Shure Premier Cartridge Stylus Compatibility
- Thread starter Airjmax
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None, really. Sounds good? Is good.
Shure rebadged basically two off-the-shelf midline models as "Premier". One type has a flat bottom and the other type, the one that would fit the 3X Radio Shack/Shure stylus, is based on the M95ED and has a rounded V-shaped bottom. No compatibility problem there. Now, if you're asking whether the stylus compliance is sympatico with the mass of your tonearm, that's a different question.
Shure rebadged basically two off-the-shelf midline models as "Premier". One type has a flat bottom and the other type, the one that would fit the 3X Radio Shack/Shure stylus, is based on the M95ED and has a rounded V-shaped bottom. No compatibility problem there. Now, if you're asking whether the stylus compliance is sympatico with the mass of your tonearm, that's a different question.
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Airjmax
Active Member
I have it installed on a Pioneer PL-540. I followed the Pioneer manual to balance the tonearm and set the tracking force + anti-skate.
Airjmax
Active Member
Thanks for the advice. I tried to read up on it first. Seems like some turntable guys get very fussy about the correct cartridge/stylus matchups. I’m more from the school of “if it works and sounds good, go with it”. I know that Shure carts are generally pretty well regarded. I also have a Shure V15 Type IV that I like a bunch.
I tend to be fussy about stylus-cart matchups too, but in this case fussiness is not needed, since Shure made basically the same flat-bottomed bodies and the same V-bottomed bodies for years. There are exceptions, but usually Shure made certain the exceptions (eg, the V15 III, IV and V and V-MR; also the oddball M24H) could only use their own bespoke styli. In this case, the V-body under all the different plastic is the same or virtually the same whether you're talking about the Era III M95 or the Era IV M97 or nearly all the p-mounts, and so on.
Upshot: If you stick to Era III and later, you have to work pretty hard to come up with a combination that doesn't sound right, as long as you can insert the stylus without it banging into some overhanging plastic foliage.
Upshot: If you stick to Era III and later, you have to work pretty hard to come up with a combination that doesn't sound right, as long as you can insert the stylus without it banging into some overhanging plastic foliage.
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Mike Wilcox
New Member
I have been meaning to upload my resistance and inductance readings of various Shure carts. Here they are - my obsessive collection of 78. They include M25/35/44/44GX/70/75/91/92/93/95/97x/99/110/115, SC35, V15 III/IV/V, and Radio Shack varients R27XT, R47XT, R1000XT, RXT5, RXT6 and V15 RS. There are multiples of most. All the "flat bottom" carts measure about the same but the V-bottoms vary significantly.
The data is fascinating and instructive. We can't tell if the physical internal geometry of two carts are actually the same (and Shure is misleading about it). We can howerver make very good guesses about loading, and about stylus swapping. For example, it's a good bet that loading will affect the M44GX and the M25 the same way. (I believe the M25 is the M44GX relabeled, not the M35 like Shure said. See - misleading.) You can look at this and think that maybe the best elliptical match for an SC35 might be the V15RS's VNSE3 family - maybe a Vivid Line? (Of course there is turntableneedle.com's Bliss eliptical for the SC35 as well. Spoiler alert - the Bliss sounds very good, but the VNSE Vivid Line on the SC35 seriously kicks ass...I tried it in an SC35 I'd put in a metal body; otherwise plastic trimming is required).
The data is fascinating and instructive. We can't tell if the physical internal geometry of two carts are actually the same (and Shure is misleading about it). We can howerver make very good guesses about loading, and about stylus swapping. For example, it's a good bet that loading will affect the M44GX and the M25 the same way. (I believe the M25 is the M44GX relabeled, not the M35 like Shure said. See - misleading.) You can look at this and think that maybe the best elliptical match for an SC35 might be the V15RS's VNSE3 family - maybe a Vivid Line? (Of course there is turntableneedle.com's Bliss eliptical for the SC35 as well. Spoiler alert - the Bliss sounds very good, but the VNSE Vivid Line on the SC35 seriously kicks ass...I tried it in an SC35 I'd put in a metal body; otherwise plastic trimming is required).
Thanks for that effort! I've long been advocating for AKers buying/deploying inductance/resistance meters to measure their cartridges. It's the only way to identify cartridge bodies of certain brands, and it spots those bodies with channel imbalances (ie, big differences in inductance) so they can be culled. Measurement aids stylus swapping, as you say, and incidentally shows that there are usually far fewer unique models in a manufacturer's output than they would have us believe.
Your measurements are consistently very close to mine; it's good to have confirmation. I also appreciate your inclusion of the manufacturing date codes so that we can see how samples tend to change (or not) over time.
There's a thread recording inductance and resistance readings for Empire cartridges that may interest you. I think there should be a similar thread for Pickerings and ADCs and....
Your measurements are consistently very close to mine; it's good to have confirmation. I also appreciate your inclusion of the manufacturing date codes so that we can see how samples tend to change (or not) over time.
There's a thread recording inductance and resistance readings for Empire cartridges that may interest you. I think there should be a similar thread for Pickerings and ADCs and....
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