Dear @fsonicsmith : The VPI tonearm that you used was an unipivot design with not very good stability when your today Reed is a gimball design with very good stability. Even the " humble " Jelco tonearm outperforms that VPI design.
Today and vinatge non-unipivot tonearm designs works fine but are the it self cartridge tracking habilities whom defines how good or not pick-up that LP grooves information. The tonearm is part og that tracking " game " but the main responsability comes from the cartridge it self.
As all in audio every single link in the audio system chain is important but there are different levels of importance down there, at the end the tonearm is a slave of the cartridge.
Now, that Shure you mentioned is not a low compliance cartridge and that JICO after market stylus is a good repacement for it, as an after market is manufactured at a market price point.
Today and vintage MM/MI cartridges are very good performers if you have the knowledge to play with. Does not outperforms top LOMC cartridges but made pretty good quality performance and listening times.
Here you can read about:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/who-needs-a-mm-cartridge-type-when-we-have-mc
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Today and vinatge non-unipivot tonearm designs works fine but are the it self cartridge tracking habilities whom defines how good or not pick-up that LP grooves information. The tonearm is part og that tracking " game " but the main responsability comes from the cartridge it self.
As all in audio every single link in the audio system chain is important but there are different levels of importance down there, at the end the tonearm is a slave of the cartridge.
Now, that Shure you mentioned is not a low compliance cartridge and that JICO after market stylus is a good repacement for it, as an after market is manufactured at a market price point.
Today and vintage MM/MI cartridges are very good performers if you have the knowledge to play with. Does not outperforms top LOMC cartridges but made pretty good quality performance and listening times.
Here you can read about:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/who-needs-a-mm-cartridge-type-when-we-have-mc
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.