The Jico SAS/B Stylus VN 5 MR

mijostyn OP

"The Jico diamond is not near the highest quality. It is full of contamination (so bad it won’t pass light) which will increase the rate of wear."

I'm not defending Jico, but I am assuming their claims are essentially true.

Jico specs came with the Stylus: ..they say

"natural octahedral single-crystal diamond"

and theirs specifically "should last for approximately 500 playing hours (2-3 times as long as a standard diamond stylus)." **** note: they left out the word ’shape’, or ’elliptical’ ****** which they rate as 250 hours, they rate spherical/conical at 150 hours. They are comparing diamond shape, not diamond quality.

It’s only the tracing edge that matters correct? Are you saying a higher quality diamond’s edge will last a LOT longer, i.e. cost/life value?

Has any maker published higher quality/longer life documentation (not claims, proof of some sort)?

@elliottbnewcombjr Do you believe your eyes? Compare the pictures. As I said, the diamond is full of contamination, one edge is obviously pitted. The contact patches are well cut and polished and the stylus is perfectly oriented. But a diamond that contaminated is obviously going to be softer. Just looking at the Soundsmith stylus, another microridge, which do you think is going to last longer? However, the Jico is a $285 item VS all those others that are in $10K plus cartridges. You get what you pay for and in this case it is a very serviceable stylus, it just won't last as long. I'll buy another to hold is reserve. what is really going to be fun is comparing the V15 to my other cartridges when my moving coil phono stage returns. It has a little gremlin the factory took care of. 

Trying to predict a styluses life span is a fool's errand.  There are way to many variables involved to be able to predict this, VTF, AS, Cleanliness, diamond purity, polish, contact patch area plus whatever I am missing. There are things you can say about it like, lower VTFs will prolong life, clean records will prolong life and so forth. 

To my eyes, the MSL and Lyra are frighteningly sharp, the Ortofon Asymetrical offends my sense of balance, the Soundsmith and Sonic Lab give me most confidence, and at it's price, as you say, the contact portion of the Jico seems to be the best value while it is filthy inside.

I'd like to see photos of my Talisman S and AT33PTG/II for comparison.

The very idea of perfection in all dimensions, cut, polish, mount perfectly seems unachievable when you see these variations.

I can only trust they got it right, do my best job aligning, and listen.

I see 

I have a JICO stylus on my M97xe. Fantastic cartridge for what I paid for it, but there was a slight peak in the mid-range somewhere that irritated me. I added a wood body from stanley-engineering.de and it significantly improved the tone and clarity of the cartridge. I absolutely love it now. 

@mijostyn You postulated "So, far two friends have been pleasantly surprised by the V15. Was Shure on to something?"

Shure were!  The killer combo in the 1970s was an SME 3009 or 3012 tonearm with a Shure V15 cartridge.  SME sold almost half a million of those tonearms.