That's another possible reason to lean toward the aluminum cantilever... less chance of "premature cantilever lean". However, I say "possible" because I know of no empirical evidence that says the thin boron cantilever on the JICO SAS is any less rigid and strong than the aluminum one on the Ed Saunders. I've just read comments about how thin and fragile the JICO styli are. However, there is empirical evidence that the Ed Saunders replacements are fairly identical to the V15 III stylus. Along with the personal reviews like yours and others and my "biggest bang for the budget" mentality, I think Ed Saunders is going to have a new customer. I only wish I could read the same comments about a V14 IV stylus. I am only assuming it has the same qualities as the V15 III. Think I'll ask Ed.
AJ/All, Unsure of what the Type IV Stylus is, but Ed will no doubt give you the low down.
As for Cantilever Lean, and the Jico with Boron Cantilever, I cannot comment, as I've yet to put long miles on this Stylus to evaluate.
Truth is, many of the high end Cartridges now days do use Boron as a Cantilever Material, and while I've not ever heard problems such as this, I won't discount that it is untrue.
It is surprising what end users do, and resort to with analog playback, and at times, it never fails to amaze me.
Recent threads in other forums, and conversations with acquaintances bring up things like one user setting up a Koetsu Universe Cartridge, relying on the Tonearm itself to precisely set VTF. He later believes he found out he was way off, setting way too heavy by 1g. After blowing an unbelieveable amount of $$$ on the Cartridge, was then reluctant to at least spring $24 for a Shure Stylus Gauge!
Others believe that thier homemade "Mad Scientist" cleaning concoctions are the best on the planet, and then wonder why thier LPs sound bad, with huge amounts of background noise, tons of clicks, and pops.
Others again wonder why thier analog sound is lackluster, and always return back to thier Best Buy CD Player, when they're running 25'-30' of cheap Interconnect to a pre-amp's phono stage 1/2 way across the room, and running a stylus that was put into service when Nixon was President.
Of course they then tell you "How can a Stylus wear, when it is made of Diamond with a hardness of 10, and the Vinyl is so soft with a hardless much less than 1 and by comparison, that it is impossible for it to wear"!
I could come up with a dozen more stories, one for instance was my friend with an old Ortofon Cartridge, who's Cantilever suspension was so shot, the Cartridge body was actually riding-rubbing the LP's surface, but that didn't seem to phase him in the slightest, and continued on merrily destroying 1/2 his valuable LP collection, until I told him to either re-tip that Cartridge, or dump it in the garbage which was actually the best place for it. How dumb, that he probably had another 20 decent Cartridges in his possession, some like V-15 Type II and III's, yet seemed to have some "nostalgic attachment" to this worn out piece of junk!?
Sadly, many of the needed products-devices for Analog quickly add up, and cost some substantial hard earned money. Take for instance the Record Research Labs Cleaners I just bought. With one at $25 a qt (Comes to $100 a gal) and the other at $25 a pint (Comes to $200 a gal) these are not cheap, but at least I know these are some of the finest products to properly clean an LP with, won't harm my LPs, and will not leave residues that will get in the way of what the stylus, and the rest of my sytem is required to do.
One doesn't have to spend $600+ on a Winds Stylus Force Gauge, nor spend $500 for a VPI 16.5 Cleaning machine. Still, good common scientific sense is needed for set-up-maintainence.
Another friend who uses a very good Table-Arm-Cartridge Combo, and is unsure about Cartridge Alignment because he has never thought of using a simple Protractor to align this system with. The list goes on, and on. Mark
