Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Dual Moving Magnet Cartridge with Elliptical Bonded Stylus,Green

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Perhaps Hanpin improved newer gen LP120s, but I doubt it is in the same league as Technics or Rega. The article suggests that you can "at least" double those hours before the stylus will start damaging your records. One member here, Cafe Latte (Chris), recently wrote: AT themselves never marketed any upgraded styli for the AT95 leaving other companies to take on the task including LP Gear, Jico and The Audio Files, who’s 95P Paratrace is considered by many the best of the bunch. The VM95 Range AT7V (note similar spec to the original K18 stylus) sounded very lively, quite rhythmic but had problems keeping bass notes in tune and in time.

A downgrade would be possible, too, but then the real question now would be: Why would you want to do that?After reading about the compatibility between AT styli and the K9, I wanted to put a couple of things to the test recently. There's also a number of aftermarket non AT styli available for the AT95.

http://www.turntableneedles.com/Audio-Technica-ATN95E-ATN3400-Type-JICO-Shibata-Stylus--our-Needle-710-DSH_p_3721.html It appears that the specifications given in table above for Linn K9 are incorrect, here are the correct ones: Other than that, most people who have tried both the Ortofon 2M Red and the AT VM95E would say that the latter is superior when it comes to performance. What’s Better About VM95E? Around 500 hours for a conical stylus, 300 hours for an Elliptical stylus, 1000 hours for a Microlinear stylus, and 800 hours for a Shibata stylus. The VM95 stylus assembly has a locating spigot that guides it into the body; it's fitted from below.

AT-VM95E/H

Surely they’ll never do it? But by golly, after an extended late night listening session in a secret Derbyshire ‘test laboratory’, with men of a certain age stroking audiophile beards and using highly contrived and specialist language to illustrate sonic intangibles, like some kind of mutated Vinyl version of those impenetrable Wine Bores, we strove to explain and justify the impossible, how does one stylus profile sound any different to any other? https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?action=search2&advanced=1&search=vm95&searchtype=1&userspec=

I measured each stylus in turn using the same body. I first wanted to identify the cause of the slightly higher output voltage of the conical and elliptical verses the other three profiles. AT quote a difference of 0.5MV. My tests showed The VM95C and VM95E output around 3.8MV, while the other still in the range were indeed on or slightly lower than the 3.5MV mark. It is my theory that the small variances in compliance and tip mass are responsible for this, and in reality such a minor difference isn’t going to be of any consequence as the difference is minor, and the output voltage is well within the margin for most if not all moving magnet preamplifiers. Well, apart from some enlightened high end specialists like the Japanese Jico corp’s Hyper elliptical specification, and our own home grown (The Audio Files & IPT Ltd) Paratrace equipped version, there has never really been an upgrade available for the Stylus profile for this popular device, it has been configured with a single purpose, to enable good quality disc replay at a reasonable entry level price for millions of everyday vinyl enthusiasts the world over. So in answer to your question of could you play two hours of music every day for 500 days before issues arose, the evidence seems to be no, not if by "issues" you include rising distortion due to wear. Could you put on that 1000 hours without damaging your records? Well, some say yes, and AT says 1000 hours is safe, but you might be right at the limit, and some people, such as Chris, might recommend playing it safe by not stretching it that far. The article I referenced above is quite close to Chris's conclusions:

https://www.thakker.eu/en/needles/atn-95-e-stylus-for-audio-technica-at-95-e-generic-stylus/a-5369/