Difference between micro line and gyger s stylus


I see that Benz has switched from a micro line stylus tip to the gyger s stylus tip. What differences both in sound and set up should a person expect? Pro's and Con's on both are welcome.

Also, would one style work better or worse on my Naim ARO unipivot tonearm mounted on LP12?

Thank you,
Don
no_regrets

Showing 2 responses by larryi

Both the various gyger and micro line stylus shapes have very narrow vertical contact patches that are "tall" (contacts the groove from the bottom of the groove to the top). This demands quite precise azimuth adjustment. I doubt that there would be much operational difference between the two types. I also wondered if unipivots might be more forgiving when it comes to azimuth and work better with these types of profiles because the cartridge is free to tilt a little and "snug" itself into the groove even if the azimuth is set slightly off.

I've heard the Transfiguration Phoenix mounted on an ARO/LP-12 combination and it sounded fantastic. That cartridge has an Ogura PA stylus, which has a micro line profile.

My bet is that if the Benz is otherwise compatible (right compliance and weight) with the ARO, the new stylus will work fine.
Salectric,

The Gyger stylus would help with inner groove distortion. Inner grooves have tighter twists and turns because the same amount (time) of information is squeezed into a smaller diameter. The much narrower profile of these types of styli can more easily trace the tighter turns.

The potential negative of these types of profiles is the necessity to get azimuth right. My own experience suggests that these styli might also be more sensitive to proper VTA (it could just be the case that better cartridges tend to use these types of styli, so the "sensitivity I hear may really be the product of greater resolving power of these cartridges and not a property of the stylus).

One would think that these ultra narrow profile shapes would be prone to more issues with wear, but, so far, I have NOT found that to be the case -- they seem to have a very long service life.