Part 1 - Shure Thing....

Spurred on by Jimbo of these hallowed grounds I thought I'd do some messing about with some of my old Shure Carts.


Just a few lines about how things are going to pan out over the next few days/weeks. I'm in the process of evaluating two ancient Shure Carts the M55E and the M44-7. Previously I have had and said goodbye to many Shure Carts, these being the SC35C + JICO/S stylus, the V15 mk3 with VNH35H (is this correct?) stylus, M75ED. I have had the USA and Mexican version of the M55E, supposedly the USA version is superior, this is the version I will be using during testing but I can't claim to have noticed any difference when doing extended listening tests. I did intend doing this experiment with a SME 3009 as I thought that this would be an excellent match for the Shure Carts. Fate, however seems to have intervened and meant that it would be very difficult to set the Shure's up with the 3009 in it's current configuartion and it took me an age to get the 3009 working with my Ortofon MONO SPU. I did have a solution sitting less than 24" away, this came in the form of a Garrard 401 and SME V-12 configuration. The Garrard 401 was a complete nuts and bolts restoration done by myself and then later checked over by Dr. Martin Bastin, I asked Dr. Bastin to mount the 401 in one of his "Max Planck" plinths. A high quality massive birch ply which decouples the motor. The 401 has had little use over the years and has been mainly over shadowed by the Garrard 301, another nuts and bolts restoration that I did over 10 years ago. The 401 needs some setting up but today I made sure that the 401 was sitting level in all planes, I shall be fettling cartridge setup tomorrow.

I partnered the 401 years ago with a SME V-12 which at the time wasn't cheap, fast forward to 2023 and they now go for double what I paid and that's if you can find one, used examples in very good condition has been changing hands for £7K+ (yeah that's what I thought). Tonearm cable happens to be the very top end Yannis Tome cable which again I have on all my arms. I have used the Korf Compliance Calculator korfaudio.com/calculator and checked to see if the old Shure carts would be a decent match for the SME V-12, turns out they should do fine. The first variables that I will be checking are cartridge loading and valve type. Traditionally I have always used a EAR 834P clone which Alan (Fire bottle) modded and built for me a few years ago. The EAR clone had the benefit of cartridge loading installed. I also own the late Len Gregory's Croft phonostage which is excellent but has no cartridge loading capabilities. So, an inability to fine tune these old Shure Carts should prove interesting when assessing them. Another interesting aspect is the valve type, the EAR uses vintage Mullard ECC83 8157's variant. The Croft uses my all time favourite 6SL7 valve the RCA 5691, I've compared 13 different types of 6SL7 and found these to be the best. So, I have to make the tough decision of Croft v EAR, ECC83 8157 v 6SL7 5691 variants. The M44-7 is the first to be put through it's paces. I already have history with the M55E and JICO stylii and don't want to bias findings before they have already started.



I did do an indepth analysis of the M55E + JICO SAS/S stylii v the Ortofon 2MB several years ago. I only had EAR clone phonostage back then and found that the M55E+JICO combo came within microns of upstaging the 2MB, ultimately the 2MB had better detail and resoultion. I did have two other MM phonostages back then, the MM phonostage which is an optional extra in my ATC SCA2 pre-amp and the other being the built in MM phonostage in my Radford SC25 pre-amp (I still own both of these). The Radford used the same M8157's but did nothing for me. The ATC just sounded sterile and lifeless. No a few stats, here are the stats for the Shure M55E



Tracking Force: 0.75 to 1.5 grams
Frequency Response: 20 to 20,000 Hz
Output Voltage: 6.2mV per channel at 5 cm/sec peak recorded velocity
Channel Separation: greater than 22dB at 1,000 Hz
Trackability at 1 gram force: 12 cm/sec at 400 Hz
Effective Stylus Tip Mass: 1.2 milligrams
Tip Radius: 0.2 x 0.7 mils
Inductance: 720 millihenries
DC Resistance: 630 ohms

Dynamic Compliance 25
Recommended load capacitance: 400-500pF

Weight: 6.5 grams


Here are the stats for the Shure M44-7


Output voltage: 9,5mV bei 1kHz, 5cm/sec.
Amplifier-connection: Phono MM
Frequency range: 20-20.000Hz
Material: diamond, bonded
Stylus type: spherical 0.7 mil
Tracking force range: 1,5-3,0g
Tracking force, recommended: 3,0g
Recommended load resistance: 47 kOhm
Recommended load capacitance: 400-500pF

Dynamic compliance 20

Weight: 6,7g





The Shure M55E proved to be a slightly better match running these figures through the Korf Calculator, assuming the Effective mass of the SME V-12 was 11, and the weight of cartridge wires, mounting screws and bolts was around 2.5mg (I do need to verify these). So first blood to the M55E. Stay tuned for more knackers, sorry, I mean indepth analysis of Shure cartridges.



Stay tuned....