Retipping Miyajima mono cartridge

Lyra's Jonathan Carr has stated that extensive testing revealed that the best mono performance was derived from a line-contact stylus (if I understand his remarks correctly). I believe all Lyra mono cartridges now use a line-contact stylus.
-Bob

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1273328104&openfrom&10&4#10

All Lyra cartridges have always used line contact stylii and I have no doubt that they are superior, and certainly have a larger groove contact area. But a manufacturer is hardly an unbiased person to quote on such matters.

The dissing of conical stylii as being crude was misinformed. The Denon, EMT and Ortofon conicals being nude mounted, grain oriented and highly polished. Nothing crude about them.

Yet a respected cartridge maker who presumably wants to make mono cartridges that sound as good possible and who chooses the mono stylus shape based on extensive listening comparisons is hardly someone to be summarily dismissed as a factor for consideration.
-Bob

Soundsmith does an excellent job rebuilding cartridges. I have had Peter do several for me and I am always satisfied with the result. But......

The cartridge will sound different versus a factory rebuild. With some thing like the Miyajima I think it would be a shame to change the character of the cartridge. The Miyajima sound is simply the most magical sound one will ever hear.

Conical stylus on mono LPs is exactly what the doctor ordered. The line contact will be no easier on the vinyl versus the conical. The vintage mono albums were pressed with the conical stylus profile in mind.

Do the right thing and send the cartridge back to the importer for a proper rebuild.

Good luck!

Yet a respected cartridge maker who presumably wants to make mono cartridges that sound as good possible and who chooses the mono stylus shape based on extensive listening comparisons is hardly someone to be summarily dismissed as a factor for consideration.
-Bob

Bob is the implication here that those who use conical styli in their mono cartridges presumably don't want to make their cartridges sound as good as possible, such as Miyajima?

My guess is that there are differing aesthetics at work here here. Carr being in the maximum detail retrieval camp and Miyajima looking for maximum tone. There are no right or wrong approaches, IMHO.

Interestingly, Miyajima uses Shibata styli in their top stereo cartridges so they certainly have radical stylus cuts on hand should they find this to be a preferable shape for their mono cartridges.