Cartridge question

clearthinker

you have it absolutely backwards, is this a joke?

look at row B in the chart

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The cutter makes the groove, making 100% groove contact

advanced stylus shapes get closer and closer to the cutter shape, each type on the chart making progressively more contact with the groove walls.

Line contact styli have a much larger contact area than conical or elliptical types because they fit more snugly in the groove and contact more of the groove from top to bottom.  Not only did J. Carr provide the numbers, the chart clearly shows this as well (line E of the chart, and the illustration on line D).

What is critical for line contact type cartridges to work properly is good alignment.  Azimuth is particularly important.  I have also found that vta/sra is also important (small changes can be heard).

AsFor wear, with proper care and clean records, I easily get at least 1500 hours on the cartridges I’ve owned.  Way back when I used elliptical cartridges, I got MUCH less hours of use (but it was cheap and easy to change styli).  Of course this might be attributable to other causes (like the quality of diamond used).

clearthinker

perhaps you are misled by ROW C showing front to back thickness.

Viewing the Groove from the front: no matter the amount of groove sidewall ’profile contact’, only a speck of the sides of any shape touches the groove wall.

Viewing down: Quad, modulations up to 50,000 hz are very ’short’ (thin) front to back, thus the new stylus shapes had to be thin front to back to fit/follow those thin modulations.

Manufacturing techniques to match both the side profile and maintain ’thin’ front to back had to be developed, even today not many can do it!

Stylus 'wear', is when the sides of the stylus get flat (thick), unable to follow modulations as well, and causing progressively more damage to the grooves

The following is a slight edit to a copy/paste from a post made by myself in late 2021.

Even though I can not recollect the nuances produced during the comparison demonstrations, the notes taken on the day, along with the follow up report to the attendees, leaves me feeling assured that the notion of the Brand being assessed, and the 'under the hood', internal parts selected to be used as an assembly has the most impact on how the Cart' is going to present.

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"Not too far back, I took part in a demi' of comparing Four Cartridges within one system, where each Cart' has been mounted on the same TT>Tonearm and Head shell Model.

Three Cart's were the same models, of which two of the Cart's had undergone rebuilds using different Spec Materials from other Cart's offered from the Brand, and one Cart' had a FGS Styli added and was recently overhauled. The Styli on these Three Cart's are a FG 80, FGS and Ogura Vital+S. 

The Fourth Cart' was from the same Brand and Production era as the others in the line up, but was a production variant of the three Cart's. This Cart was also rebuilt, using parts belonging to another Model from the same Brand, which was a model that was at one time the Top of the Range model. This Cart' had a FGS Styli.

The Cart's had from recollection an approx' usage of between 50 - 200 Hours on the differing models. 

After hearing the four Cart's, the Three attendees during discussion could not distinguish how much a Styli was seen to contribute to the noticeable differences in Sound Quality a Cart was able to create.

The basic assessment was that the Brands Standard Cart', was the inferior performer on the day, and the Variant Model with the New Parts within, was noticeably the one with the most attractors over all the Cart's in the Line Up. 

The owner of the Variant Cart' today owns the same Model that the Cart's rebuild donor parts belonged to,  and is using the Replicant 100 styli, in regular communications and listening experiences of this Cart' the owner is not feeling the need to consider the FGS as an alternative styli. "     

I don't mean to be......... (can't stop over explainin').....The two cartridges on your list I have experience are the Shure and the Stanton...  The Stanton has a good reputation, especially as a DJ cartridge. Sturdy and forgiving of set up errors (spherical styli are not always as finicky) it probably would be a good choice for a starting point, especially with rock. If you don't have alignment tools (protractor, over hang gauge stylus tracking scale...etc.), there are downloads out there, and probably good vids.  There are numerous new cartridges available in the $100 and under. A good hi-fi/ audio store should be able to help, even with installation if you need or want.   Enjoy!