Stylus shape?

Here’s a rough-and-ready comparison, from a guy who’s mounted at least a half-dozen cartridges with a now ancient Dennesen Soundtracker --

Conical styli are inexpensive and easy to set up for pretty good, easy on the ears sound but they come up short on detail, imaging and air.

Elliptical will give you more detail, imaging & air than spherical/conical, and they’re still reasonably easy to mount and align onto the arm.

Chakster’s list of advanced shapes can all get you close to nirvana but set up and alignment become critical. Stylus rake angle has to be right on, which means you have the tone arm properly leveled (which can be a ticklish process). This includes having to account for how much the tracking force might deflect the tracking angle. It the adjustment is off, say hello to distortion, particularly as you reach the dreaded inner grooves....

Proper alignment of advanced stylus profile is not so difficult, manufacturers always give us recommended tracking force, the rest is just the same as with any profile (azimuth, overhang, tonearm vta).

Tonearm without adjustable VTA is junk if it wasn’t designed for one dedicated cartridge.

Azimuth adjustment can be made with a proper headshell with adjustable azimuth and overhang.

Protractor like Dr. Feickert NG is a must have for proper alignments (Baerwald, Lofrgen, Stevenson).

Everything can be adjusted if your vision is fine without any special devices.

Don’t be afraid to use advanced profiles.

musicfan - a couple of days ago I found this on Soundsmith's website:

https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/stylus-shape-information

Hope you find this information helpful.

back in the 70's, the 'shibata' stylus was pretty popular. where doe's it stand today? or is it still available??

The answer to your question is the line contact shape . It comes with different names as many have mentioned but they are basically the same shape with slightly different contours . They are more dificult to set up correctly but as long as you guide yourself with the same principal as for any other stylus shape you'll be ok , you just have to be more exact .
Eliptical would be #2 and conical #3 . 
Always remember that stylus shape is not the only determining factor in sound quality nor is it the most important but rather it is many factors that when each is placed in its proper place gives you the best performance possible in a given situation