Aftermarket Styli and the current state of affairs for owners of vintage Shure phono cartridges
Every couple years or so, I usually look around to see what goodies of yesteryear I can use in my system to give it supreme interest to me in my eyes. This year I decided to look around to see what I could find in replacement styli (phono needles) for my older phono cartridges and maybe pick up a few different phono cartridges in the process.
First off, I am not a paid advertiser nor spokesperson for any of the companies that I am about to mention. Secondly, I am a hobbyist, not a purist, so my choices for the needles that I rescue and seek out, whether OEM or aftermarket styli for are not necessarily "audiophile grade" phono cartridges. I am after nostalgia, the feeling of playing something that was the best in its' class at one time. Not always the pure audiophile experience.
The first cartridge that I decided to see what I could find in the aftermarket stylus world is the V15 RS - arguably a V15, but after doing a ton of research, it seems that this Radio Shack V15 version is a re-branded M97 of that vintage. A friend of mine has that original M97 with the HE (Hyper-Elliptical) OEM tip on it and it is a very, very nice cart! I did a bunch of research starting at Shure and looked at their recommendation for the replacement stylus, and sure enough (pardon the pun), the Shure site mentioned that that N97 is the proper replacement stylus for that cartridge. Upon further investigation, it seems that the aftermarket has a different standard and I was able to find this selection of styli here http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle-771-DHE-copy-for-Shure-N97HE_p_1419.html .
I purchased this needle and installed it yesterday. I started breaking it in with a few records. The first thing I noticed was it is definitely not built the same way as the original, which I had mounted previously on the V15RS. The fit was perfect, the way it is supposed to be. I have read quite a few reviews where the sound just isn't right with the M97 stylus, so I took the chance in thinking that everyone out there complaining was correct. Was I rewarded, or did I waste money?
When I started playing some really nice pressings of some jazz I really liked the sound! It is a bit truthful at this point, but I think after a proper break in of 20 or 30 hours of playing it should calm down a bit. I believe that I have finally found the proper stylus for this cartridge, with a really nice hyper-elliptical tip. The last time I searched for replacements for the RS, I purchased one that had a elliptical tip as the HE versions at that time were not yet being manufactured, it also did not have the duster attachment The new aftermarket stylus duster is not spring activated, rather gravity activated, and not as big, but it is there and it protects the stylus, I almost did in the stylus the other day with a too quick hand.
I did more research and found that a different cartridge, the R47XT, another Radio Shack re branded Shure cartridge was also, indeed a re-named M97. I found a NIB R47XT with the Original, never played, 5x cartridge, which is a pretty good elliptical cartridge. So I will be playing this one for a while once I get it and get it mounted and aligned. I really like finding NIB vintage stuff, sometimes it can be very expensive, but I don't plan to get any more carts for quite some time at this point. This one was not expensive, coming in at $69, plus shipping for a brand-new cartridge. I will update this post with how I feel about this cart when it arrives and I have a chance to play it for a while.
Onto my favorite find of the last week's cartridge buying bonanza. I found something at a good price that I have wanted for years. People are going to say, 'you got the wrong one..." You may think that at this point, but wait until you see what I found. I found a V15 II - from the late 1960s. I know, it's old, the others were better, etc. Whatever. When I am finally done with my romance of vinyl playback article, I will explain why specs don't matter to me that much. Anyway, I have wanted a V15, and I will have more, this is just my first V15, (unless you count the V15RS, which I do not any longer). So I picked it up on eBay, it has an older aftermarket replacement stylus on it, so I decided that I needed to look around and see what I could find as a replacement for it. I was very hopeful that I would find some OEM or a decent aftermarket replacement. What I found will thrill anyone experienced with Shure cartridges overall, and especially those who have the V15 II. Check this out...
I found a hyper-elliptical stylus for the V15 II, I found it here: http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle-771-DHE-copy-for-Shure-N97HE_p_1419.html, I am quite excited overall about the find. At the time the V15 II was out there were a couple options for stylus for it, as far as I can gather. A conical and an elliptical stylus, and an "improved" elliptical. This cartridge was, at its' time the champ for tracking at low weight and high-fidelity LP playback. The later V15s performance would be better, as it should be with forward marches in technology and manufacturing process improvements. Well, imagine my surprise when an aftermarket manufacturer is making a HE tip for the V15 II! Holy moly, I took a look at it, read around, zero reviews. I bought one and I cannot wait for it to arrive to test it out. HE tips IMHO are the best tips that a MM phono cartridge can have, they go deeper into the grooves and run the walls with more contact that sphericals or standard elliptcials due to their shape, (some of the newer technologies may track the grooves better and reveal more, that I am not aware of nor have tried, so my opinion is only based upon real-life, albeit not comprehensive experience). So, I cannot wait to try this out and will update this post with some of the results. I do not know how long these styli will be available, but I am going to grab another one or an even better one soon. The fact that I did not know this model of the V15, never had a hyper-elliptical stylus like the III and subsequent models did. So, this should be very cool and elevate the standard of playback in this cart to its' ultimate potential. Which should be freaking awesome!
The state of the art right now may be the SAS replacement styli that are available out there. I am looking at the SAS for the V15II, M95ED, M91ED - and they are available for about $150 for the least expensive, but as quite a few of you know these are some of the legendary cartridges from Shure. I was really quite surprised and delighted to see that really good, high quality styli are being made from really good manufactures to enable those of us who are not in constant upgrade mode to rescue our old favorite cartridges and breathe life back into them again. It will be a while before I am able to afford these more expensive replacements. The ones I found for the cartridges mentioned above are in the $75 - $90 range, the SAS cartridges are even more expensive than that, starting at around $150 and ranging to hundreds of dollars, but seem to promise the best in performance for our cherished phono cartridges. When you look at the technology, it appears the technology is more advanced and should provide better performance than the OEM styli.
The moral of this story is don't give up on your old trusted phono cartridges, you can still take heart in your old cartridges. I have been reading all over the place, industry sites, audiophile sites, manufacture sites, blogs, etc. I have found over and over that unless something electrical happens or the cart takes some sort of physical damage, the cartridge body should and may have a somewhat unlimited lifespan. The stylus shank and the cantilever take all of the abuse and those do not last forever. This is all based of course, on the characteristics of the materials that are used in construction, as nothing is forever. So, if you can find replacement styli for your cart, grab one or two. My thought on the subject is do the research, read around and find the very best replacement that you can find and realistically afford. I paid nearly $90 a piece - a price I would never have thought of paying a few years back. At that time I was buying the $15 replacement styli off eBay. Good enough is not quite good enough for me as I listened and was not quite satisfied with the playback, and because of the type of needle, those carts got limited playback and were relegated to playing less than perfect records. I am most concerned, in regards to vinyl playback as I think of the size and shape of the tip, the overall tracking force that must be used because I am trying overall to limit to the greatest degree possible record wear while extracting the maximum amount of data that the grooves provide.
One more thing that we can feel good about is while I was doing the research, I was reading quite a few blog posts from 2005 - 2009 where people were having great difficulty obtaining decent aftermarket styli for their cartridges. They were scooping up the few remaining OEM replacements and dealing with the aftermarket offerings of the day, which were not nearly as good as today. I am glad to see improvements in the replacement stylus market, as continuous improvement and more product offerings will sustain a market that will be beating down a path to your door; that group is the vintage phono stylus owner, just like me. I am very excited about the current state of affairs for owners of older phono cartridges and I hope the trend continues, but for now, I will be stocking up, just in case.
Peace out, listen more, relax,
Jeff
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