The results are impressive, there's very little surface noise compared to the Goldring and the microlinear stylus picks up a lot of detail from the grooves. You can throw it on an old changer with the crappiest tonearm imaginable, and as long as your tracking force is in spec, it'll probably sound just fine. Direct-Drive tables (especially the SL1200 from Technics) gained their reputation from D-J applications and Disco duty.

And since all VM95 Series share the same body, the stylus can be replaced with any of the six interchangeable AT-VMN95 replacement styli. Part of this is due to the popularly-held but short-sighted opinion that one should invest the bulk of one’s audio system budget into loudspeakers. Of course you will have to listen "blind" and please state your preferences in the comments section. The straight-jacketing of rhythms was largely removed, definition in the lower bass range clarified, hash and roughness ameliorated, and a subtle ‘electronic’ edge riding along the musical signal was vanquished.

It's obviously not a stylus for the detail freaks, but it's full of energy and a lot of fun to listen with. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers. I was finally able to listen to the VM 95ML without the major distorting limitations of the Technics’ drive system and tonearm, though a mechanical-sounding rhythmic performance remained, along with slight smearing during full orchestral crescendos. Instrumental lines were untangled sufficiently well to reveal the complexities of even the densest music, yet the performers’ communication playing together to achieve a common aesthetic goal was not obscured.

Sound-staging was wide and deep with a good sense of instrumental placement: I never encountered two instruments emanating from the exact same position in space.The performance of a line contact stylus, will minimize the “inner groove distortion” as well as providing extended frequency response and maximize resolution in the medium and high frequencies of the audio program material. The elliptical shaped stylus bears greater resemblance to the triangular shaped cutting stylus that is used when cutting master records. Listening to several tracks, it was noticeable that tonality was rich and vocals had a presence and clarity to them. Around 500 hours for a conical stylus, 300 hours for an Elliptical stylus, 1000 hours for a Microlinear stylus, and 800 hours for a Shibata stylus. Customs duties can apply for shipments to any countries outside of the UK depending on where the product you have bought is made.