Needles & Grooves

Can't wait to hear your thoughts! Congrats!

I've heard great things!

Nice! Very curious to hear how it compares to the microline you had.

I’m also looking forward to a review. I’ve been thinking of upgrading to the ML.

I've had problems with my ML almost from the get-go. The azimuth got out of alignment causing me to lose audio in one channel, and it's been a pain trying to fix ever since. Barring similar issues with the Shibata, I expect this to be quite an upgrade. I'll pay close attention to any surface noise/pops however.

The bad azimuth actually hid some of the notorious VMP surface noise issues on records like Wu-Tang and OutKast so I am a little worried that what was tolerable on the old stylus will become unbearable on the new one.

The new stylus should arrive by Friday, so I should have fun playing around with it this weekend.

RIP to any VMP GZ pressings you own.