Newest JICO stuff

[dfunghi]

As a happy owner of V15 III, IV and V this is great news. It is quite well priced as one will expect to pay more for retip typically. Of course my V 15 V that need’stein just did for me sounds great and I could not be happier. But I am likely going to try a zircon HE for one of my shure carts as well.

Thanks for heads up.

 

[MRL_Audio]

I take those warning seriously.

Will be as careful as I possibly can when I get one.

Despite the warning, some one will damage their boron, Zirconia, ruby, and aluminum cantilever within 48 hours of receiving theirs.

Just wait.......

and of course it will be Jico's fault.

BTW - this is on the way. Should be interesting. Thanks for the OP, @ghamilton for sharing.

 

[JP]

Here's a quick comparison between the Jico (Z1) and Shure (B1). The Jico appears to have what looks to be their signature sound - 10dB up @20kHz. Sounds nice, but I was hoping for better accuracy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cuy35ntagtygy2j/20190315-T002-B1.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d46cml1aqczlshh/20190315-T001-Z1.wav?dl=0

B1


Z1

 

[Thomas_AA]

Good info. I'll check my Zirconia unit when it arrives with pink noise and fixed frequencies. The boron variant peaks a bit lower in frequency and the Zirconia seems to be closer to 20 kHz. This makes it easier to tame the peaking by loading. Below is the frequency response my old and new JICO SAS stylus (on Shure V15Vx) using fixed frequencies; peaking is around 14-17 kHz using 130 pF/47 kOhm. If you use 600 pF/33-36 kOhm you can tame the peaking but loose above ca 17-18 kHz (if you can hear those frequencies....).

 

[JP]

Ya, intend to do the same but will likely be awhile. Last night I just wanted to listen to music.

To that end as I wasn’t clear, the files I linked are music.

 

[Thomas_AA]

You have the V-MR so it is the top of the line with in principle a perfect linear response with the original Shure stylus. The Vx has a bit of sloping response using the original stylus but with the JICO it has more top-end. I think therefore that the original V-MR with the JICO SAS should be have a quite different loading.

 

[lorne]

Could be the cure for the common M97xe...

Exactly what I was thinking — almost. I was thinking of the 95ED E/Z stylus for my M97eX. I have an inexpensive generic 95 in there now, and really like what I think is a great improvement according to my taste. Now I am curious about the new Jico eliptical with the new metal.

 

[JP]

Here are 20 - 45kHz sweeps using the B&K QR2010 test record. Load for both is 47K and ~350pF. First the Jico:



And the OEM VN5MR:

 

[Thomas_AA]

Thanks, do you know what loading you have in pF and resistance?

 

[JP]

Edited above: 47K and ~350pF

 

[JP]

Oh, and both at 1.2g, brush up.

 

[ripblade]

JP, which Jico is that? The original beryllium cantilever will have lower mass and therefore a higher resonance frequency. Tough to replicate without using the same material...

 

[Thomas_AA]

Thanks, with the 330 mH of the V15V you will have the electrical resonance of 15 kHz.

I will try some combinations of loading when my unit arrives and do some plots. Anyway it looks a bit better than the boron variant.

 

[JP]

JP, which Jico is that? The original beryllium cantilever will have lower mass and therefore a higher resonance frequency. Tough to replicate without using the same material...

The new zirconia.

Thanks, with the 330 mH of the V15V you will have the electrical resonance of 15 kHz.

I will try some combinations of loading when my unit arrives and do some plots. Anyway it looks a bit better than the boron variant.

The Jico is +5 at 16kHz. I'm setup for low capacitance, so +200pF on top of the arm wire is all the configurability I have in my flat MM pre. Perhaps weekend after when I'm back at the house I'll dig through the bins and add some more.

 

[Thomas_AA]

I think you could go two ways, either lowering the electrical resonance to around 11-12 kHz (600 pF total) or increasing it to 25-30 kHz (100 pF total) and then adjust peaking with resistance. Either way it is not the optimal to have electric and mechanical resonance so close, 15 and 16 kHz, respectively. It depends on the goal, but having a +/- 1 dB response to 18 kHz is IMO excellent.

 

[JP]

I'll have to remeasure in a couple weeks as we need to leave for the city shortly, but this should be around 150pF:

 

[Thomas_AA]

It seems that is not be possible to reduce the peaking at 16 kHz so much by placing the electrical resonance >20 kHz. As also seen with the OEM stylus the electrical resonance is rather low in peak using 47 kOhm. So the other way to go is to put the electric resonance lower than 16 kHz. That will probably require a lower resistance as well.

 

[totem]

the files I linked are music.

Nice to have a file to compare even from the laptop.

BTW
Hunter my Chesapeake, prefers the Shure as loaded.

 

[Multiplex]

Just noticed the availability of these new SAS styli and was wondering how they performed... Figured I’d drop by AK to see if there was any early analysis, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Thanks for sharing the files, JP. Though it can be hard to judge from one short sample, the Jico is not in the class of the Shure, IMO. Too bad, too. I like the price of these. Something I noticed in the files that hasn’t really been brought up, is mistracking. Right before the sax comes in, there is mistracking on the ride cymbal in Z1. B1 tracks rock-solid throughout. Could a more rigorous set up process improve the SAS’s performance, or is it’s trackability simply inferior to the Shure?

 

[Thomas_AA]

If you want to judge the samples the optimal loading needs to be set. It is quite easy to hear the change in frequency response. I will put up the original Shure, the boron and the new zirconia stylus for a blind test here, with the best possible loading for each one for the V15Vx cartridge.