Lost mind - bought a Shure V15 Type IV...

Congrats.

I had one many years ago and thought it was top notch.

Jeff

 

Thanks everyone - I've ordered the JICO SAS yesterday.

 

Congratulations! To my ears V15s are the best MM cartridges ever. This is my III

 

That is a beauty

 

What are the sound characteristics of these vintage cartridges vs the current modern cartridges?

 

Little to no color added. Very flat frequency response.

 

Ok - change of plan- JICO SAS out of stock - and no ETA - so I splurged on the NEOSAS: I guess my urge to have a boron cantilever will have to occur with a different cart.

 

I have used Spherical, Elliptical and HE stylus on my V-15 Type IV...they all sound superb!
I listen to a lot of used copies of Classic 60/70/80's Rock, and the .6 spherical can't be beat in my opinion.
Congrats on your choice.

 

Where were you attempting to place your order? LPTunes, the official US distributor for JICO, appears to have the VN45 boron cantilever SAS in stock, as do multiple Japanese sellers on eBay.

 

I have a V15 Iv with Jico SAS.

First had on a Technics SL1200G, now sounds even better on my Rega RP10. I have a Dynavector XX2 waiting in the wings, but I’m happy with the Shure Jico combo for a bit longer. Well balanced imo

 

I have a V15III with a Shure MR stylus on a Thorens TD124 and a Dynevector XX2 mkII on a SME 10. If I have time, I can post needledrops of the same music for a comparison....

 

LPTunes. I probably could have gone eBay to save a few bucks - but decided to go the LPTunes route with their sapphire.

 

Nice, thank you. What differences do you notice

 

Much less than one would expect. Moreover, I use a tubed phono pre for the Shure and a SS one for the Dynavector... go figure! Just let me choose a significant recording.

 

Awesome - looking forward to this.

 

After you've enjoyed it for a while, and given it sufficient break-in time, please post a review in this thread. I have both a V15 Type V with no stylus, and a V15 Type IV with an inexpensive Pfansteihl elliptical and am trying to decide which one gets the SAS. I'm leaning toward the Type IV, due to loading requirements. So, I'm curious to know how it works out for you. I am "watching" this thread for this very reason.

 

I’ve got a Project RS phono. Your B&W’s look awesome. Well, whole system does. Classe amp too. Iirc they used to be to B&W what Bryston is to PMC. I also see you have a Focusrite Scarlett. I have a Clarett Pre 8.

 

For the record, there's two letters on Shure cartridges' body that tell you the fabrication date. See

Shure Cartridges - Release Dates and Manufacturing Codes

 

As I promised, I am posting 4 WAW music samples recorded in 24/96 with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen, played with a Shure V15III (original Shure microridge stylus) and a Dynavector XX2MkII. Both styli have more or less 100 hours usage, so they are in perfect shape. The normalisation is more accurate than the simple peak one, I don't go into detail now, it's quite late here I can discuss it tomorrow if you wish. The rest of the equipment used is listed in my profile. Download the files and play them at 24/96 in your favourite player (and turn the volume to 11).

All samples have a length of 30 seconds or less and are intended for educational and documental fair use. Here you go:

Shure V15 III

Flood in Houston
Sultans of Swing
Crime of the Century
How am I to Know?

Dynavector XX2MkII

Flood in Houston
Sultans of Swing
Crime of the Century
How am I to Know?

 

Thanks a bunch @Jimi Floyd - I'll try to get to these very soon.

 

Ok - I've listened to all the samples over and over - using my MacBook pro and iTunes - and my Grado SR225s.

Honestly - they all sounded great and it was extremely hard to find any major differences. I think the track with the most features to focus on - was Food in Houston - great left to right sound stage - and crackles maybe sibilance that was similar between tracks - no one cartridge did it better.

I honestly thought both samples of each sounded nice - I'd be hard pressed to pick a winner - certainly not cut and dry.

Thanks for the hard work of putting this together - wish more people did this. I'm really looking forward to the Shure arriving soon.

 

Thanks for posting the clips Jimi Floyd. I can’t tell much about the sound quality from listening on my phone but I am sure the comparisons would be helpful over a nice system. That sort of comparison is especially useful with phono cartridges since there aren’t many stores that will demonstrate two cartridges with the same setup.

 

I'm not sure needle drops actually are a great way to show the differences in carts/turntables, but it's all we've got in these situations.

I bought a Rega RP10 to replace a Technics SL1200G recently. Before i sent the 1200G off I created some needle drops of various tracks at 96khz 24bits

When the RP10 arrived I put the same cartridge on (Shure V15 IV with Jico SAS) and got the VTA, etc exactly the same. I immediately noticed a more natural and separated mid range and sweeter highs. I then did the same needle drops with the RP10, making sure level was exactly the same with 1khz tone. I can unequivocally say what I played back from the needle drop was not as good as the vinyl source. That naturalness and sweetness was gone.
The difference between needle drops was minimal. I didn't enjoy listening to the needle drops, whereas the direct vinyl kept me wanting more.

It does make me laugh when people like Michael Fremer and Darko have completed needle drops to show differences between turntables and/or carts. Especially Fremer, who is always saying analogue, analogue, analogue. I can tell you that when I was mastering onto hard disk systems what was played back was not as good as what went it. Even if it was a digital source we would always process with analogue EQ's and convert back to digital. What was played back had lost a certain amount of holography and smoothness.

I'm looking forward to listening a bit later to these needle drops, but people shouldn't believe it's going to show the whole story.

 

I agree with you 100%. There is something about a record playing "live" that I have never been able to capture with needledrops. Even now, listening to the samples I posted, something is missing. Those samples are somehow dry if compared to what I heard when recording, not a night and day difference but definitely not the same liveliness. By the way, I have used a 1kHz tone on a test record to equalise level between the two cartridges as you did.

In the end, I decided to post the samples anyway because they can have some value in order to compare the sound of the V15III to the XX2MkII, which are as I told in advance very very similar. "Flood in Houston" reveal some rumble of the Thorens TD124 (Shure) vs. the absolute background silence of the SME 10 (Dynavector), and also a very slightly increased surface noise with the Shure. Also, the Dyna has just a bit more air in the treble and more refined midrange but, again, by a very narrow margin. The tonal balance is identical. It's two very good cartridges.

Anyway, none of the samples sound so good as the records do on my stereo, even if I don't know exactly why. Take those two of "Crime of the Century": they both sound rather thin and lifeless where listening to the record, well, it sounds majestic.

 

@Jimi Floyd
I thought there was a reasonable difference. The Dynavector sounds really good, especially on Sultans of Swing and Flood in Houston. It sounds sort of brighter, but maybe more in just how the transients and harmonics are well defined. The bass sounded nice, tight, and well defined. The Shure sounded pretty mushy in comparison.I'm looking forward to installing mine.

Thank you for that.

BTW what version of Sultans were you spinning?