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Vintage Audio (record players, hi-fi etc) Amplifiers, speakers, gramophones and other audio equipment. |
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3rd May 2018, 11:10 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Shure to stop making cartridges
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?
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4th May 2018, 5:57 am | #2 |
Dekatron
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Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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. |
4th May 2018, 6:29 am | #3 | |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
Quote:
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4th May 2018, 10:23 am | #4 |
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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.
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4th May 2018, 10:46 am | #5 |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Fleet, Hampshire, UK
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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
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4th May 2018, 3:05 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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.
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4th May 2018, 4:27 pm | #7 |
Octode
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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. |
5th May 2018, 2:34 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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.
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5th May 2018, 3:06 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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?
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5th May 2018, 4:22 pm | #10 |
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
Shure would probably be prepared to sell whatever tooling they still have. No damage to them, they're out of the business.
David
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5th May 2018, 6:34 pm | #11 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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. |
6th May 2018, 7:08 pm | #12 |
Nonode
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
I fear that accountants can be unrealistically grasping, and hence kill the golden goose. Sad.
Martin
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6th May 2018, 9:02 pm | #13 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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.
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7th May 2018, 9:41 pm | #14 | |
Octode
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Location: Liss, Hampshire, UK.
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
Quote:
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. |
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8th May 2018, 7:35 am | #15 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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?
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8th May 2018, 7:51 am | #16 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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
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8th May 2018, 8:45 am | #17 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
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.
Last edited by Nickthedentist; 8th May 2018 at 8:51 am. |
8th May 2018, 8:52 am | #18 |
Dekatron
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Re: Shure to stop making cartridges
That's funny.
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