Hi,
I just bought a Shure V15 111 off eBay.
It had the original hypereliptical VN 35 E stylus which, given its age, I was not expecting much of.
The stylus tip looked ok under eyeglass although the cantilever looked like it had been dug up from the North Sea.
As a matter of logic the suspension was unlikely to be in great shape unless it had been stored in a cigar humidor.
Amazingly it sounded pretty good mounted in an FR66s tonearm, a match that was supposed to be made in hell according to the perceived wisdom of using high mass tonearms with high compliance cartridges.
The first thing I did was replace the charity shop tonearm wires with some half decent silver ones. That made a remarkable difference.
At that point the sound was very nice. By “very nice” I mean you could hear a great cartridge in there, but it was clearly worn - the high frequency crescendos in classical music were a tad shouty and hard.
I then got a JICO replacement VN35E (not the SAS version) which is supposed to be a direct replica of the Shure VN35E.
That immediately cured all of the old age symptoms (the shoutings/ hardness referred to above).
So what’s the verdict ?
To put things in perspective I have a collection of cartridges, London (Decca) Reference, Koetsu Jade d/c, Koetsu Vermillion, various FR7s, SPU Synergy and Classic + various original and souped up Denon103s.
It might be negative confirmation basis, rooting for the underdog, partial deafness or just plain lack of refined understanding, however the VR15 111 with the new stylus and cantilever (and suspension as this is included in the assembly which simply unplugs to replace) does not suffer by comparison with any of them in musical listening enjoyment.
Given that you can pick one up second hand for under £150, then drop say another £100 on a JICO (the SAS is more) then this begs the question what progress there has actually been in cartridge performance in the last 30 years.
I’d be happy with the Shure as my only cartridge ...
I just bought a Shure V15 111 off eBay.
It had the original hypereliptical VN 35 E stylus which, given its age, I was not expecting much of.
The stylus tip looked ok under eyeglass although the cantilever looked like it had been dug up from the North Sea.
As a matter of logic the suspension was unlikely to be in great shape unless it had been stored in a cigar humidor.
Amazingly it sounded pretty good mounted in an FR66s tonearm, a match that was supposed to be made in hell according to the perceived wisdom of using high mass tonearms with high compliance cartridges.
The first thing I did was replace the charity shop tonearm wires with some half decent silver ones. That made a remarkable difference.
At that point the sound was very nice. By “very nice” I mean you could hear a great cartridge in there, but it was clearly worn - the high frequency crescendos in classical music were a tad shouty and hard.
I then got a JICO replacement VN35E (not the SAS version) which is supposed to be a direct replica of the Shure VN35E.
That immediately cured all of the old age symptoms (the shoutings/ hardness referred to above).
So what’s the verdict ?
To put things in perspective I have a collection of cartridges, London (Decca) Reference, Koetsu Jade d/c, Koetsu Vermillion, various FR7s, SPU Synergy and Classic + various original and souped up Denon103s.
It might be negative confirmation basis, rooting for the underdog, partial deafness or just plain lack of refined understanding, however the VR15 111 with the new stylus and cantilever (and suspension as this is included in the assembly which simply unplugs to replace) does not suffer by comparison with any of them in musical listening enjoyment.
Given that you can pick one up second hand for under £150, then drop say another £100 on a JICO (the SAS is more) then this begs the question what progress there has actually been in cartridge performance in the last 30 years.
I’d be happy with the Shure as my only cartridge ...