95 is Shibata, 540 is MicroLine
Shibata was the original, developed for the high frequencies involved in Quad LPs. Later variations were changed ever so slightly so they could be Patentable.
The cantilever material advanced into lighter/stiffer materials, construction variations, rods, tubes, tapered tubes, gems, boron, beryllium vapor deposited .... New: I like Boron, and have recently gone back to vintage Beryllium that tracks at only 1.25g. Not for everybody, it means taking a chance on ’used’, or paying more for very old NOS. So far I have gotten lucky.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/stylus-shape
excerpt from our missing friend Chakster
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chakster
6,144 posts
The shape of the stylus related not only to the better sound, but also to less record wear and longer life-span of the stylus itself.
1) Conventional stylus is Spherical/Conical and Elliptical.
2) Advanced styli are: Hyper Elliptical, Shibata, Line Contact, Micro Line, Fine Line, Stereohedron, Micro Ridge, S.A.S., Van den Hul, Fritz Gyger, Replicant-100 .... and more.
there are different names because of the different registered patent for each of them, in reality some of them are nearly identical to each other but registered under different patent. Look at this image.
Advanced profiles are much more expensive."
Actually, when you consider the extra life of advanced stylus, they are more expensive to get started, but over time, NOT as expensive as they seem.
Trade-In programs, and re-build costs also help balance the ’initial’ high cost of MC cartridges, i.e. I chose AT33PTG/II for my 1st MC, and when I suspected it was worn, I sent it to AT, they traded it for a new cartridge for just under half price. Others, I’ve had Steve and Ray Leung at VAS rebuild advanced shapes on boron.