Is a Ortofon Black a step down from a Pickering XSV 3000

Dear @anthonya : I’m not against conical stylus shape as a fact I own the 103 and Fulton cartridges too but certainly that shape can’t pick up the recording information that comes in the LP grooves, only can to pick up a minor part of it.
Please read here:

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/HFN/LP3/aroundthebend.html

Btw:

Conical stylus = less contact surface.

Less contact surface = greater pressure

greater pressure = greater wear/time

greater wear = shorter useful life.

The stylus shapes with big contact areas are the ones that will last the most. The Denon 103 lasts a lot not because of the tip shape but because it is polished to a mirror finish, unlike many styli.

Also "substantial piece of diamond in the groove" is a bit misleading. A conical stylus has only a very small contact areaa. Physical size of the gem makes no difference regarding wear.


R.

Dear friends: This is very interesting:

Effective mass -- the smaller, the better:

0.970mg Shure "bi-radial" (0.4x0.7mil, MM)
0.750mg Ortofon X1-MCP (p-mount, high output MC)
0.500mg Ortofon OM10 stylus (bushed elliptical, MI)
0.400mg Ortofon OM20 stylus (nude elliptical, MI)
0.400mg Ortofon X5-MC (HOMC, nude FG)
0.370mg Shure Elliptical (0.2x0.7mil, MM)
0.330mg Shure bi-radial on V15-III (MM) (berillium control rod)
0.300mg Ortofon OM30 stylus (nude Fine Line), OM40 (nude FG), MI
0.290mg Technics EPC-P202C (p-mount, MM)
0.290mg Shure HE on V15-IV (MM) ("telescopic shank")
0.270mg Denon DL-301 (MC)
0.250mg Denon DL-207 (MC)
0.240mg Van den Hul Colibri (MC)
0.230mg Technics EPC-P310MC (p-mount, MC)
0.220mg Ortofon Jubilee (MC)
0.180mg Denon DL-303 (MC)
0.170mg Shure Micro-Ridge (0.15x3.00mil, MM)
0.168mg Denon DL-305
0.109mg Technics EPC-P205CMK4 (p-mount, 0.2x0.7mil, MM)
0.098mg Technics EPC-100CMK3 (MM)
0.077mg Denon DL1000 (MC)
0.055mg Technics EPC-P100CMK4 (p-mount, MM)



R.

Btw, MicroRidge has 75um on radius. In other side I was not aware that Grado was the inventor or at least the patent of ellipthical stylus shape.

Thanx rauliruegas, I did not know about the LVB 250 2M Black. Looks like a real winner. 

I agree with both lewm and rauliruegas. It would appear that the only thing wrong with LP Gear's replacement styli is that they are not the originals and may even surpass the original using a better stylus and modern production methods. The Stereohedron stylus was nothing but a "hyperelliptical" stylus. It had a much smaller contact area than the modern Shibata not to mention the GygerS, Replicant 100 and Soundsmith's OCL. These are all superior to anything they made in the 70's, 80's and 90's.   

 Lewm, I do believe Clearaudio designs and manufactures it's own cartridges. You can see the reason their stuff is so expensive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJRnwIaCC2U The Charisma certainly has a very similar design to some of AT's cartridges using dual magnets at 90 degree angles. You can also see the German mentality. Compare this with Soundsmith's factory tour. 

I do not have any romantic notions about yesterday's cartridges. Technology marches on. Styli, cantilevers, magnets have all improved as have manufacturing techniques. On observation alone I can tell that modern styli are cut more cleanly and lack the discoloration you would see in earlier cartridges. Both Soundsmith and Clearaudio cartridges have significantly better construction quality. Beautifully clean styli mounted perfectly on cantilevers that are dead on. Much more accurate than Shure, Empire, Pickering or Stanton could manage. 

Dear @mijostyn : I agree with what you posted and only some " doubt " in who really design/manufacture the Clearaudio MM cartridges.

I remember years ago that I made the Virtuoso Wood review and all " signs " told me that Audio Technica was who manufactured to Clearaudio specs.
That Virtuoso is a great performer and its stylus was the FG80 that AT cartridges never used, better stylus shape than the Shibata and  cartridges with  radius in the 80um to the 100um in the Ortofon Replicant are extremely sensitive to VTA/SRA set up and I had that experience with the Virtuoso.

I like Clearaudio cartridges MM and MC ones.

R.

It would appear that the only thing wrong with LP Gear’s replacement styli is that they are not the originals and may even surpass the original using a better stylus and modern production methods. The Stereohedron stylus was nothing but a "hyperelliptical" stylus.

Yes, all problems solved by LP GEAR, just buy their $79 fake Stanton CS-100 stylus instead of $450 original and be happy. You must be proud, because hundreds of Stanton owners worldwide are slower than you, maybe not so smart, they just don’t know there are $75 stylus made with modern technologies and much better than Walter O. Stanton top of the line design from the golden age of analog. It’s so silly that some people don’t know that everything NEW is always better, especially when it comes to vinyl in 2021. Stereohedron is nothing compared to LP GEAR, you’re so right. Thank you for clarification. Your opinion is very important.

As a big fan of ClearAudio and Goldring MM cartridges I hope you tried all Stanton and Pickering top models with original styli and compared them to Jico, LP Gear and others.

Now let me tell you this:

Do you know that original SC-100 W.O.S. cantilever is Red Sapphire coated, you will not find anything like that today, the $79 LP Gear is way different (look at the rating on their site). Sadly it’s not so popular as you expected, even if it’s new (pretending to be better as you think).

Genuine CS-100 stylus is Stereohedron mk II (second generation of Parabolic profiles). There are first and second generation of Stereohedron if you don’t know. They are different!

Do you know what is Samarium Cobalt magnet and why this type of magnet has been chosen.

You mentioned "Hyperelliptical", but is just name, it’s a word, you’d better provide some data. All those styli are parabolic type, so what? Nothing changed much since Micro Ridge and it’s an old profile even if you like different name for same profile!

Paratrace is the closest modern profile to Stereohedron. The reason why Stanton owners service their cartridge in UK (not at Soundsmith or whatever). I believe you know who manufacturer Stereohedron and where.

Stanton made so many different models of cartridges to release their best stuff like 981 and CS-100 series (and low impedance versions). These are the most expensive Stanton cartridges and styli, but there are tons of different Stanton styli for 10 times cheaper prices in their vintage catalog (you can check here).


P.S. I stopped to read post from some members who contradict to themselves, probably it’s because of the age, but I remember well their posts from 5-10 years ago on the same forum. If you want your cartridge to perform as expected you can only buy an original (MM or MC) and if you want to step into unknown area then you can make your Frankenstein and tell everybody it’s equal or even better than the original. Unfortunately, you can’t just clone the original.