The Shure V15 V with a Jico SAS/B stylus VS The Soundsmith Hyperion MR and Lyra Atlas SL
On a sentimental lark I purchased two Shure V15 V bodies and one SAS/B stylus. I was always a realistic about the Shure's potential. Was comparing it to $10k+ cartridges fair? Absolutely. The Shure was considered to be one of the best cartridges of the day. Why not compare it to a few of the best we have today?
The Shure has always been considered to be unfailingly neutral. Famous recording engineers have said it sounded most like their master tapes. I do not have an original stylus for the Shure and I can not say that the Jico performs as well.
My initial evaluation was quite positive. It worked wonderfully well in the Shroder CB. With a light mounting plate and small counterbalance weight a resonance point of 8 hz was easily achieved. There was nothing blatantly wrong with the sound. There was no mistracking at 1.2 grams. You can see pictures of all these styluses here https://imgur.com/gallery/stylus-photomicrographs-51n5VF9
After listening to a bunch of favorite evaluation records my impression was that the Shure sounded on the thin side, lacking in the utmost dynamic impact with just a touch of harshness. I listened to the Shure only for four weeks as my MC phono stage had taken a trip back to the factory. I was using the MM phono stage in the DEQX Pre 8, designed by Dynavector. I have used it with a step up transformer and know it performs well. I got my MC stage back last week and cycled through my other cartridges then back to the Shure. The Soundsmith and Lyra are much more alike than different. I could easily not be able to tell which one was playing. The Lyra is the slightest touch darker. The Shure is a great value....for $480 in today's money, but it can not hold a candle to the other cartridges. They are more dynamic, smoother and quieter. They are more like my high resolution digital files. Whether or not they are $10,000 better is a personal issue. Did the DEQX's phono stage contribute to this lopsided result? Only to a small degree if any. I do have two Shure bodies and they both sound exactly the same. The Shure may have done better with a stock stylus. I do not think the age of the bodies contributes to this result at all.
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@bpoletti Wow! The Vega was possibly the worst contraption ever to have 4 wheels. The V15 was far from the worst contraption ever to have a stylus. I don't know about you, but I am far more interested in performance than comfort. Bentley made a name for itself racing by the way. Google Bentley Boys! What a sight that must have been. |
@lewm IIRC we were running a square wave through the cartridge and the loading was to reduce ringing. Unlike a LOMC, high output cartridges have a lot more inductance and (again, IIRC) could 'ring' at audio frequencies.
When you load a cartridge with lower resistance values, you provide greater mechanical damping of the cartridge mechanism. It may well be that this is why we were using lower values than the calculators suggest. @mijostyn Obviously controlling capacitance is a big deal; that's why tonearm cables tend to be low capacitance. 100pf for a 1 meter run is typical. |
" could 'ring' at audio frequencies. " certainly in your system is happening and not a possibility with.
" mechanical damping? " good for you because the MM vintage cartridges are very well mechanical damped and additional the Shure has its dynamic stabilizer. To each his own and good to know that you(we) are way satisfied at 22k. That is all about.
If you ask to your self yes I experienced around 20k-30k because one gentleman in the long MM thread suggested but all gentlemans returned to 100 after experiencedwith different cartridges in a lot of different systems ( one for each one of them.) but as I said: to each his own and I'm way satisfied with. Yes could be I'm just " deaf " as many others.
First the numbers then the ears.
R.
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