opinions about Myiajima Shilabe

Vetzing, I have the Miyajima Shilabe on a Triplanar VII. I was attempting to get a particular sound from my system that I felt was missing from my previous cartridge. I read the 10 audio article, and some of the things I'd read about were some of the things I thought needed to be improved on. In my opinion, Jerry at 10 audio nailed it on his evaluation of this cartridge. I purchased it at Robyatt audio. I'm very happy with the purchase. Not affiliated in any way.

I have had the Shilabe in the system for about a month now on loan from one of my audio buddies.

The Shilabe will polarise views much like the differences in the reviews done by Martin Colloms in hifi critic and Jerry on 10 audio.

Anyway, my thoughts of the cartridge on how it sounded in my system

I tried the Shibale in both the Phantom and Ortofon 12 inch arm and while the Shilabe sounded better in the Ortofon it still had the same overall sonic traits.

The shilabe in my system preferred to be loaded at 500ohms. 220 seemed to move the lower treble into that 2-5k fatigue zone and 100 ohms was a little closed in.

Sound wise it is very smooth, especially in the upper frequencies where it had detail but was not really in your face. Bass was extended but polite - lacked the drive that say the dyna XV-1 or Koetsu rosewood had in comparison.

Both the Rosewood and XV-1 had better depth, where as the Shilabe had great detail left and right of centre stage, just not as deep.
After I took it off the Ortofon and put back on my SPU Royal, the SPU was just more involving as it was more direct and musical. A fine line indded.

The biggest weakness I felt was that it was too polite and lacked life and drive (you were always wanting to turn it up), which in actual listening made for a somewhat uninvolving presentation. OK for jazz/classical but not so good for blues, rock n roll etc. The -1.5db measured by Colloms - hifi Critic in the presence area may be accountable for the reserved performance in a laid back (mine) or neutral system.

In a more forward or SS based system it would fare better than what I got out of it and would be a pleasant change if one's ZYX or Lyra were a little lean and mean in your system.

Shilabe is very favourably reviewed in Stereophile this month by Mikey Fremer. Also a new Shelter and one by Shun Mook.

Ah yes, Mickey Fremer is the greatest.