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A Shure thing
A cartridge not just for Grandads.
By Simon Brown
October 2000
Shure V15VxMR phono cartridge. Price $699
He didn't quite call me "Grandad", but the tone of his voice
clearly placed me in the category of needing an audiophile hearing trumpet.
It was my turn to question whether the sales-yoof at one of Dunedin's
hi-fi dealers was deaf, as he didn't appear to understand the word. I
repeated it louder and enunciating clearly, "cartridge".
"Grunt."
Again he managed to pack in the implication that not only was I a dodery
old bugger but owned a '3-in-1' circa 1972.
I hung up.
Other dealer were more helpful - well sort of. "Yes we have one
cartridge in stock" (dead stock from 1987) or "We can get you
anything you care to order and pay for in advance."
I rapidly realised that my current cartridge needs were very different
from those of 1993. While still an analogue animal, my tastes have been
very influenced from the long-term presence of CDs in the house.
Being dedicated to a valve preamp I found that I was less tolerant to
its highish levels of hiss when used with a moving coil cartridge. I then
discovered that Audio Technica (once the worlds biggest makers of MCs)
were no longer offering an exchange/retip service.
It started to encourage a siege mentality and the idea of buying my "last"
cartridge - although a potential usage life of 50 years from now is a
little daunting!
At least a cartridge that I could get replacement styli for, potentially
for a good many years, started to look attractive.
Enter Shure.
The sales-yoof was wrong. I'm not actually old enough to remember when
Shure were The Hot Item. In the 60s/70s when specifications reigned supreme,
ruler-flat frequency response, low tracking force and the ability to play
kinky test grooves, Shure did it all.
And the V15 was the Elvis of cartridges (or perhaps the Rocky given the
numbering scheme).
By the 80s when I started developing my reputation as a time-waster (poor
student) among hi-fi sales people, Shure's were starting to look old fashioned.
Not that they were low tech - on the contrary, Shure advanced the ideas
of low weight and trick cantilevers to new heights. It is with some irony
that Shure has outlasted more "modern" cartridge manufacturers
to release the V15VxMR.
Being somewhat conservative Shure haven't been overly hasty in releasing
new V15 models - about one every decade seems to be the ration.
The V15IV (1970s) introduced a slightly controversial feature - the Dynamic
Stabiliser brush/damper mechanism. This cleaned grunge out of the groove
while damping the potential low frequency arm/cartridge resonance (more
on this anon).
I was surprised to see that the V15V had emerged in the early 1980s as
it seemed newish in my mind. Perhaps the world "needed" something
to play the Telarc 1812 Overture?
However it did receive enough praise in the US high-end press to be taken
seriously (the US tech-end press, of course, loved it).
The V15VxMR (Vx to its friends?) represents a development of the V, so
continues the familiar thin walled boron cantilever, a bikini sized stylus
as well as the Dynamic Stabiliser brush/damper.
In New Zealand the Vx is available for $699, while a replacement stylus
is $449.
Replacing the blunt AT-OC5 in my system was like moving from a turbo-charged
hatchback to a Merc, perhaps not instantly gratifying but ultimately on
a higher plane of ability.
One of the first things I noticed was the midrange neutrality. This wasn't
just a technological neutrality but one of considerable ease and naturalness.
I'm keen on having space around instruments and some depth of musical
image. To my surprise the Vx managed this trick effortlessly. What's more,
the Vx had the musical ability to allow you to follow several instruments
simultaneously with ease.
Swapping back to the (cheap but brilliant) Sumiko Oyster made me realise
how quiet the Vx is on surface noise. Bass extension was enough to continue
to embarrass my elderly CD player. Speed was good but couldn't quite catch
the Oyster (perhaps exceptional in this area).
At the other end the treble is nice if not quite in the moving coil league.
Detail was there in abundance. Part of this may be due to the trick Micro
Ridge stylus - these types of styli can get into all the nooks and crannies
of the groove, but to do so must be set up with considerable care.
All this assumes that you've got the Dynamic Stabiliser clipped up out
of the way. It does muddy the pool considerably when in the operating
position.
While detail, speed and imaging abilities all suffer, the basic tonality
remains so I found myself using the brush/damper to keep Hairy McClary
away when I was only using the turntable for background music (you can
only chop and change like this if you have a cartridge with easily adjustable
tracking weight).
I must admit the tweeky part of me is tempted to hot hod the Vx by removing
all the "extraneous" bits. However, this is a tribute to the
substantial abilities of the Vx that it may justify such attention.
Regardless, I've now got a cartridge that will be giving considerable pleasure for a considerable number of years.
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