Well, I’ve been interested in hi-fi since when the III, IV and V were all introduced. I don’t know much about the first few, as I was too young, but the Type III was introduced in 1973, and its main claim to fame was an extremely flat frequency response. It apparently had a much lower moving mass than the previous V15 Type II. It usually had an elliptical stylus, but a later version introduced a hyper-elliptical stylus shape (known by other makers as parabolic, stereohedron, Shibata, Pramanik etc, and classed as line contact styli), and was known as the IIIHE
The Type IV, introduced in 1978, was an improvement over the III in that it had a hyper-elliptical stylus shape instead of the elliptical shape of the III, which offered a greater contact area with the record groove in a vertical direction, and so less wear to both stylus and record, along with improved tracking. It also introduced a stylus brush, which introduced damping to help tracking of warped records, lower the mechanical tonearm/cartridge resonance peak, drain away record static to earth through the cartridge and tonearm, and of course, clean the record of dust. The IV also lowered the required capacitive loading from 400-500pF (for the III) to 200-300pF, which was more in line with most other MM cartridges, and it used a lightweight high-energy magnet system, and a telescopic tube cantilever, to reduce the weight of the moving section. The cantilever of the Type IV also had some beryllium in it to lower weight, according to Audiokarma’s resident Shure engineer, who worked as a Shure cartridge designer. It tracked records better than the III, and from reports of the time, had a “marginally cleaner top end” sound (source Stereo Buyer’s Guide Turntables No. 8 review) compared to a properly loaded III, although there wasn’t a lot in it.
The V15 Type IV was probably Shure’s response to the Pickering XSV3000 and Stanton 881S, which were both produced by the Stanton/Pickering company, with similar features to the Type IV, such as light weight Samarium Cobalt magnets, and line contact (stereohedron) styli and were rated “best MM cartridge” by many reviewers in the late-70’s, ahead of the V15 Type III, which had previously been rated best. Certainly, The Type IV re-established Shure’s position as one of the best, or the best, MM.
The Type V was introduced in 1982, and used all beryllium in the stylus cantilever tube, to lower moving weight, and increase the resonant frequency of the cartridge moving system outside the audible human frequency range (ie above 20kHz). While the stylus shape was the same hyper-elliptical shape, due to the lower moving mass, the V tracked records quite a bit better, and with lower distortion that the IV. The stylus also benefited from a Masar polishing process, which smoothed the contact areas to reduce record noise and wear. They upgraded it in 1984 to an even better stylus shape, the micro-ridge, which is much thinner from front to back, and so is capable of even better tracking, particularly of high frequencies. The Micro-ridge stylus shape was also introduced to replacement Shure styli for the Type III and IV, to upgrade them for better performance.
The Type V also was packaged with an excellent alignment protractor, complete with a plastic alignment stylus to avoid damage to the real stylus, and using this it was simple for even beginners to align the cartridge for the best performance. Why do so few other manufacturers provide similar alignment tools with their cartridges? Even Shure seemed to think it was only necessary with their most expensive cartridges – their cheaper ones were supplied without a protractor, and it was (and still is) up to buyers to align the cartridge without any information on how to do it. The micro-ridge V was known as the V15 Type V-MR, and remained in production until 1993. An outcry from fans when it was removed from sale saw Shure re-introduce a slightly modified version as the V15VxMR in 1996, and it remained in production until 2005, when it was discontinued due to problems getting the beryllium cantilever made (that was made by an OEM company in Japan, I think). The MR stylus may also have been outsourced to a Japanese firm – a review of the Audio Technica AT150MLX said that the MR stylus, or one very similar, was patented by Namiki Precision Jewel Co. Ltd. (Patent Number 4521877, June 1985), and Lyra credit them as manufacturer of their micro-ridge styli. I’m quite sure I saw some information that suggested Shure’s MR styli were made by a Japanese company.
Anyway, no matter who makes the stylus, I’ve always found that my own V15 Type V, in both HE and MR forms, is superior sounding to any other MM cartridges I own – I also own the Stanton 881S and Ortofon OM40, which were the relevant manufacturer’s top MM cartridges for some years, and a micro-line AT cartridge. I don't know what the SAS styli will sound like, but they should track very well, considering that JICO say it is a better shape than the MR. As it's one of the few options available for replacement styli for the Type IV and V, it would be worth trying out. I bought several Shure MR styli for mine when they were discontinued, so hopefully they should last for a while. But I'll certainly try an SAS when I need to get another replacement.
