Can an old Stanton 681EEE MkIIs or Pickering XV-15 be brought back to life?

Hello and welcome to this new post regarding my beloved phono cartridge Stanton 681EEE MkIIs. I knew that this was a good cartridge but it is only today that I fully appreciated it, because I learned how hard it would be to replace it.

Everything started back in mid 80's with a Pickering XV-15 cartridge and a D1500-S stylus. When it was time for a replacement stylus, the local distributor suggested me to get the Stanton 681EEE MkIIs at almost the same price and so I did. It was Christmas of 1987.

The Stanton 681EEE MKIIs cartridge.

Back then I had a NAD 5120 turntable which was replaced by a Technics MK2 at late 90's.

I was very happy with the Stanton so I sticked to it and kept replacing the stylus when needed.

However, after two replacement styluses instead of getting the usual D6800EEE IIs stylus, I was told that now I should get a D6800EEE-III replacement stylus. It was mid 90's, I was young and naive, internet was practically non existent and the III version sounded confidently superior to the IIs (a big bravo to the marketing team of Stanton). How little did I know! As I discovered just a few months ago, the "s" was standing for Stereohedron, something like a Shibata stylus which was much superior to the elliptical D6800EEE-III I was getting.



"Replacement for D6800 EEE-S" yeap right... downgrade it meant.

Looking back, it makes some sense. The first time I replaced the worn IIs with a brand new III things seemed normal; the brand new elliptical stylus behaved better (or should I say different) than the worn out Stereohedron and was expected to behave even better after some hours of playback. CD was the new trend, gradually I couldn't find the albums I wanted in vinyl so I didn't bothered any more.

Until a few months ago when I started seriously wondering why I am not getting the kind of amazing sound that I remember that my Stanton had. I also had sibilance, s was sounding like sszzz. I became a master of turntable setup, I improved the sound of my turntable but still, there was something missing. I wondered if my stylus needed replacement or I needed a psychologist, I did some reading and so I understood that the most important part at this 681EEE MKIIs cartridge was the s in the stylus - and this s was missing since a long time ago.

I found my old Pickering XV-15 cartridge with a slightly damaged and worn D1800-S stylus. In the meanwhile, I had read that I could use the D1800-S stylus on the Stanton and so I did; the damaged D1800-S was giving slightly better sound than the D6800 EEE III which after all was in no way damaged or worn out. So I started seeking for an original new Stanton D6800EEE IIs stylus or even a Pickering D1800-S, but with no luck.

It looked like that it was about time for a new cartridge, but things are tougher than what they seem. Take for example the Ortofon Super OM30 that Panos has: I like it a lot at his system but when he lent it me for a listening, there was a big disappointment. All the low end was gone. At the beginning we thought that the OM30 was not a good match for my Technics MK2 but as it turned out the mismatch was between the Ortofon and the phono stage of my preamp. Panos brought me another external phono preamp which was connected at a line in and the issue with the low end was resolved. Now, don't think that I am talking about a mismatch caused by things like pf and kΩ; we tweaked them but things were not improved. The lesson learned was that a cartridge has to match both with the arm and the phono stage. When you are listening to a cartridge and it doesn't sound right, it is hard to know why; is it really the cartridge or it is a bad match between the cartridge and the arm and/or the phono stage? This is why you often read crazy things in forums about cartridges, one says that the cartridge is great and another will say completely opposite things.

Well, we are lucky enough to have two turntables, three phono stages and the ability to tweak them, plus some cartridges to test. To make a long story short, after some listening tests and high res sample downloads from different cartridges we got the following conclusions:

• the Stanton is a great match for both my phono stage and the Technics MK2 and it will be hard to be replaced.
• the Technics has no problem with the OM30, it is a very versatile turntable with extra headsell and arm weights to use when necessary.
• Grado Silver probably is one of the most overestimated cartridges, I suspect that this stands for Grado in general.
• an economic JICO stylus sounds better than the genuine Shure stylus on a Shure M91ED cartridge, even though it tracks worse at a trackability test.
• based on an Audio Technica AT-UL3 (MC type), we preferred the dynamic sound coming from high output MM types. I understand that this might be an over generalization, but I strongly feel that the high output of MM suits me better. I will try to listen also to a high output MC type and I will make an update. BTW yes, the MK2 can match with MC cartridges, it has no noise issue as many believe.
• we feel that a Shibata stylus offers the best balance between sweetness, detail and wide sound stage. The other advanced stylus types (meaning above elliptical) seem to offer an unnecessary clinical sound, meaning a sound with no useful extra detail that just lucks warmth.

Let's get back to JICO, a Japanese stylus manufacturer that has earned a good reputation. I hesitated trying a non genuine stylus but I read a lot of good reviews about JICO so I thought to give it a try. JICO has a Shibata stylus for my Stanton but I thought that I couldn't get it from a European store and I didn't wanted to import it from Japan, due to the king of stupidity under the name of Greek customs. You never know what it can cost you to import something. I was about to buy an Audio Technica MM Shibata cartridge when I found out that this very JICO stylus I wanted, back then could be purchased from Thakker; after emailing them, they responded that they do have it, (please do check with them that this is still valid, I have seen it appearing and disappearing from their e-shop - www.dacapoaudio.com also occasionally has it) so I thought to give it a try and see if my Stanton 681 will sound again like it used to. As I said, I have an original Stanton D6800 EEE MKIII stylus so I can make a direct comparison.

So the JICO stylus arrived and the listening tests started. The results were excellent; the JICO stylus gives back to the Stanton the original performance, the kind of performance for which the cartridge was loved and appreciated so much. 



The Stanton D6800 EEE III stylus...

...and the JICO D6800EEE-S [e007916] stylus. Not much optical difference but as it was proved, beauty is in the ears of the JICO beholder. (many thanks to Panos for the photos).

First impressions and sound tests.

First of all, the JICO stylus will fit tighter to the body of 681 compared to the D6800 EEE III Stanton stylus. The weights of the JICO and the Stanton cartridges are practically identical - there is only an 0,06g difference.

Let's move on to the juicy part, sound test at the same tracking force I had with the Stanton D6800 EEE III stylus.

The low end is superb again, like it used to be. Even though the D6800 EEE III was not weak in bass, the JICO communicates the existence of low end energy much much better. This is the sound I remember and loved. 

The high end is now much... higher; all the missing details are back without being harsh and the soundstage is broader and in focus. However I have to point out that now it is much easier to understand which record is dusty or worn out. Still, I prefer listening to dusty worn records with JICO than the elliptical Stanton stylus.

Now, about the sibilance issue; it is resolved. Let's take for example track C4 "Night Wind" from the album Ella Fritzgerald - Like Someone In Love (Analogue Productions B0015631-01). With the D6800 EEE III there are multiple points in the track that s were sounding like sszzz. With the JICO stylus, s is back to s - period.

Update (Jul 06 2017): About a month has passed and I have to say that this stylus is nothing less than amazing. I have started listening again to my records with joy and started again buying new ones. The soundstage is enormous, the levels of detail are very high but without any irritation. May I dare to say that this stylus is even better than the original? Only concern is that in the 90's when I still had the original stylus, my system and my knowledge regarding a perfect turntable setup were inferior than today. Still, since I have to make a conclusion I will insist that this stylus is top. Absolutely highly recommended.

Test record performance and adjustments.

Let's see some trackability testing with the Shure Trackability Test Record I use at advanced turntable setup. The D6800 EEE III was a champion at trackability, almost passing level five at 1.48g VTF.

First of all, a few words about the brush. I read some comments that it is a bit harder than the original Stanton brush. This is true, but someone should also observe that the hairs at the JICO brush are fewer, longer and cut at an angle; all these meaning that few and longer hairs come in contact with the record. Anyway, some replaced the JICO brush and some remove the brush completely.

We made tests with the JICO brush, with the Stanton brush and with no brush. To make a long story short, the best trackability was achieved with the JICO brush on (almost passing level four). After that we did a sound comparison test with the JICO brush on and off; we marginally preferred the sound with the JICO brush on - we focused at the many "s" that the "Night Wind" track has and we found them marginally better with JICO brush on.

No matter what you do with the brush, this stylus benefits from maximum tracking force so minimum mistracking occurs at 2.5 g (that is 1,5g actual VTF for the stylus plus one gram for the brush = 2.5g in total). Keep in mind that the stylus is very sensitive to adjustments, if for example you set the VTF at 2.45 g instead of 2.5 you increase mistracking. The same goes for antiskating, when you set it up move in very small steps. Also, the same goes for proper turntable leveling and cartridge azimuth.

Talking about antiskating, the only thing with the JICO brush was that I needed a value like 3.1 when the Technics MK2 has a maximum value of 3 - I have mistracking occurring marginally first at the right channel, meaning I need a bit more antiskating.

We tried if the extra Technics shell weight improves anything - it doesn't, so we left it off.

Regarding resonance frequency, it is at 10Hz with or without the brush, with or without the extra head shell weight. I feel that with the brush the vibration is a little less at 10Hz but either way, the arm will not jump.

Important tip: At the beginning Panos and I were getting weird, non repeated results regarding mistracking and VTF/antiskating values. Also, there were some cases that you could hear something like someone is snoring at the background. As it turned out, it is critical when you move the arm towards the track you want to play that the brush does not touch the record! Since the JICO brush has longer hairs, I didn't noticed that the brush was touching the record when I was moving the arm over the record so the hairs were getting curved and after lowering the arm they applied some tension to the stylus towards the outside perimeter of the disk!
(Update Dec. 2017): I noticed that the snoring kind of the awkward sound at the low passages insisted, so I was about ready to replace the Jico brush with the Stanton brush. But after taking a closer look, I discovered the source of this sound. Looking close to the brash while the stylus is reading a record, I saw a single hair moving, like it was vibrating. As it turned out, at the Jico brush one single hair was slightly longer than the others. So after a very tiny haircut, everything is perfect.

So, my conclusion is that this stylus is absolutely recommended. It will make your 681 sound great, like it used to with the IIs stylus. You will get the same emotions like you used to when listening to your records with the original IIs stylus. Owners of Stanton 681 EEE MKIIs, 681 EEE, 681 EEE/S, 681EE, 681SE, 681A, 680EE and 680EE(S); according to Standon replacement styli guide, you could officially upgrade the performance of your cartridge with the Standon D6800 EEE IIs stylus. This means that you can do the same with the JICO stylus, so go ahead! Owners of 681SE & 681A, remember that in this case you have to reduce your tracking force to 0.75 - 1.5g, +1g if you are using the brush.



Stanton replacement stylus guide with upgrade suggestions.

You can also confidently use this stylus to a Pickering XV-15 body. I brought the Pickering / JICO combo to Pano's house in order to test it at his Dual 505-4 Audiophile Concept turntable. But it doesn't match with the Dual. The physical dimensions of the cartridge are too big - you can't even use the overhanging alignment tool. Also, the cartridge is too heavy for the Dual arm. We proceeded anyway, but the sound was too boomy; The Girl From Ipanema (Stan Getz / João Gilberto Featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim ‎– Getz / Gilberto, Verve Reissues / Quality Record Pressings / Analogue Productions B0015625-01) got a bass more suitable for an MC Hammer song. In order to be sure that the Pickering / JICO combo works indeed and we just had a mismatch between the cartridge and the Dual ULM tonearm, we installed the Pickering at a second headshell for my Technics MK2. In this case the boomy bass is gone - Pickering / JICO combo sounds wonderful, leaving nothing to be desired. The only difference (I think) I noticed compared to the Stanton body was that the Pickering body delivers a little bit less volume of some minor details; I don't mean that I miss these details with the Pickering body, I hear them all but with the Stanton body I feel that they are just a little bit louder. This is neither good or bad, it is just different - if any difference indeed exists; at this level of micro differences it is impossible to be sure that you are objective if you can't make an instant A/B comparison test and changing headshells requires a break. But it doesn't really matter, conclusion is that if you have a Pickering XV-15 body stay with it and get the JICO. If you have a Stanton body, stay with it and get the JICO. If you have a Dual 505 turntable, stay away of these cartridges and get a Super OM30.

Pickering XV-15 and Stanton 681 are not a good match for Dual ULM arms.

Regarding phono stage matching, as it turned out these cartridge bodies are not much picky - they matched with all the three phono stages we have.

That's all for now, time for some vinyl listening with my new stylus!

Chris

P.S. If you liked this post, you will probably like most part of the blog. Why not having a look at all the things we have wrote about it here.