Tell me about the Shure M3D Stereo cart..

soma89

Well-Known Member
Does anybody own one? How do you like the sound? What other carts does it compare to?

Is it a conical stylus?

Thanks a lot!
 
Just so happens Ive had a quick study in this one lately.

Shures 1st stereo cart. Medium compliance and good with heavier arms.

There is also the M7D and the M8D Broadcast.

The earliest version with the foil "Dynetic" sticker on its back and a more rounded body is sought after and goes for stiff coin.

a .3 and a .7 mil conical stylus were the choice and are still available on ebay NOS. They were packaged in little pill capsules so contact with the environment ruining the suspension isnt the norm.

Now as far as listening to one...... I havent done that yet.

I forget now who it was...:scratch2: but somebody here just got one of these.

Oh Great AK void........Bring us this person for a cartridge review............



..
 
I have one on my Dual 1229 at the moment (wild mismatch, I know), and it's pretty....groovy. Yeah, that's the term...
 
I've got one of these in its original green box. I believe I also have the documentation from it, although the stylus itself is missing. If I remember correctly, it's black with a rounded body.
 
I'm wondering how the sound compares to something like a Shure M55e, Shure m44, or even something like an M91. Anyone?
 
I own a M3D which is mounted on my Garrard Type A. It delivers a nice full bass response with slightly rolled off highs. I'm not sure if it's due to the system it's playing thru, which consists of a vintage Eico HF-81 tube integrated amp and Jensen TrI-ette speakers in addition to the Type A. Or the fact that it's a vintage cartridge with a conical stylus that contributes to this characteristic sound.

That said, I really enjoy using it for playing older vinyl from the 50's-60's. It just seems to sound right to my ears. I'm thinking of mounting it on the Empire 980 tonearm on my Lafayette PK-245 idler and give it a listen. Got a feeling that could be a winning combination, especially running thru the Eico/Jensen setup. If I like the results, I might invest in a Jico N21 stylus to replace the original N3D stylus currently installed. Vintage Jazz LPs are what I normally play using this cartridge and the sound is full, warm and non-fatiguing which I prefer when listening.

The M3D, due to it's conical stylus, is also more forgiving when playing older records that exhibit wear/surface noise. This is very apparent when playing microgroove mono and early stereo records. This to me is an added plus, since when I occasionally find these LPs, their condition can be less than stellar. So a conical stylus, whether it be used on a vintage Shure M3D or a new Stanton 500 etc., seems to really help in lowering some of the noise.
 
The earliest version with the foil "Dynetic" sticker on its back and a more rounded body is sought after and goes for stiff coin.

..

I saw one of those yesterday at a friend's house, in his giant stash of old cartridge bodies. I remember wondering what "dynetic" was supposed to mean. I could probably pick it up pretty cheaply, and compare it to my M7d that I recently picked up if I get new stylii for them.
 
I know there are a few out there who think that they were the best sounding carts shure ever made.
 
They do seem to have a following. Hopefully the prices don't go through the roof.
 
I was lucky to get my M3D along with a Garrard Type A, for $30 at a pawn shop about 4 years ago. I really didn't know at the time that the M3D had such a following and what prices it was bringing on it's own.

I just thought it was a nice sounding vintage cartridge, that worked well when playing older records with it. You still might get lucky finding one at a decent price. Possibly like I did, mounted on an older turntable/record player...even on a non-working turntable.... and for a cheap price to boot!
 
I sold a foil backed M3D in Barter town last month for $20 and another, with a "new" shure stylus was sold at $300 last week on ebay.

Jico has new stylus for them and with that kind of interest Ive loaded a M3, M7 and a M8 and tucked them away for use when I set up an older heavy arm table.

Like everything else, Im sure the difference between the 2- M3D bodies is only visual with scarcity and mania driving the early bodies prices. Im willing to bet that the earlier one was improved on by the 2nd version and probably had issues that were addressed by the 2nd version.
Pin placement and how the body opens are 2 that Ive noticed.

Of course system configuration and personal preference are real life factors but I would think that anyone that said these were the best carts Shure ever made would have ulterior motive.
Someone may enjoy a conical stylus masking a bit of surface noise better but Im sure that every cart made since has better specs. How could they not?

The next Audiophile iteration was the M33 Dynetic which was medium compliance also and sold as THE cart for the Shure/SME 3009 arm.


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Had one back in '66

My first Dual a 1010S. Later upgraded to a Shure M44 and M55. Dont know what all the fuss is about the M3D. The M44 and M55 blew it away. I have one in the stash in the shop with a bad stylus. Anyway, still use a M55 with a JICO stylus..a great combination!:D
 
I saw one of those yesterday at a friend's house, in his giant stash of old cartridge bodies. I remember wondering what "dynetic" was supposed to mean. I could probably pick it up pretty cheaply, and compare it to my M7d that I recently picked up if I get new stylii for them.

I eventually did end up getting this cartridge and have had it since around just after the above quoted post. And every attempted use of it was a disappointment, until now. I found an N21 stylus for it, apparently NOS Shure though not labeled as such (in the little plastic pill container), and I don't even remember now where I sourced that from. I tried this on my Lenco, and the iffy arm condition on my L-70 (my suspicion, though it tracks ok) must have been holding it back. I tried it on a whim on my linear tracking table..also disappointing. I tried it on a Pioneer PL-630 ...arm was way too light, tracked with a lot of distortion. Tried it on my VPI, nope, didn't like that either. Always with the "shhhhhh" sibilant distortion.

On a whim I mounted it to my Sansui SR-929 last night and ....ok, I get it now. Tracking at around 2 grams with added headshell weight to raise the mass of the arm, playing some old jazz records, and wow..this is just what some of these old records need. And its finally tracking now for some reason...I'm assuming the arm mass. Big, open sound. Immediate and natural sounding. Not about detail and it's rolled off. It makes some very nice newer recordings sound blah, but on other stuff it just seems to be exactly the cart to run to.

It makes a good argument for running more than one turntable, or having interchangeable headshells (or both). It's going to stay on the SR-929 for awhile, making the perfect contrast to the AT OC-9mlII on the VPI.

Note that it sounded like crap...actual crap of the smelly kind... in nearly every context I tried it out in before. I'd get it working on one album and it would distort on another. I remember posting somewhere that I liked it, then that I hated it after an hour. But when it all worked, it worked out very nicely. I'm finally glad I bought this cart and the N21.

 
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The reason why the higher prices for this series is the fact that the Japanese and Asian high end crowd love these on their high mass transcription tonearms. My favorite M3D partner is the Gray 108 arm.
 
The reason why the higher prices for this series is the fact that the Japanese and Asian high end crowd love these on their high mass transcription tonearms. My favorite M3D partner is the Gray 108 arm.

I'm aware of that..they love this cartridge which is one reason I was intrigued by it, not that I think their taste is above reproach, as many things I think they like simply because they're an anachronism, at least after hearing them myself. I've had it on an Empire arm, and the Lenco L-70's arm. I prefer it on the Sansui 929's arm, with added weight on the headshell. It was ok in the Empire, I thought the DL-103 to be better in that context (the only context where I've liked the 103). I originally picked this up for the Empire but have to say, I think it tracks better on the Sansui arm, with the N21 stylus at least, which isn't as low in compliance as the other stylii available. Apparently you can modify the more refined stylus for the M75 to work with it as well, which I may do with my M7, which needs a stylus.

It's just a different sound. Doesn't work for everything but its not overtly "dated" sounding in this context, unlike my previous attempts to squeeze music out of it.
 
The Japanese high end scene nicknamed the M3D "Poor Man's SPU"

That just makes me want an SPU :)...everytime I've read that anything is the "poor mans so and so" in audio, I've found it to be a reasonably nice but ultimately poor facsimile of the real thing. That is, upon tracking down the real thing. That said, I guess this cart and the original SPU were not all that far apart pricewise upon introduction so it makes sense that they should be somewhat comparable now.

I like what I'm hearing, though, but it does fall down on some recordings that are capable of showing what the OC9 can do, and what this can't.

Another thing to consider with this one is, I have no idea how long both the stylus and cart sat around. Decades I'm assuming. Some of the mistracking that so plagued this example early on could have been from stiffened suspension, etc. It was so bad that I'd almost always take it off after an hour.
 
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