Shibata Stylus

The Shibata stylus was developed in the '70s for four channel LPs as the existing conical and elliptical styli of the day were too massive. Four channel cartridges had frequency response up into the 40-70 kHz region. This stylus shape is compatible with all vinyl and won't do any damage. One of the best cartridges I've ever owned was the Sleeping Beauty Shibata moving coil from Great American Sound.

Stefanl, "Shibata" styli fall under many titles. They are also known as, "Hyperelliptical," "Fine Line," "Stereohedron," "Modified Line Contact," etc.

This shape is a further extension of the basic elliptical design. The Shibata stylus, originally designed for playing discrete quadraphonic discs, reduces wear by contacting the groove walls in a line rather than at only two points as do the conical and elliptical styli. The edge of the Shibata stylus is narrower than the elliptical stylus and therefore traces even higher recorded velocities.

This stylus shape was originally developed in Japan, and provides much greater contact with the record, offering the combination of high trackability with less record wear. Carefully aligned, this type will offer a better high frequency and improved trackability. This type of cut will give you three times the footprint area within the record groove walls as other stylus cuts. Besides lasting approximately twice as long as other styli, the Shibata stylus tip will, once again, significantly reduce record wear. No stylus cut is written in stone. There are no "standards" that must be followed. So, many manufacturers have their own little variation on the basic styli cuts. Van den Hul, just as an example, takes the Shibata cut one step further with their own "proprietary" cutting geometry.

Happy Listening, Ed.

Wasn't the stereohedron specifically the one used for CD-4 LP's because the grooves in those LP's were so damn thin (I have abotu 20)? I recall it being the ONLY one useful (if you could call it that) for CD-4 awhile the others were okay for SQ (I have about 30). Seems it is what was in an Audio Technica cartridge I had in the quad days but I can't remember the model for the life of me. I know it had a gold body.

I dunno 4yanx. It might of been the stereohedron. SQ....CD-4....DBX....man, is that stirring up some memories.

I remember purchasing a Sonus "Dimension 5" MM cartridge at the time that quad was pretty much becoming a dead issue. 78-79-80? The Sonus used the Shibata geometry.

You still have that many quad LPs? You may need to set up another analog rig (maybe a Dual 1228 or a Garrard Zero 100, a 4 channel cartridge, and one of those old Marantz receivers with the little joystick? Maybe 4 KLH model 17s? At that point, I'll send you my DBX LPs and a DBX 222 decoder. You could do a CD-4, SQ, DBX shootout.

The battle of the old technologies. Might be interesting.

In all seriousness, I think that there are still several manufacturers using the Shibata stylus geometry. But, it's geometry is never identical as some manufacturers tweak the cutting very slightly. It's cool to look at the stylus in a cross section. It has a LOT of surface contact. Although, cartridge alignment must become much more critical sonically.

Let me know when you want those DBX LPs. :>) Ed.

Oh, I jest ye not. I have been pondering just such an adventure. As it happens, I have an old Sony CD-4 decoder and a Tate/Fosgate SQ decoder. Have been thinking of putting together a table for fun that runs quad (for kicks, you know, man). Trouble would seem to be in finding a quad cartridge these days that isn't spent.

Oh, I'd like to give a spin to those DBX'ers - they may have been just about to get things right (or as right as they could) with DBX before the bottom fell out of the quad market. OTOH, I have heard some old SQ tapes thorough the Tate/Fosgate that sound pretty damn good.