78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

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larryh
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by larryh »

I've had my Grado for at least three, maybe four years an no issues with the sytlus to date.

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OrthoSean
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by OrthoSean »

That's why I sais, likely a fluke, but I have so many others that replacement was overkill for me. I'm glad to hear you've had good luck with yours. I know others who use them also.

Sean

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Marco Gilardetti
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by Marco Gilardetti »

Victor A wrote:I read that playing 78s on modern turntables without the proper stylus installed does damage to the record.
As already written by others, I can hardly figure a lightweight pickup stylus damage a 78 record. It would just deliver a sound not as good as expected.

There are many contemporary pick-ups that can accept styli specifically made for 78s. After having tried some, my praise also goes to the Grado 78. They can be used with a pretty high tracking weight (up to 8 grams if my memory doesn't fail), which is not a common feature, although very useful with bended or wobbling records. This is a high class pick-up sold at a bargain price.

Another good and cheap solution, in my opinion, is to buy a classic Stanton 500 pick-up (vintage or brand new doesn't matter), discard the stylus with which it came equipped, and buy one of the many 78 rpm replacements available. I bought this one, which has a 3 mil tip, and it works very well:

http://www.lptunes.com/Replacement-for- ... ad5127.htm

A pick-up that, instead, I wouldn't recommend is the Shure 78. The sound is all right, but the stylus damping is too soft and it accepts tracking weights up to only 3 grams, which is definitely not enough for many records.

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fran604g
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by fran604g »

If I may add my purely anecdotal experience -- just for fun -- I recently completely rebuilt a 1950's vintage Kodak Film Projector audio amplifier to use with my Miracord 10H turntable, and an old 3-way speaker that I've had kicking around for decades. The amp was my 1st -- given to me by my father when I was 10 or 11 years old, around 1968; the stereo speaker system was built by him and me, around 1972 using Stromberg-Carlson "Red Cone" drivers; I picked up the Miracord in a trade about 12 years ago or so.

The TT came with an original Pickering U38 cartridge and stylus for 33-⅓ vinyl records, which I replaced with the appropriate "78" 3 mil stylus (D-3827C), which took a while to find, I should add. It all works very well, with no filtering (yeah, I know: "Oh, the horror!"). I set the tracking weight at 3 grams, and at least in this case, the relatively high mass tonearm tracks perfectly.

Below are a couple of saved RTA recording tests I made of the system playback, and of my VV-XVI using the same record (sorry, I don't remember what the tune was, but it was a Victor Red Label). Let me say my results are pretty far from the most scientifically conducted test, but the results still illustrate quite well how close to the mark I came with using the old junk I had laying around -- and plenty of down time to invest in this project. It's pretty obvious that the frequency response is very similar between the 2, with the exception that the high-end of the Kodak doesn't drop off as dramatically as the XVI.

Please excuse my attempt at humor with the "Keller Bros." piano nameplate I affixed to the Kodak amp... :lol:

Best,
Fran
Kodak, Miracord, and Stromberg Carlson.JPG
RTA - Victrola XVI loud-tone needle.jpg
RTA - Kodak LoFi amp.jpg
Last edited by fran604g on Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Wolfe
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by Wolfe »

Other issue with Grado carts is that they can be susceptible to hum with certain setups.

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Wolfe
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by Wolfe »

Marco Gilardetti wrote: A pick-up that, instead, I wouldn't recommend is the Shure 78. The sound is all right, but the stylus damping is too soft and it accepts tracking weights up to only 3 grams, which is definitely not enough for many records.
I have the green Shure M78S stylus that I put in an unused Shure M97xE cartridge body that I had laying around. I agree that the cantilever isn't very robust, but it has it's uses for me anyway. The sound with the combo is pretty good, especially with later era (1940's / 50's) records.

Naucks now sells the Shure M44 cart with a wide range of custom styli, as Stanton got out of the business some time ago. I'm not sure what the status with Expert Stylus is, I still have couple of their old styluses that I use. but I'll probably graduate over to the Shure M44 at some point, so I can use the stuff that Naucks sells.

Naucks appears to have a few of the Stanton styluses left, however. Lots of Stanton 500 carts floating around the used market (e-bay and whatnot.)

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OrthoSean
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by OrthoSean »

I'm glad I bought most of my customs for the Stanton 500 before everyone stopped carrying them. You can still have Expert in the UK retip anything you send to your specs. When my 4.0 mil TE vanished into thin air overnight a few months ago thanks to my foolishly leaving it out where my cat could discover it and use it as a toy, I grabbed an M-44 and replacement 4.0 TE from Nauck and I'm pleased with it, EXCEPT like the other Shure styli, it won't track above about 3 grams which can be a problem with warped or off center discs. The higher output of the M-44 does add a bit more "punch" to the sound, though, I mainly use it for '25-'30 Orthophonics and HMVs to ride above the "crackle", and yes, it's very effective for that.

For what it's worth, my other go-to is the Stanton 500 with the 2.5 TE, which can track at 8 or more grams if needed and plays most everything reasonably well when I'm not using the AT 3 mil (conical) for just casual stuff. Another good and less expensive option is the Ortofon series carts, for which you can get a 2.5 mil conical 78 stylus for. It's about $60 for the stylus, mine has held up very well for 4-5 years so far.

Sean

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Wolfe
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by Wolfe »

I have an unused Ortofon OM series cartridge body that I've long been thinking of getting the 78 stylus for, after seeing someone's YouTube videos that sounded quite good using the Ortofon playing 78's. I originally used the cartridge with the OM 10 stylus for playing LP's.

LP Gear has their own version, claiming 3 mil tip - https://www.lpgear.com/product/ORS078LP.html

And the real Ortofon, claiming 2.5 - https://www.lpgear.com/product/ORS078.html

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OrthoSean
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by OrthoSean »

Ah ok, so cheaper than I remembered for the 78 stylus . The Ortofon is a fine cartridge.

Sean

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Victor A
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Re: 78 Diamond Stylus Recommendation

Post by Victor A »

Thanks for all your replies everyone! I thought the information in that article seemed a bit off!
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