A&R P77  Stylus for Cartridge ( P77 ) 

A&R P77 Jico SAS/B ( Super Analogue Stylus ) for Cartridge ( P77 )

SAS/b  Line Contact Nude Diamond Stylus with  Boron Cantilever

Ultimate  SAS Super Analogue Stylus Microridge Line Contact

SAS/B Nude on Boron     ( ARP77-SASB ) 

SAS/Z Nude on Zirconia  ( ) 

SAS/S Nude on Sapphire ( ARP77-SASS)

SAS/R Nude on Ruby       ( ARP77-SASR )

Japanese / Swiss Aftermarket High Quality Replacement Stylus  (Copy / Pattern / Replica   Non A&R  )

A Worn stylus can cause Serious ( Irreversible Damage ) to your records, and provide poor sound quality

Replacement Stylus ONLY - Cartridge Shown NOT Supplied  

 We recommend that you purchase at least two replacement styli ( Spare ) especially if you are buying for an older cartridge. Manufacturers have been phasing out many replacement styli for decades  & so the next time you need one a spare for your older cartridge you may not be able to find it. & many 100s of suppliers of Cartridges & Turntables have ceased production or went out business .

Genuine Stylus - Original as fitted by Cartridge OEM ( Original Equipment Maunfacturer )

Copy/Pattern/Replica - If no longer in production Aftermarket Replacement

a. NUDE Diamond.- Best & Most Expensive Option

The stylus is a whole diamond, specially shaped and glued or fastened to the cantilever. & lowest moving mass for better transient response & provides the best  sound quality
b. BONDED / Tipped diamond - Least Expensive option

. Here, a stylus tip of diamond is mounted on a metal shank.It is usually made of diamond  the hardest material known - to give it maximum durability. However, the fact that it is of diamond is not sufficient in itself, for its construction and shape are also crucial factors in sound quality. Many less inexpensive Hi-Fi cartridges use a so-called “tipped” diamond, where the diamond tip is mounted on a metal shank. However, such a shank may increase the stylus tip mass and thus impair the cartridge’s transient reproduction, in comparison with a cartridge that uses a nude untipped diamond. 

Stylus Profile

The SPHERICAL ( Conical ) Stylus
The spherical shaped stylus is the simplest and cheapest to produce and it is, therefore, the most common. Spherical styli can be recommended in all cases where robustness and economy are taken into consideration in the purchase of a cartridge.

The ELLPITICAL stylus
The elliptical shaped stylus bears greater resemblance to the triangular shaped cutting stylus that is used when cutting master records.The elliptical stylus is able to follow the groove oscillations more accurately than the spherical type, and its distortion and phase error will,therefore, be less.& stylus life will be extended compared to a Spherical Stylus & will offer better sound quality 

Advanced Stylus Profiles

The HYPER ELLPITICAL stylus

Hyper-Elliptical is an extreme elliptical tip.which are precision ground and are actually often closer to Contact Line than most ellipticals.  Stylus life will be extended compared to a Elliptical  Stylus & will offer better sound quality 

The SHIBATA  stylus

Various cartridge manufacturers have been inspired by the Shibata shape and now produce cartridges with stylus shapes that give the same advantages as the Shibata. quadraphonic systems never really caught on with consumers, but they have helped to speed up the development of stylus types that improve playback of stereo records in the form of a more precise treble reproduction, lower distortion, and less record wear.  Stylus life will be extended compared to a Elliptical/HE  Stylus & will offer better sound quality 

The SAS ( Super Analogue Stylus )

Designed to mimic as close as possible a record cutting head/cutting lathe for highest fidelity & lifespan usually fitted to a precision boron , sapphire , ruby or zirconium ultra light & rigid cantilever

SAS -Natural single-crystal, nude-mounted octahedral diamond stylus tip , The stylus tip is of optimum height and a uniformly ultra-precision finish. The Super Analogue Stylus has a curvature with a smaller radius that was impossible with the Micro Ridge Stylus. As thin as a razor blade and machined with ultra precision, the stylus tip ensures unsurpassed fidelity. Polished finish that virtually preserves your record's grooves.World-class polishing technique is used on each stylus. This is designed to preserve the details of the record groove structure for a very long time — virtually for the life of the vinyl.

Other Advanced Profiles & Trademarks include

 BI-ELLIPTICAL , PRAMANIC , QUADRAHEDRAL , HYPERBOLIC , PATHEMAX , FINE LINE , LINE CONTACT , MICRORIDGE MICROLINE  PARATRACE , REPLICANT , FG , VDH , SUPER FINE LINE

Advanced Stylus Profiles as used on Hiend Cartridges offer much improved Sound Quality , Extended Stylus Life , Extended HF Response & Tracking almost exactly duplicates the shape of the cutting stylus used to produce the original master disc from which records are made. This enables it to track portions of the groove other styli simply cannot reach. The result is extremely accurate tracking of high-frequency passages and ruler-flat frequency response within the audible range

Due to Stylus Shape & Profile advanced stylus make greater contact with the record groove wall for better sound quality & will offer longer stylus lifepsan 

CANTILEVER

The cantilever of a Phono cartridge, like the stylus itself, is an important part of the vibration system and is necessary in order to faithfully transmit the vibrations from the record to the Stylus.

A variety of materials such as Aluminum,& Expensive cartridges use  Sapphire, Beryllium and Boron are used to make cantilevers of different shapes and dimensions. The lighter and stiffer the material, the better and more accurately the cantilever can transmit vibration.

In today’s high-end cartridges, precision is also required for the materials, processing, and assembly of magnetic circuit parts as well as the suspension mechanism connected to the cantilever.

Notes on Mono Records & Cartridges Styli

Modern Microgroove Records have a V profile Groove & Modern Mono Microgroove Re-issues 

0.7mil is Suitable for Reissue Monaural LP and a Mono LP of after 1960.
1.0mil is Suitable for the Monaural LP of a deep groove of the first press of the 1950s.
However, both styli can trace the monaural LP of all generations without a problem.
When you listen to the monaural LP of all generations, we recommend 0.7mil.
When you listen to a monaural LP of the first press of the 1950s mainly, we recommend 1.0mil.

3.0mil usually ideal for 78rpm mono records

Why Mono ?
A mono cartridge is mechanically different from a stereo cartridge.  Simply switching a stereo cartridge to mono does not work perfectly.  Despite what manufactures claim  mono switches invariably add the two channels  by simply shorting the two channels together, even very" expensive units do this.  Hiend units can  sum the two channels with extra electronics to eliminates the vertical response and improve the signal to noise by 3dB.  However even summing does not provide the ultimate, a cartridge designed for mono, with a single coil and no vertical movement reduces surface noise, vertical noise and fits the groove properly. 

Older Mono records have a U type Groove Mono/78RPM 3.0mil is the accepted norm & Steel Needles for gramophone records

other types used by collectors are 2.0/2.5/3.0/3.5/4.0/8.0 ( MIL = 1/1000th of a inch )

2.0MIL -  2.0 X 0.4 mil Elliptical diamond - worn LPs, some transcriptions.
2.5MIL  - 2.5 X 0.5 mil elliptical diamond - late unworn 78s
3.0MIL -  3.0 X 0.5 mil elliptical diamond - most 1905 to 1940's, slightly worn 78s & transcriptions, & some Edison discs.
3.5MIL    3.5 X 0.8 mil elliptical diamond - old or worn 78s, transcriptions. 
4.0MIL    4.0 X 1.0 mil elliptical diamond - Edison Diamond & very old/worn discs, raw aluminium, RCA home recordings., also Pathé vertical discs
8.0MIL     8.0 mil conical sapphire - RCA home recordings, and worn Pathé vertical discs.