Favorite stylus type (Poll)

So a poll it is! I guess we can lock down the previous thread. Choose your favorite and let us know why.

 

For almost everything under the sun, I'm a hyper-elliptical stereophile. It's not super fussy with the VTA, and tracks the inner groove like a reef shark! For archival work, I'll choose anything from a 0.6 conical to get the "good part of the groove" to a micro-ridge for highest detail and resolution.

 

I haven't heard every kind of stylus cut on earth, but the best sound I've gotten from carts have come from AT micro line styluses, but they are a little more demanding of set up. But, I mean, has anyone compared the same cart and cantilever with a Micro Line, a Micro Ridge, a FritzGeiger, a Paratrace, and SAS? There are too many variations of line contact styluses it seems to me, and then too many variables in terms of being able to listen to each of them, for a poll to ever produce a consensus (as if we around here often ever come up with a consensus).

 

I don't have much experience, but considering what I tried so far, I prefer line contact (Nagaoka MP-500 and AT-VM540ML) over elliptical (2M Blue) and shibata (2M Black). Tracks better and sound better.

This poll can be a bit confusing though. A 2M Blue is much better than a 2M Red and both are ellipticals, but the Blue is nude, not glued to the cantilever. Also, the line contact of Nagaoka is different from AT's micro line.

 

Microridge here

 

No Paratrace ;^(

 

Shibata.

 

Most of the choices have applications that they are best suited for. So no across the board choice from me.

 

The SAS and the Microridge/Microline are the same thing - I'd merge all 3 into one choice.

You can add these shapes to your poll:

Fritz Gyger
FG-Signature/Replicant/OCL
Van Den Hul
Ogura PH

"Line contact" is a generic term and doesn't correspond to a specific patented shape. What is "line contact" to one cart company could be something different to another.

 

The MP-500 is likely an Ogura and the 540 is a Namiki Microridge.

 

I’ve had different kinds and cannot come up with one that beats all. I think my AT 440mla picked up the most noise.

 

Agreed. A VividLine on LPGear is and HE on LPTunes.

 

I could vote elliptical; but only if it is a nude 0.2x(0.7-1.0), just as I could vote line contact; which most are, but only if it is a nude 0.2x (xx). The only one I cannot vote is the conical.

 

LPG uses the Vivid Line term very loosely. Sometimes it even describes a .2 x .7 elliptical profile. LPT and LPG are owned by the same parent company BTW. Vivid Line is nothing more than meaningless marketing term and does not correspond to a patented shape either.

 

The Stereohedron from my old Pickering cartridge sounded warm and mellow, everything I have tried since then sounds more harsh...

 

Shibata. Have a Ortofon Quintet Black S MC cartridge. It tracks better and sounds better than my previous cartridges (Goldring Eroica, Sumiko BPS EVO III.)