Listening last night to the M55e and I thought something had happened to my hearing! It sounded awful, dull and flat so I wondered what had changed.
Decided to check everything and found my Stylus Overhang was way out, so somehow the whole cartridge had slipped back in the headshell probably due to loose nuts! Reset all parameters again but very tricky getting the nuts to stay tight even with washers.
[IMG]IMG_0003 by , on Flickr[/IMG]
Set up overhang with the excellent VPI Jig
[IMG]IMG_0005 by , on Flickr[/IMG]
This got me bang on and the difference was astounding! I would suggest that this technical aspect of cartridge set up is more influential on the sound than any other by far.
The sound quality from this cartridge is now exceeding the 2M Black and indeed any other MM I have heard. The bass was fuller and more extended than the 2M by some margin. I put this down to the M55e engine and the Boron cantilever? Detail was excellent and not in your face as the 2M. Only one area was slightly lacking and this was a tiny bit of air which I can certainly live with. Tonal quality is by far the best aspect of the M55e /Jico SAS. Instruments are fully fleshed out as are vocals which take on a fabulous presence.
Marco you were right when I first tried this combination way back. The NOS M55e with its original stylus gives a great full musical easy to listen too sound. With the Jico SAS the combination is stunning with a level of performance I have yet to hear bettered in my system.
When the stylus does eventually wear out I may buy the new Ruby SAS to replace it as I believe this could raise the bar higher.