[BC] The economy and used gear

[Jerry Mathis]

Yes, this was exactly my experience. When I first started in radio, it
seemed that everyone was using the Shure cartridges. Put a new stylus in, it
would get bent backwards the first day. All you had to do was drop the
stylus on the felt and spin the platter backwards. We would straighten them
out with needlenose pliers (!) and keep using them.

Later I discovered Stanton, and put them in all the stations I engineered
for. Never had one bend, they would last until the tip wore out. Used the
500 series in your typical CW and Rock stations, as that was the one
designed for broadcast use, but at a classical music station I worked at, I
put in the 681 series, IIRC. The styli had elliptical tips that were
SUPPOSED to sound better and make the records last longer.

Once I got away from Shure, I never looked back. They were junk as far as I
was concerned.

--
Jerry Mathis

On 7/16/09, Peter Smerdon <psmerdon at fastmail.com.au> wrote:
>
> It depends on whose cartridges you were using.
>
> Way back then ('70's-'80's) we changed up from Shure M44 cartridges to
> Stanton 680's.
> With the Shures we were regularly changing stylii, due to bent
> cantilevers, and the occasional missing tip.
> With the Stantons I never saw a bent cantilever. We had to watch out for
> stylus wear (not very frequent) - the Shure's never lasted long enough
> to suffer tip wear.
>
> The Stantons paid for themselves in a few months.
>
> Regards,
> Peter Smerdon.
>