Shure to stop making cartridges

[saxmaniac]

Just saw Shure completely ceasing manufacturing cartridges this year. Surprised considering supposed vinyl resurgence. Perhaps the market will always be too small? I read that the only new lps are made on old equipment and nobody would invest millions in what is probably a flash in the pan. Anybody got knowledge on this?

[Craig Sawyers]

Already posted https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ighlight=shure

Yes - it is a sad day. But they were making legacy products on original machinery, and the machinery was wearing out after 30 years or so (moulding tools, metal drawing tools, core stamping and coil winding etc etc). They must have made the decision that re-tooling was not commercially viable.

On the face of it, given the continued resurgence of vinyl, pulling out of cartridge manufacture after 70-odd years is certainly counter-intuitive.

This of course will pump up the prices of second hand Shure products on auction sites, above the high level that they already are for the V15 series.

[stevehertz]

Already posted https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ighlight=shure

Yes - it is a sad day. But they were making legacy products on original machinery, and the machinery was wearing out after 30 years or so (moulding tools, metal drawing tools, core stamping and coil winding etc etc). They must have made the decision that re-tooling was not commercially viable.

On the face of it, given the continued resurgence of vinyl, pulling out of cartridge manufacture after 70-odd years is certainly counter-intuitive.

It is indeed a sad day that the once doyen of cartridge manufacturers has dropped the line. But when you analysis it, eminently foreseeable and eminently a good business decision. There are basically two markets for record player cartridges now. The first, the 'new wave' of vinyl users (discoverers) without being rude probably couldn't care less about the brand of cartridge. The second, the more serious hifi market, has for many years favoured moving coil cartridges and as we know only too well, Shure built its product range and its enviable reputation making high compliance moving magnet cartridges, even dropping its flagship V15 model a decade or so ago. Nope, with nowhere to go, and once again, sad to say, putting emotions aside, Shure had nowhere to go as a cartridge manufacturer.

[paulsherwin]

Steve is right. Audio Technica has dominated the market for low end moving magnet cartridges for many years now, both with their own products and stuff they OEM for others, leaving other manufacturers a small slice of a small market. It's a very understandable decision if Shure's production facilities need replacement.

[PsychMan]

Is there any indication If they will continue producing Styli? I’d be gutted if I couldn’t get genuine styli for dj carts like the m35x. Since stanton were bought out I’ve found their needles are crap compared to the originals, and 3rd party items really are a roulette wheel

[stevehertz]

I cannot say that I have seen such words in print to say so, but I would think that the likelihood of them producing stylus now is akin to a snowball's chance in hell. They stopped supplying V15 stylus quite some years ago. This is what is says on their web site (and has done for some time), "Shure’s inventory of VN45E, VN45HE, and VN45MR styli completely expired in the late 1990’s. We are unable to re-produce this part due to scarcity of tooling and raw materials."

BTW, you can buy 'Shure quality' replacement styli from Jico, I asked this question (specifically re V15 styli) a few weeks ago, and Jico come very well recommended from all quarters that I have researched on the internet.

[PsychMan]

I fear that is the case, but I hope its not. Because otherwise ive been well and truly taken for a ride, having bought 2 of these carts new only 6 months ago. One would hope they would support their customers for some time afterwards

Jico don't list any styli for the 35x, but I've asked them just in case.

[stevehertz]

If you read the info on Shure's web site is says: "...we have made the difficult decision to discontinue production of Shure Phono products effective Summer 2018....."

So, if you take that literally, ie a stylus is a "phono product" then they will not be producing them. Hope you get sorted out. Someone, somewhere will have stocks of styli for your cartridge I'm sure.

[Edward Huggins]

It might be that some enterprising Personage takes on a kind of Shure Service Agency (aka Loricraft/Garrard) and secures the remaining stock of stylus and cartridge components and can offer on-going support. Whether this would extend to coil re-winding is another matter?

[Radio Wrangler]

Shure would probably be prepared to sell whatever tooling they still have. No damage to them, they're out of the business.

David

[Craig Sawyers]

They will still probably want a substantial sum for it.

As an example, there was a valve curve tracer called a Sofia made by Audiomatica in the 1990's. They discontinued manufacture after a couple of years because the market was so small. This is a guy I know who has one, so this is what it looks like http://www.jacmusic.com/Tube-testers...ofia-Index.htm

So they were stuck with some stock parts, and a couple of instruments. It had sat festering for a decade or so. About ten years ago, I expressed an interest in acquiring the parts and re-starting manufacture.

Even then there were already obsolete parts - particularly the codecs. And it ran under DOS, so for saleable remanufacture it would need to be developed into a Windows environment.

That not withstanding, they were looking for over £30k up front! So I walked away.

So don't confuse Shure withdrawing from a product as being able to get hold of the technology and machinery gratis or even cheaply - Shure's corporate hacks will what a sizeable pound of flesh for sure.

[Hartley118]

I fear that accountants can be unrealistically grasping, and hence kill the golden goose. Sad.

Martin

[AC/HL]

Two routes suggest themselves. Sell the trademark to anyone who will buy it, or sell it to a competitor, who will keep the ethos alive in a shrinking market. Actually, there is a third. When Attwater Kent stopped making radios they (he) just closed the doors. That was it.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

Two routes suggest themselves. Sell the trademark to anyone who will buy it, or sell it to a competitor, who will keep the ethos alive in a shrinking market.

Shure are still a very big name in other transducer markets so they're unlikely to want anyone else using their brand. I'm not sure that any of their current phone products are particularly unique - most of their reputation comes from products that they stopped making many years ago (like the V15).

I'm wondering whether their tooling issues are more stylus related as I would have thought that there was still a reasonable market for replacement stylii for their old products yet they left that market a while ago. Many of their continuing products require coil winding so I would be surprised if coil winding equipment was a problem for them.

[Nickthedentist]

Is it just me, or did anyone else feel that their recent products looked cheap, with mouldings that looked like they'd dropped out of a Christmas cracker? Or was that just the photography on their website?

[Craig Sawyers]

Yes - too true. The moulding quality looks really tatty. And those are the shots that Shure put on their website to put the products in their best light

[Nickthedentist]

If nothing else, you would have thought that they could have outsourced the manufacture of the plastic bits to China, and got an excellent result (and thus a product that at least looked the part) for not much outlay.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

If nothing else, you would have thought that they could have outsourced the manufacture of the plastic bits to China, and got an excellent result for not much outlay.

That's funny.