Shibata on an M91ED? Why not!
No, I'm not talking about an expensive replacement with a special diamond, and I'm not about to tell you reasons why you shouldn't put a Shibata on an M91-- just the opposite. I'm talking about doing it wrong, and cheap, but fun.
In other words, hey, why not put cheap Shibatas on cartridges made years before such a thing existed.
"Cheap Shibatas"? you say. Isn't that a contradiction in terms right there? Happily, no. Not at the moment, anyway.
If you lay side by side the styli from this rather obscure (in the US, at least) old moving-magnet Japanese CD-4 cart, the Excel ES-70EX4...
... (also known as the Sanyo MG-40X) and the one from the Shure M91E or ED, you'll notice they look kind of alike. The more you look at them, the more it looks as if you could swap them and get away with it.
Turns out you can. At least the Excel stylus will fit the Shure, and it tracks at 1.5g. You'll see it doesn't go all the way in, but that hardly matters; there's plenty of output. If you can, you'll probably want to run the Shure body with its tail in the air a little. The two styli were "aimed" differently.
I doubt this combo's ability to play CD-4 LPs through a demodulator, but in stereo the sound is very nice indeed. I suspect the tippy-top end is smoothly rolled off, but who cares-- this is for fun.
There's a catch-- I'm pretty certain the styli I've been using are not original Excel/Sanyo. They're the right color (deep clear red) and there's a line-contact diamond [see post #100] but the genuine cantilever is tapered and straight. I don't have an original; I only know this stylus works. If you do happen to own an original EX4 stylus, let us know if it sounds wrong or unbalanced in the Shure (or any other "wrong" body).
A few well-known online vendors stock this stylus. If you examine the vendor's photographs (if any) you'll see they usually look like mine, with a distinctive "cranked" style cantilever. Prices vary ($46 from a particularly well-known vendor, but I've seen it for much less).
If you try this trick with an M91ED or an M92E p-mount (the M95's mount interferes) or even an old M97, report back with your results. Even if you find it doesn't live up to expectations, you can always snag a used ES-70 body from eBay and enjoy it the way it was meant. The Garrott brothers didn't use this cartridge body for nothing.
No, I'm not talking about an expensive replacement with a special diamond, and I'm not about to tell you reasons why you shouldn't put a Shibata on an M91-- just the opposite. I'm talking about doing it wrong, and cheap, but fun.
In other words, hey, why not put cheap Shibatas on cartridges made years before such a thing existed.
"Cheap Shibatas"? you say. Isn't that a contradiction in terms right there? Happily, no. Not at the moment, anyway.
If you lay side by side the styli from this rather obscure (in the US, at least) old moving-magnet Japanese CD-4 cart, the Excel ES-70EX4...
... (also known as the Sanyo MG-40X) and the one from the Shure M91E or ED, you'll notice they look kind of alike. The more you look at them, the more it looks as if you could swap them and get away with it.
Turns out you can. At least the Excel stylus will fit the Shure, and it tracks at 1.5g. You'll see it doesn't go all the way in, but that hardly matters; there's plenty of output. If you can, you'll probably want to run the Shure body with its tail in the air a little. The two styli were "aimed" differently.
I doubt this combo's ability to play CD-4 LPs through a demodulator, but in stereo the sound is very nice indeed. I suspect the tippy-top end is smoothly rolled off, but who cares-- this is for fun.
There's a catch-- I'm pretty certain the styli I've been using are not original Excel/Sanyo. They're the right color (deep clear red) and there's a line-contact diamond [see post #100] but the genuine cantilever is tapered and straight. I don't have an original; I only know this stylus works. If you do happen to own an original EX4 stylus, let us know if it sounds wrong or unbalanced in the Shure (or any other "wrong" body).
A few well-known online vendors stock this stylus. If you examine the vendor's photographs (if any) you'll see they usually look like mine, with a distinctive "cranked" style cantilever. Prices vary ($46 from a particularly well-known vendor, but I've seen it for much less).
If you try this trick with an M91ED or an M92E p-mount (the M95's mount interferes) or even an old M97, report back with your results. Even if you find it doesn't live up to expectations, you can always snag a used ES-70 body from eBay and enjoy it the way it was meant. The Garrott brothers didn't use this cartridge body for nothing.
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