Mono Reissues and the Conical Stylus
What you can buy is an MM (true MONO) cartridge like Grace and a bunch of different styli for different records. Practically this is much better solution than many different mono MC cartridges. Grace made some great true mono MM cartridges and styli. Another manufacturer who made so many different MONO styli for any situation is Stanton/Pickering |
@goofyfoot Thanks chakster but I’d rather own an MC, just a personal preference. I am familiar with Grace as I owned an F 8 but I wasn’t all that impressed with it, though it filled a need at the time. Maybe the F9 would have left me with a different opinion. F8 is cheap entry level cartridge, F9 is somewere in the middle, nothing special. The Grace i am talking about is F14 Mono with two pins, the high-end Grace cartridges are F14 and LEVEL II models, only those two models comes with the best cantilevers (Sapphire, Boron Pipe, Beryllium) and best styli (MicroRidge). Those are the last cartridges made by Grace before they went out of business in the late 80’s. These models are better than many MC cartridges, but they are not cheap, actually very expensive and superior compared to any F9 version. I have F14 MONO, the stylus does have a vertical compliance and the diamond profile is Luminal Trace. Nice for original mono records from the 60s/70s. This Grace F14 Mono has only two pins to connect leadwires. I don't have any pre-60's mono records and i don't buy mono reissues. Anyway, a Conical stylus is anachronism and must be avoided in the modern world (except for 78rpm SP records). An MC cartridge with such stylus must be retipped every 300 hrs. |
’An MC cartridge with such stylus must be retipped every 300 hrs.’ Regarding the typical life span of the Conical stylus profile you can read online. This is why it is the cheapest profile. It has the shortest life span, that’s it. For this reason it must be retipped often if it’s your regular cartridge. The modern profiles like MicroRidge on any records (including mono) has the longest life span and much better contact area with the groove walls. This is the most expensive and the most accurate profile (well, one of them actually). |
A conical stylus theoretically can’t be used as long as Shibata and definitely can’t be used as long as LineContact or Micro Ridge. If you expecting 850-1000 hrs from a well polished nude conical Denon tip then how many hrs do you expect from Shibata or MicroRidge ? The conical/spherical tip is the worst, cheapers and has the shortest life span, you can use Shibata for 600 hrs (or MicroRidge and Gyger for about 2000 hrs), but the nude Conical degrade pretty fast, the reason is the high tracking force (3-4 grams) and very small dots (groove contact area). The contact area is small and with high tracking force associated with low compliance cartridges it wears out quickly. This is the basics. You can read here. links: https://www.ortofon.com/media/14912/everything_you_need_to_know_about_styli_types.pdf https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=5267.0 " You should expect at least 300h of good sound. After that it won’t sound as good as new. If it’s not sounding as good as new, it’s time for the replacement. For more technical info, search the Vinylengine forum; we have discussed this topic many many times. " |
The topic is MONO REISSUES btw, so we expect stereo cutter head. Anyway stereo and mono grooves are different, but it does not change the fact that Conical/Spherical stylus has the shortest life span even compared to Elliptical, no matter on which records, it's just an oldchool stylus shape. In terms of life span we have Conical/Spherical, Elliptical, Hyper elliptical, Shibata, Microline, MicroRidge, Gyger, Replicant 100, VdH ... etc. No matter how many profiles we can mention the Conical will be the first (simplest) to retip as it wears out quicker than any other profiles. |
1) 850-1000 out of a high quality nude conical. This is overestimated so much in my opinion, especially for nude high quality conical. in my vision it is more or less like that: 300 conical 400-500 elliptical 600-800 shibata and line contact 1500-2000 for some micro ridge and microline up to 2500 only for some exotic profiles like Replicant-100 or Gyger, VdH |
@goofyfoot Actually chakster, you're reiterating the dilemma. The post is about finding a stylus that works optimally with both 1940's /50's mono and mono reissues. The fact that a conical stylus is suited for early mono records is something that, I believe, we've gotten past. The discussion is about a stylus and cartridge that works for both old and new. Sorry i have no experience in mono records from the 40's era. But i think you can get much better sound and overall better usability (long life span) with modern profiles playing new mono reissues or vintage mono from the 60's/70's. This is exactly what modern manufacturers recommend. I think you need at least two different mono cartridges or just two different mono styli (in case with mono mm cart) for records from the different era. You also need a phono stage with different RIAA curve for very old mono records as far as i know. The Gold Note phono stage has various RIAA curves. |
