NOS Shure V15 type III cartridge opinions

I have a V15 Type III in my collection of vintage MM cartridges. The Type III has a house sound common to all V15s (many love that sound but others not so much), but I find it to be the most balanced sounding of the V15 family, at least of the models prior to the Type V. A lot depends on the stylus. Most came with the elliptical (yellow pull body) stylus which is a good all around performer.  The rare MR (MicroRidge) stylus (red pull body) is a big sonic upgrade IMO if you can find one.  Takes the detail retrieval, airiness, and top-end extension performance up a couple of notches over the common elliptical.

All of the V15 are excellent trackers provided the suspension is still in good shape after all these years in storage. Beyond that, it really boils down to whether or not you like the V15 sound. Personally, I really like the sound of the Type III with the MR stylus with rock, blues, and even some more refined recordings, but would not choose it to be my one and only cartridge.

As to eBay value of a virgin NOS exemplar vs one that has been played briefly to validate that the suspension is still functional is a toss up. Some buyers will prefer the former and some the latter. Definitely take some good pics of the packaging before breaking it out for a test run if you decide to do so.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Thanks Dave that helps a lot. I noticed you mentioned a yellow pull out elliptical stylus. The label on the box says it's elliptical but the stylus is a pull out black  and the body is silver. Do you know if stylus colors changed somewhere along the way?
I'm becoming more familiar with it thru reading and am more than likely going to try it. I do blues and rock so this may be right up my alley. If it pleases I'll hold onto it

Black pull body (VN35e) would be right for the elliptical on the Type III. Operating from memory on that one as it was been a long time since I had the elliptical stylus. Sorry bout that.

Enjoy your cartridge!

Dave

I had the elliptical stylus and later replaced it with - I think - the MR (but it could haven been the hyper elliptical). The update was a real improvement with a sweeter and more detailed sound. It was an excellent cartridge, but required precisely matched capacitive loading. At the time, Quad made special inputs boards for them, to match loading and output level. Tracking even at low pressure was exemplary, frequency response (if loaded correctly) was very flat, and distortion was low. However, the expert opinion (including that of Shure itself) seems to be that these days no original stylus assembly can still be in good working order - it will have dried out.

v15 vs. 2m black? good luck.