell and stylus. Also i learned what an alignment protractor was. I bought a Swiss aftermarket DAT2 stylus for my Pickering V15 but now i understood i had to increased the tracking preasure. The sound was much better but not great. So i searched for an original V15 stylus and found a D5E on PickeringUK. The sound now was really great! I began to understand why a lot of people said "wow, a Pickering". Unfortunally that site has run out of supply. I found an original V15 DAME2 on The Voice of Music but they are also gone.
The new vinyl bug is terrible so now i had a big bunch of cartridges new and old, better Pickerings and Stantons cartridges, AT, Shures, Ortofon, etc. But a lot of times i found myself going back to my old and humble Pickering V15. Maybe it's nostalgia but there is something in that sound that i really love! My old Sansui is in my sister's home with a Stanton 500 cartridge mounted on it. I kept my Pickering...
Now the question. Pickering is out of business and LPGear and Jico have a lot of aftermarket replacements. Which are the best aftermarket stylus for this cartridge? Anyone has used LPGear and Jico replacements?

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