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Record Damage and Conical and Shibata Styluses

I have some interesting information for people to consider who have been having problems with crackly or clicky playback of their vinyl records.I have been looking at the U.S Patent for the original Shibata stylus profile.Here I quote fom the text "...When this(standard) elliptical stylus is placed in a record groove...the area of the above mentioned contact surface figure becomes small.For this reason,the elliptical stylus can easily bite into the groove walls(plus heat!)....the parts of the groove walls with small waveform undulations are particularly subject to severe damage,whereby the signal to noise ratio of the reproduced signals becomes small." should we all quickly change over to conical and shibata styluses?
stefanl
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Stefanl, that's very interesting (patented Nov. 1973) In an interview, A.J. van den Hul says that he began manufacturing the line contact styli in 1976, so it was only an interval of two or three years.
stefanl OP
296 posts
 
Yes,I have the Van Den Hul patent somewhere and I will find out.I think it was finally approved around 1978.What I found striking was the claim in the patent that the Shibata profile does not wear out a record after a few plays as a "coventional elliptical" stylus does.The resonance point of the Shibata also that fluctuates with temperature,is outside of the frequency band used.Signal to noise ratio is higher due the type of cut,the resonant point has shifted also causing the disc itself to be more stable in relation to the stylus and thus less resonance is actually generated.The high frequency band performance is also improved in the 40-50Khz area.
raquel
841 posts
 
The Shibata was developed for RCA's quadrophonic program ("CD 4") in the early 70's, as they needed a sharp stylus that could track the then-very high frequency 30 kHz. carrier signal that held the musical information for the back two channels.

The Shibata is not dead. The Grado Reference (the $1,200 model) and new Shibui (a highly modded Denon DL 103R) both use a Shibata, I believe, as do many other cartridges.

I have a van den Hul Frog, and am not certain that the care required to set azimuth and VTA with a Shibata / line-contact stylus is worth it. I'm all for vinyl, and don't mind cleaning records or getting off my ass to pick up the arm at the end of a record, but what a pain it is to dial these things in.

Hi, Tom. Hope you're well.
stefanl OP
296 posts
 
Was RCA connected to the Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. because the U.S patent states that they are the assignee and Norio Shibata the inventor?From what I have researched,it is worth spending the time to align a Shibata type stylus correctly as it will be rewarding.
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
JVC or Japan Victor Corporation were one in the same. The Victor comes from RCA. JVC in the late 60's and up was an R/D arm for many companies including RCA and Panasonic. Seed money came from both of these players.Tom
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