Since 'advanced shapes' have been about for 40 to 50 years without one being crowned supreme could it be that its a matter of taste and music genre?
Unless you have access to a meticulously setup tt, the more advanced shapes are fussier as to VTA, Azimuth, etc. A simpler shape will be less critical of setup, and in the hands of the average audiophool (like me!) may sound as good.
Thanks for posting. I always thought a Shibata and a Fine Line were the same!
So far, my experience with the Jico SAS shape has been limited to a replacement T4P stylus for a Technics MM cartridge inside the SL7 and SL10 turntables. While it was immediately clear that the SAS tracks significantly more accurately than any of the other styluses that I tried, I felt that its high accuracy also lead to a drier and leaner sound that instilled less of a “boogie” feeling in me. At the time, I also used the best Elliptical stylus that I could find: the one that was also made by Jico. In comparison, the latter provided beefier bass and a fuller, sweeter sound. The Jico Elliptical stylus’ treble was better than that of all other Elliptical styluses but the SAS clearly beat it in this regard, especially with slightly worn records.

What he’s talking about in his article ???

Cartridge for Technics SL-10 is p205c mk3 with Boron Pipe cantilever (I have mk4 now), JICO never made anything like that for this particular model. Here is a list of Jico cartridges for Technics.

They made SAS/Boron Rod and later Neo Sas with Ruby and Sapphire cantilevers, but it was NOT for P-mount version of Technics cartridges.

Am I missed something ? Links? 

Also those SL-10 and even SL-15 are cool turntables, but not a reference class with its simple linear tracking (automatic) tonearms.


P.S. There are many more profiles that not even mentioned in his compilation of various info from well known forums. Profile and cantilever (and the way the stylus mounted on cantilever) is far more important that just a profile type.