Virtuoso v2 AudioTechnica Stylus Replacement?

[rs732]

The stylus on my Virtuoso mysteriously got bent backwards. I'm aware that some Virtuoso users have found this hack of replacing the stylus with an Audio Technica ATN-95 stylus, but that seems like a downgrade? Has anyone replaced their stylus with the Audio Technica ATN-95SA? Does the stylus fit in the V2 cart?

Is there a significantly difference in audio quality between the two stylus?

 

[DavidTT]

I cannot comment directly because I owned the V1, although I believe that the V2 is identical to the V1 minus the full-ebony wrap-around. FWIW, I've read multiple posts from knowledgable users who examined the CA OEM Virtuoso stylus itself under microscope and could not distinguish it from a standard bonded AT95e stylus. Not cool for the amount of money that CA charges for the Virtuoso, but apparently the case.

In any event, I tried the V1 with several replacement AT95 styli that I de-winged, the best one being a HE tip that I bought from VoiceOfMusic. I can say that none of them, even the standard OEM AT95e .4X.7 bonded elliptical, sounded lesser than the Clearaudio OEM tip, and the HE stylus bested the OEM tip IMO. I've read good things about HE and Vividline (LPGear) AT95 styli on the Virtuoso, but cannot say that I've ever read about a shibata tip being tried. I would wager that a shibata would be clearly better than the OEM tip, although more finicky to mount and adjust.

 

[rs732]

Thank you both,this is what I needed to hear. I'm going to order the AT95e first as a trial to attempt to clip the wings before I try this on a more expensive stylus. Thanks again!

 

[eriathomas]

You could always buy one of the cheap aftermarket conicals (like $9) to practice.

 

[DavidTT]

The magical tool for de-winging these tips is....wait for it....fingernail clippers! One snip, two snip, done. For the hobbyist with higher-line gear that is more resolving than my MidFi setup, and who loves the sound/tone of Clearaudio MM carts, the ability to keep them going long term for the peanuts it costs to buy these ATN95 styli iterations makes them a genuine value at the upper end of the hobby IMO.

 

[rs732]

The process was fairly easily & my turntable is back up running. I didn't notice any lesser audio quality with the AT95e stylus versus the OEM. Thanks again everyone.

 

[]eep]

I think a few pictures would be nice, I did a couple of different styli

This is just a simple AT95 with HE stylus

The standard elliptical, cut to size

And a few more... The 78 cartridge has only left channel working... (Why, that's stupid?)