Jico SAS for M97xE - pulled the trigger

Best wishes for a successful recovery Ben.

 

Best wishes Ben, hope to have you back with us soon.

 

Hello everyone.
Longtime reader, with just a couple of posts.
I have been so disappointed with the Jico stylus. It sounded fine, not amazing, but much better than the original in my M97XE. Then after a little over a month, it suddenly stopped playing properly and just skates across the grooves. This is not about tracking force, but the bonding agent, I fear, which is just a mess. They refuse to replace or repair, as they return window is two weeks (!!). This is not cheap and I expected much more from the product and the company. Has anyone else had similar problems, and did you have any luck with a return?

If it was possible to go back in time, I would avoid this product.

 

Sorry this happened to you. I've never seen any other equivalent complaint about a Jico stylus. I think I'm coming up on two years /1200 hours with my M97xE/Jico SAS combo and it still sounds amazing.

 

Contact Andy he may be able to repair for a reasonable price.

M~

 

I've been using a JICO replacement stylus for my AT-14Sa cartridge for over 3 years with nary a problem. I do wish they would offer a nude mount version, but I don't believe they have the manufacturing capability for that.

 

Thanks very much for the response. I have found a couple of others online who had similar issues after a month or two of play. Also, a couple who found the stylus immediately unplayable due to sloppy bonding agent.

I have recently added an 8MZ to my Grado Gold and the results are far better to my ears- all the nuance of the Shure/Jico combination with a wider soundstage.

Just such a waste of cash, I wanted to offer a warning.

 

I'm not aware that Shure has any higher-end styli for the M97xE. Regarding the Jico, there are some downsides:

• The cantilever is extremely thin
• The cantilever is extremely fragile
• Because of the the shape/size of the stylus, it requires "a bit more" effort to align properly
• The brush makes the (very thin and dark) cantilever really hard to see under the cartridge body when aligning
  
• The sound is agonizingly bright prior to break-in

Other than these issues, the Jico stylus is great

 

I had this setup on my Planar 3 with Cardas wiring and played into an MX-110 (McIntosh) and through a Mac MC240 it was excruciatingly bright on 's' noises and also had little low end to speak of.
I gave up trying and decided that I would find a cart that fit the profile of the loading of the MX110...that finally was the Dynavector 10x5. I haven't and won't look back.
BTW the Elliptical on this Dyna tracks sibilance as well as the Jico did. I have absolutely no idea how that is...it just is.

 

After thinking things over, I wound up canceling my order for the Jico yesterday. This was partly due to the fact that they were charging $13 for shipping and then not even going to ship the damn thing for three weeks, but it's mostly because I was faced with an unexpected $1,200 car repair this week. Oh well. Maybe one of these days. Back to the trusty ol' N97XE for now.

 

This thread convinced to try the Jico upgrade. I'm only one record in so obviously not at the break-in point. So far, it doesn't strike me as a huge upgrade to the Shure stylus which I loaded at 270pfs. In fact, I'd say it's a little bass-shy. Hopefully, that changes!

 

Funny this thread popped up - I am about 3 weeks into my Jico stylus for my m97xe. I think I might have a defective one. I am getting exaggerated surface noise in the right channel - it's driving me crazy . I've aligned, and adjusted anti-skate/vtf more than I care to admit to... and have tried it out on a few different tables with the same result. Has this happened to anyone? I am hoping LPGear will send a replacement. Other than that, I love the sound of it!

 

I'm not having any problem with mine, other than what seems like treble boost at the expense of bass. Like I said, just started though!

Was the exaggerated surface noise visible right away?

 

Yep - it's one of the first things I noticed! I do not get the same result with a different cartridge.

 

Nope.

 

The anti-skate on my Grace arm isn't very accurate. I always have to set it much lower. But if you've already been tweaking your anti-skate, I'd say you may have a defective one.

 

My biggest complaint about the stock N97xE was the noticeably diminished channel separation compared to virtually every other stereo cart/stylus combination I've tried, including the Jico SAS with the M97xE. Unlike treble roll-off, I'm not aware of any kind of tweaking that will improve stereo separation. The Jico replacement stylus largely resolved that issue for me. Bass can be boosted by various means including VTF, VTA and/or preamp adjustments.

 

Agreed about stereo separation, though it was never a huge deal to me.
I'm running the Jico at 1.52g with Brush down. I was gonna hit the break-in point before further adjustments since it's tracking correctly at the moment!

 

Ok, shifting to jazz recordings I can now hear how bright the new Jico is. I think I'm gonna need a break-in record.

 

Been using a JICO SAS in my Shure M97xE for over a year now with nearly 500 hours on it. This stylus is absolutely amazing for the money. Say goodbye to IGD! It sounds incredible. Great buy for those who got it. You won't regret it!

 

The SAS will likely aways be quite a bit brighter than the stock stylus, but after about 20 hours or so the bass extension should begin to reveal itself.

 

Finally decided to see what all the buzz is about concerning the JICO SAS. Installed it this evening. Very pleased with it so far. If it gets better after break in it is going to be money well spent.

 

It will get better. I didn't like it first but it settles in nicely. I only keep the stock Shure around for a few really beat up records. The JICO isn't as good on beat-up vinyl.