The Shure V15 V with a Jico SAS/B stylus VS The Soundsmith Hyperion MR and Lyra Atlas SL


On a sentimental lark I purchased two Shure V15 V bodies and one SAS/B stylus. I was always a realistic about the Shure's potential. Was comparing it to $10k+ cartridges fair? Absolutely. The Shure was considered to be one of the best cartridges of the day. Why not compare it to a few of the best we have today?

The Shure has always been considered to be unfailingly neutral. Famous recording engineers have said it sounded most like their master tapes. I do not have an original stylus for the Shure and I can not say that the Jico performs as well. 

My initial evaluation was quite positive. It worked wonderfully well in the Shroder CB. With a light mounting plate and small counterbalance weight a resonance point of 8 hz was easily achieved. There was nothing blatantly wrong with the sound. There was no mistracking at 1.2 grams. You can see pictures of all these styluses here https://imgur.com/gallery/stylus-photomicrographs-51n5VF9 

After listening to a bunch of favorite evaluation records my impression was that the Shure sounded on the thin side, lacking in the utmost dynamic impact with just a touch of harshness. I listened to the Shure only for four weeks as my MC phono stage had taken a trip back to the factory. I was using the MM phono stage in the DEQX Pre 8, designed by Dynavector. I have used it with a step up transformer and know it performs well. I got my MC stage back last week and cycled through my other cartridges then back to the Shure. The Soundsmith and Lyra are much more alike than different. I could easily not be able to tell which one was playing. The Lyra is the slightest touch darker. The Shure is a great value....for $480 in today's money, but it can not hold a candle to the other cartridges. They are more dynamic, smoother and quieter. They are more like my high resolution digital files. Whether or not they are $10,000 better is a personal issue. Did the DEQX's phono stage contribute to this lopsided result? Only to a small degree if any. I do have two Shure bodies and they both sound exactly the same. The Shure may have done better with a stock stylus. I do not think the age of the bodies contributes to this result at all. 

128x128mijostyn

@mijostyn 

"Do you realize that you have just noted that every great speaker designer is absurd, that the laws of acoustics are flawed. Don't listen to me. Get The Loudspeaker Handbook by John Eargle. It is written in terms most lay people can understand. Learn what you are talking about before you spew out ridiculous concepts. The British don't like music? I think you need to listen to V.W.'s The Lark Ascending"

Sir Thomas Beecham is a far greater authority than me, and I suspect, even you!  It was his quote.  If it were mine, I might substitute audiophile for British!

I have many copies of The Lark Ascending, and one of my favourite flicks is the Australian "The Year My Voice Broke" which uses it poignantly, and has just been reissued.  Vaughan Williams could write almost anything, from his Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis to his sixth symphony, which is exactly my age.  The latter opens with shattering intensity, swerves into jazz rhythms, and ends like Holtz' The Planets.

I note with some disappointment that you choose to criticise the person, rather than debate the specific technical points I raised.  For example, what is your answer to the complete cancellation of two drivers half a wavelength apart, which you claim act as one drive?  This is pure physics, simple to understand by anybody who knows what a sine wave is.

Of course, this really is a problem with almost all speaker designs, so not too many want to talk about it.

@lewm 

No, not if it emulates a point source!  But it is a problem for pseudo line sources.  I am not stupid enough to believe that any claimed line source really is one!

@mijostyn 

"I cannot imagine owning a speaker that could be so easily blown. In my hands it would not last 5 minutes. There is no excuse for a speaker to be so fragile. The materials exist today that can be used to make a totally bullet proof ESL panel. They existed back in 1978! Jim Strickland made a bullet proof panel back then. I can rap the diaphragms against the stators without any damage. The transformers are the elements that are potentially fragile particularly with amps that are clipping. I have blown amps and transformers but never the speaker itself"

No, in your hands they probably would not last 5 minutes, but you would really have to try hard to beat the protection circuits.  My two pairs of Quads have lasted about 20 years each before needing repair, which is much better than my bullet-proof Krell amplifier.

Yes, you can rap the mylar against the stators, but be aware that when powered, and for some time after switching off, the mylar carries 5.25-kV.  The stators carry no voltage until a signal is applied, but then can be fatal.  I always keep one hand in a pocket when near the high tension bits!

Unfortunately there is no Aussie distributor for Sound Labs.

Yes of course music lovers are not always audiophiles…and same for converse. A nice jab that didn’t land with any tympanic solidity with me… Of course, i’ve heard at some length the larger Quad you mentioned… when they work… Displaced by Apogee Caliper - Signature driven by a sweet sounding and quite modest Accuphase… in a lovely acoustic space chock a block full of Core Audio Design acoustical treatments… Fun

Enjoy the music