Retipping Miyajima mono cartridge

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.

"Dnath, not to sound snitty but have you considered at the time those "vintage mono LPs" were produced that only conical styli were common?"

Understandable, which is why I try to only buy very close to NM, seldom played. Groove wear and damage is all too common on those early Savoy, Blue Note and Prestige albums.

Kentaja, how many hours do you think the conical is good for? This is another thing I've read- conicals have significantly less life span than the others. All the records are wet cleaned with an RCM using AIVS fluid.

Viridian, I didn't mean to come off as inflammatory. I've done lots of searching and there isn't much information on high end conicals in the higher end cartridges; in fact the Miyajima mono stylus profile is almost never discussed. Most information is relayed about vintage or cheaper conical carts.