Difference between micro line and gyger s stylus

Salectric,

The Gyger stylus would help with inner groove distortion. Inner grooves have tighter twists and turns because the same amount (time) of information is squeezed into a smaller diameter. The much narrower profile of these types of styli can more easily trace the tighter turns.

The potential negative of these types of profiles is the necessity to get azimuth right. My own experience suggests that these styli might also be more sensitive to proper VTA (it could just be the case that better cartridges tend to use these types of styli, so the "sensitivity I hear may really be the product of greater resolving power of these cartridges and not a property of the stylus).

One would think that these ultra narrow profile shapes would be prone to more issues with wear, but, so far, I have NOT found that to be the case -- they seem to have a very long service life.

Hi Don:

Among cartridge manufacturers, "micro line" is used only to refer to the microline and microridge styli manufactured by Namiki Jewel. Among audiophiles, however, it appears to be used more broadly to designate advanced line-contact styli in general, which is wrong and a source of confusion.

The major hallmark of the microridge profile is that contact with the LP groove is achieved by side wings or ridges that protrude to either side of the stylus. If you could look at a microridge from directly above with a microscope, you would see that these ridges stand proud of the main section of the stylus, and have a very narrow side radius of 2.5um. Due to the small side radius, the microridge has better high-frequency capabilities than any other stylus shape, and due to the protruding nature of the ridges, the microridge can be worn perceptibly and still retain its high-frequency tracking capabilities. With other stylus profiles, wear causes the side radii to become bigger and bigger, and this means that the high-frequency tracking capabilities deteriorate.

However, there is more to a stylus than just the side radius. If you look at a line-contact stylus from the front, you will see that it is shaped like a spearhead with curved (convex) blades. This curvature is referred to as the major radius, and the shape and size determines the vertical length of the stylus' contact patch with the LP groove. The larger the major radius, the longer the contact patch becomes, but alignment becomes less tolerant of errors.

The the Ogura PA has major radius of 30~35um, the microridges have a major radius of about 70~75um, while stylii like the Replicant 120 and Gyger S will have a major radius of about 120um. As you can surmise, the microridges can track more of the groove than a PA, and a Gyger S can track even more of the groove (but will be trickier to set up).

OTOH, the Replicant 120 and Gyger S have a side radius of around 5~6um, about double that of the microridge. FWIW, the Ogura PA has about 3um. A larger side radius is kinder if you are playing records made of fragile materials (like molded styrene), but the larger side radius will fit less well into very high frequency groove undulations, which get smaller the shorter the signal wavelength (IOW, the higher the frequency).

In summary, rather than what is better or worse, these stylus profiles were designed with different philosophies and priorities, and different styli may be preferred depending on what the cartridge designer wants to achieve for a specific model.

The longer major radius of the Gyger S suggests that you will need to be more careful of azimuth during setup, while the microridge won't be quite so demanding in this respect (but more so than with a PA). Molded styrene records may be OK with the Gyger S, but should be kept away away from cartridges with microridge or PA styli.

regards and hth, jonathan carr (lyra cartridge designer)

Dear Jonathan: Thank you to illuminate the stylus cartridge " sky ".

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Wow, thanks for this Jcarr. I've always wondered why some of my carts seem to destroy styrene 45's and others do not. Shame because I've ruined a few great 45's using a dynavector 20XL while the Shure V15V I used in the past would not. Had no idea it was due to stylus design.

A_L

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for taking the time to give such an in-depth response and helping me as well as others understand this better.

Please forgive my ignorance, but when you mentioned records made of "molded styene", how do you know when one is made of such substance?

Thank you also to Larryi and Dave for sharing your comments as well.

Don