Used for all vinyl replay by the British Broadcasting Corporation from the early seventies until the seedy takeover ousted vinyl. Engineering carried out extensive tests over a period of time on the SC35C before using it, to ensure that it came up to their (at that time) very high standard in terms of sound quality, robustness and low record wear, 'cue burn' in particular.
To work properly each channel has to be loaded with a capacitance of 450pf, which typically means adding 220pf to the preamp input (both channels). Correctly loaded this cartridge gives very fine sound quality - it is actually the professional version of the esteemed V15.
Back in the early eighties we AB tested this against other professional cartridges including the Denon 103 coil and the Shure wiped the floor with all of them! We had a Kisiki Blue moving coil as a reference and there was no audible difference between this and the SC35C. Now of course all this was many years ago and today it is a very different story.
You can still buy an SC35C but it is a very different animal from the original model from Evanston. I am very fortunate in having 3 USA SC35Cs from the late seventies plus a V15IIIHE and the sound of the new is absolutely nowhere near the quality of the originals.
If you want to evaluate one - try and get an original US model, it will have USA printed on the body above the pins. The replacement stylus is a problem - don't go for one with 'Shure' printed in black on the front - it won't be a fake, but the quality will be so different from the earlier ones printed in white. This is the big problem, getting a decent replacement stylus, there are some NOS about but we use Jico in Japan - theirs are fine and as good as the originals.
Sorry to go on at length here, but I am a big fan of these cartridges. Just one last thing - conical stylus playing at 4.5 grammes! Shock horror I hear you cry - not a bit of it, I have loads of LPs played hundreds nay thousands of times and none have any trace of wear- in fact that bit of extra weight is ideal for dislodging minute particles of dried spittle which would cause a lighter cartridge to stick.
Original US model Shure SC35C
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as im rubbish at describing what i hear,all i know is,what i like,and so far in this early stage,me likey.
Originally Posted by Marco
don't get too excited,my system is a little bit more modest than yours and i have very little experience with other carts,trebal comes across as sweet and detailed to me,maybe marginaly 'splashy' but like i said need to set up properly yet.
,im tired)
