That is something they won't usually tell you about these stylii but it is the truth. The JICO SAS and Neo-SAS can extract the best sound quality from your LPs but requires optimum SRA/VTA adjustment for each LP to achieve this playback quality. Many tonearms have VTA on the fly and these are ideal for advanced stylii but other tonearms lack this feature and you may want to choose another stylus. Its the downside to an advanced profile stylus. In other words each LP may not be optimally adjusted for best playback. Stylii like the JICO SAS and Neo-SAS may require VTA adjustment for different LPs. Once you get your new stylus you need to place a very familiar and well recorded LP on your turntable and slowly adjust the tonearm height (or however you adjust VTA on your turntable) so that the sound quality is optimum.īut here is some bad news. These make the VTA adjustment critical and the parallel to record surface setting is just plain useless Audio Technica marketed these as Micro Line stylii. The JICO SAS (and Neo-SAS) is a line contact type stylus with an extra ridge along the tracing edges of the stylus. SRA is related to VTA and when you adjust VTA your are directly effecting SRA. You have to adjust your VTA so the stylus is at the correct angle to the groove.

The parallel to the LP surface just won't cut it when you use a stylus with an advanced profile. Once you have a stylus as advanced as the JICO SAS (or Neo-SAS) you will have to adjust the VTA so that it is actually optimized for you new stylus. That type of adjustment is a rough approximation. If you are one of those who adjust VTA by making the tonearm parallel with the LP surface.forget it. Your experience with the brightness of the JICO SAS stylus sounds like you had the VTA adjusted incorrectly. I also generally prefer warmth over intense detail and brightness.ĭoes anyone have experience with both of these styli that can opine on whether they sound the same or different? My Sota/SME combo seems to be darker and deeper than I remember my Thorens being, so perhaps it will be less bright.

I had it on a Thorens TD-316 and found the combo quite bright, bright enough to where I found it unpleasing.

My one hesitancy - I had a V15 iii with Jico SAS a couple years back. I tend to sometimes not be as careful as I should be. I'm inclined to buy the original boron SAS, largely because it sounds more rugged than the sapphire. I can purchase either of the above styli for just under $200 new. Hanfrac wrote:I recently purchased a Shure V15 iv body to install on my Sota Sapphire/SME 3009 S2 Improved (very lightweight arm).

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