There are plenty of raving reviews of the Jico SAS stylus out there describing its character, and every owner loves it, as do I. But the new and improved SAS is more than double the old price now. So here is my new Vivid Line at far less than the old SAS price, mounted on an over 30 year old Realistic/Shure R47XT cartridge body.
Right away: This Vivid Line goes toe-to-toe with my SAS, and sounds wonderful!
To get there, the engineers apparently put in a lot of thought and cumulative experiences in compromises worth decades into this stylus line. The cantilever is not a hair thin affair like on my SAS, or AT-OC9ML. It is however much thinner than a few old very fat Shure styli I have, and thus appears to hit a sweet spot. The interesting part is the diamond mount. I first thought I was eyeballing a straight nude. But with another peek I saw that the tiny diamond is mounted on a barely noticeable super-short shank, so almost appears nude. It certainly sounds like one! It is also missing the solder blobs in the cantilever pipe, that attach the suspension wires present in Jico SAS styli. Does it matter? Apparently not, as the sound differs a little on the Vivid Line, but it actually sounds very good! Out of the box, compared to my well broken in SAS, it has a stronger presence in the midrange, and bass is dry and cracking and stronger, but pleasant. It does not hammer your ear like most el-cheapo cartridges and replacement styli do. Instead it is well behaved, and delivers music in a delicate way, with as much fine detail and rhythm as the SAS or my AT-OC9ML. A first run of Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm was a very enjoyable and totally fatigue free experience, which rarely happens with new equipment. It does sound a little raspier and not quite as smooth in the midrange, but the difference is small.
I am simply floored and very grateful, that this sound quality can be had at this unbelievable bargain price of far under 100 bucks.
