I have the V15 Type III and love it. You can get replacement stylus from LP Gear.

I agree, their m97xe cart has not been able to perform as well as other ellipticals in their price point. However their M44-7's are legendary for DJs.

@Mike Unsworth You should have it mounted in a turntable Mike. It's the best I've ever heard. It will out perform many high priced MCs.

Amen.

Have one on my Acoustics Research XA right now, still sounds great

Me too.

I can only recall that it had great sound (for the times), it was clear and clean, but it would have had inner-groove distortion to some degree, because I didn't get rid of that until ten years ago when I bought my AT150mlx.

I remember that! My first ever "hifi" record configuration :)

Ever hear one of those laser turntables? I was underwhelmed to say the least.

Or buy one of many very well-made Japanese cartridges.

Jerry Jazzbo Personally I think the V15 was the last really good cart they made. They made other ok carts but nothing to die for

That's the long and short of it. The market is contracting, and despite a small wave of hipster interest, record players are not about to retake their position as the #1 way to listen to recorded sounds. They have to sell a whole lot of cartridges for $50 to turn a profit, and the time of that sort of volume has passed. They could try to compete at the high end, but have no experience there. Better to cut their losses and move on.

That makes a lot more sense then not being able to source stuff at the quality they want.

HH Scott, if any company could have owned their own production from raw materials to finished product, it was Shure. They were the biggest OEM for mass-produced turntables when the market was at its peak. How they missed that opportunity is a story that I'd like to know. Like most industries, it's not the cost of materials, it's the cost of labor that most affects the bottom line. Even if they had them all made in Shenzhen, China there's just not enough profit to support all those executives in Niles, IL who expect 6-figure salaries.

StringerNews1 Yup. And that's how it goes. The execs expect to get rich, and expect their workers to have to get assistance from the state to survive. What a country. Lol And people are going after the people who need the assistance. Not the greedy executives. Makes sense right? smh

HH Scott, the current Shure HQ is a fancy designer building formerly occupied by an ad agency that made a bad decision and went bankrupt. The old office + factory wasn't fancy because every penny went into _growing_ the business. The current mindset in US business that says a business exists so that a select few at the top can live large has a side effect of the business failing sooner than later. A national economy built on this belief system is destined for a hard fall. I just hope I leave this earth before then.

It could be price related, after all they do use diamond needles. It may be an increased demand by new manufacturers causing the price to go up. But it could also be that a supplier has shut down and they can't find another supplier selling at the same price.

Diamonds are cheaper than ever(the type used here are made with explosive's and graphite).

Of course there's a trend. 100 years ago the burgeoning buggy whip industrial complex went through much the same thing. When the masses switched to automobiles for good, tanners didn't sit idly by saying "whoa is me", they started thinking and created a _new_ market: driving gloves. What that means to the remaining artisinal buggy whip makers was that they too should get up off their duffs and retool the business.

Dual 1219 with the M91ED was my first serious phono setup.

there already is a bunch of chinese factory's producing knock off shure replacement styli.

In Japan or China?

If Shure wasn't making the most critical parts for their cartridges in-house, they weren't leading the market to begin with. The brands that do make all components will continue to lead.

Why don,t Shure source from China or Japan?.

May be the claim,s they are making is to cover up the true story.

The true story is that vinyl records and coal power plants will continue to decline.

_"Shure stopped making the V15 because of inability to resource a key material of the stylus, they said."_ Probably the beryllium for the cantilever. Jico seems to be the only serious aftermarket source of styli for many Shure cartridges.

Not if loaded correctly. The V15 III and IV had output inductance which rendered them more sensitive to capacitive loading on phono inputs resulting in a rising top end. Loading it down with higher capacitance gives it a flat response. Mine sounds smooth a silk. The V15 V doesn't suffer this problem.

@bill crane: so instead of blaming the "reviewers" (totally subjectively) u blame the instruments measuring scientifically (objectively); well, try to get a big stock of that analogue crap because its days are over

Only thing foolish is the fellow who wrote that

Geez if only all of us could be as cool and knowledgeable as you two "insiders". 😎👨‍🎓👨‍🏫🤓🤔👨‍🔬🕵️‍♂️ 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

Hey Steve, Ageist much?

Hana // Dynavector // Grado //Benz // *Ghram Slee - [elevator/revelation] // Funk Firm GETT! [Upsample that]

HUE HUE HUE!!!

Michael B. Another Brainiac... where are your review columns so I can start reading them, you clearly are more knowledgeable on the subject.

Yeah, scraping a diamond across a piece of vinyl is definitely better than sampling an electrical way thousands of times a second. Get with the times pops.

Hey, I'm giving an opinion in the "Comment" section. Sorry, my comment in regards to the Shure cartridge offends you.

These guys with the comments like that... definitely haters with super low end Amazon garbage.

these analog dinosaurs trying to go against evolution; guess what: u face extinction and this is just another sign

John Smith No. Music is actually VERY BIG (and getting bigger) according to what I see on the street. It’s that music lovers - such as myself - have become traitors and listen to digital media. And I have to admit, I like the digital media more than ever.

That is indeed news. Maybe vinyl isn’t as big as the media is telling us?

David Jamison - Almost no one goes to support music concerts anymore, unless its an establiahed legacy/heritage act, 20+ years into a career, that are charging high prices for their retirement fund. In the traditional sense, yes, music is dying. The old distribution model and concert circuit standard. Now, you just post videos on KZfaq and hope for the best view count. In that sense, I guess, music is doing just fine.

John Smith People don't have the money to do so like they used to. Have you seen the price of tickets? And how they sell them now is crazy. When I was a kid. I could go to my local record store (The Music Box Newport RI) a couple of hours before they went on sale, and be 1st to 5th say in line. I could pay $30 for any ticket, and many times ended up very close since I got there early. Now it's thousands for a VIP package to sit up front. I've sat in the first 10 sections for more concerts then I can remember. Those days are over. And it's not just greed causing this. These bands have to make it all at shows because no one buys music anymore. And there are multiple reasons for that too, and not just digital music. Times are changing. The only constant in life is change. But people can't spend their extra money if they don't have any, and wages haven't gone up in over a decade, yet CEO's are taking 40 million dollar bonuses. And that is greed.

I'm talking about new/newer bands (that came out in the late '00's.) They could be the next Beatles or Metallica,, and still struggle to pull more than 20 people at the local club, at $20 a ticket. Let alone trying to mount a regional tour. It's money down the drain. They don't have a chance.