I used to work for JICO from 2014- 2017, so I may have some valuable insight for you all. Firstly regarding synthetic vs natural diamond: The main difference in sound quality between the ND and SD will be the stylus tip diameter and resultant surface area of the contact patch. It speak to these specific models, but the difference in tip radius isn't necessarily more economical to produce in the case of conical aka spherical tips. The cost of manufacture of tips is much more related to the curvature or shape of the tip rather than the size of its radius. However, being that these are both presumably conical styli, the difference in sound quality due to tip radius is much less than that of the difference in sound quality due to the curvature of say a conical vs an elliptical stylus, so if it's high fidelity you are looking for, pony up to one of the elliptical options before considering the Natural over the Synthetic option. The one advantage that Natural Diamond has over Synthetic is that it is considerably harder, and therefor will last longer before requiring replacement, if used properly. How much longer, you ask? That will all depend on your personal usage, tracking force, and condition of the records you use them on. But given the price difference of Natural being 1.7 times the cost of synthetic, I highly doubt the Natural Diamond version will last 1.7 times as many hours of play in your record grooves. Secondly: The reason for the offering of Synthetic tipped styli has been a long time coming. Back in late 2016 / early 2017 I remember reading industrial diamond industry white papers about the forecast for natural diamond material. All of these industrial use natural diamond are essentially 'waste' or byproduct of the diamond mining process. The size of diamonds we are talking about for styli, dental drills, burrs, ball-bearing measurement calipers and the like are of no use to the commercial diamond industry - we're essentially looking at diamond powder and what is left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. But given that the industrial diamond market is dependent upon whatever extractive capitalism is thieving from African mines, the forecast for those mines was not good. Much like oil, a very very small percent of the natural diamond produced by tectonic forces can be found in the upper reaches of the Earth's crust. Forget about mountain top removal or massive strip-mining operations. Natural diamond which is of any use to the commercial, and therefore industrial diamond market, like petroleum, is increasingly harder to come by and requires extensive geological survey and deep mining operations, which in turn requires massive amounts of capital. Hence the reason for extractive capitalism enabled by predatory practices of the World Bank / IMF is deeply invested in keeping African nations in the role of client states to their economic hegemony. As you might expect, China aggressively invested in all kinds of industry on the African continent over recent years, and the growing Chinese middle class, along with their growing salaries, mean that the margins on those investments are getting smaller and smaller, which translates to higher prices for both commercial and industrial diamond applications on the retail market. I predicted nearly 8 years ago that JICO would have to invest in Synthetic diamond manufacture in order to keep up with the evolving market conditions, but being the only non-Japanese employee in an 80-person strong company, and the first non-Japanese in the firm's 100+ year history, my call to action was ignored. Prior to this, JICO's only foray into synthetic diamond manufacture was co-development of a prototype synthetic diamond cantilever stylus which featured a natural diamond, nude mounted tip. I don't recall the name of the company which actually did the synthetic diamond cantilever manufacture, but I attended an internal industry trade show in Hamamatsu where we exhibited our R&D along side the manufacturer of the cantilever. Suffice to say that given the state of the company when I left it, JICO has neither the capital nor the engineering prowess to be manufacturing synthetic styli on their own, and would need to procure these SD tips from another company, presumably the same one who manufactured the prototype diamond cantilever. So consider these factors when assessing the value proposition and cost performance of an ND vs SD stylus - it's not just the stylus tip or the manufacturing cost you are paying for, they are also passing the profit margin markup of the third party which is selling the tips (and in some cased cantilevers) to JICO on to their customers. Thirdly: All the boring industry stuff aside, if you've read this far then you know that Nude Mounted stylus tips are superior in quality to the manufacture of bonded tips. So the fact that the SD are offered as Nude Mounted styli speaks to the quality of craftsmanship that JICO is renown for. Speaking of that quality craftsmanship, from a technical and manufacturing perspective, JICO styli are every bit as high quality, if not even higher, than Shure branded styli in regards to the N44-7 / N44-G stylus variants. By the time Shure stopped manufacture of the 44 series, they were using styli with no tension wire connecting the moving magnet to the brass shank piece within which it oscillates, creating the variations in magnetic field which are to be transduced by the cartridge poles, if I recall correctly. Again, I can't speak to the specific styli mentioned in the video, but one of the main differences between JICO branded styli of any model and that of the unbranded styli which they sold through their European and US distributors is that the JICO branded versions all carried a tension wire, which improves the accuracy and fidelity of the electo-mechanical energy being transduced, and therefor eventually the sound which is reproduced. It is possible, given the fairly large difference in price between the SD and ND versions of these N44 variants that the SD version may *not* include a tension wire, despite being a JICO branded styli. This is pure conjecture, but one that is based on the average price difference at retail between the non-branded, JICO manufacture styli sold via distributors and those JICO branded offerings available direct via their webshop - the main reason for that difference in price being that these are all hand-assembled styli, and the inclusion of the tension wire alone requires nearly as much additional time to manufacture by hand as does the rest of the entire stylus assembly. It would be interesting if someone dissected a dead N44-7 SD stylus to investigate whether or not it has a tension wire, but usually it is easily identified by looking at the top or sometimes bottom of the brass shank: if there is a small hole drilled into the shank that has been filled in with solder, then chances are the stylus has been manufactured with a tension wire. On one final note, anyone reading this who is a business associate of JICO: If you encounter a man by the name of AOKI TAKASHI who may or may not still be employed as a member of the JICO board of directors - be very, I repeat VERY circumspect of anything he tells you. The man is known for his deceptive, duplicitous nature, and is very clearly an abusive person with classical Narcissistic Personality Disorder and sociopathic tendencies. I have also personally witnessed him engage in gaslighting tactics, openly abusive language toward his subordinates in front their colleagues, and misogynistic treatment of and contempt for his female coworkers. Be warned.
Thanks for this long comment, it was a fun read! After these months, have you been able to know if the SD version has the tension wire? I recently bought 2 turntables, both with original Shure capsules but one of them has an unbranded stylus and it sounds terrible. I am looking for a reasonably priced replacement
@@goyolake thanks for reading. unfortunately I am not able to confirm whether or not the SD version of a JICO branded stylus includes a tension wire, but I would imagine they do, as that was one of the main indicators of quality between styli manufactured by JICO and sold under their brand as opposed to those they produced as OEM products for distributors to brand before selling to retailers and directly to their customers. personally, I would still buy a JICO branded stylus over that of any third-party manufacturer, however, simply on the speculation/expectation that it would indeed include a tension wire. also be advised that older JICO branded products did not have any branding on the actual stylus, but if it was in JICO packaging and purchased directly from their website, it would have included the tension wire. even if, hypothetically, your used stylus (which "sounds terrible", as you say) were a JICO brand product with tension wire, that does not preclude the possibility that either the stylus tip was worn out or that the tension wire had broken (making it functionally useless), among other possibilities.
A loquacious & enjoyable read. We are a supplier in Australia for the Jico stylus/carts and can vouch for their build quality. It appears that they have indeed bested the original Shure stylus for the 477 with the recent Nude/SD range.
I'm glad that Jico is continuing to provide such things. Having written as much, I am not their target audience since I long since moved onto the Ortofon Concorde/Taruya style personally. Yet, even 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had M44-7s being shown on screen, which for me really makes me wonder what deejay was doing consulting for that movie since those have long since been discontinued.
I have to agree. I purchased a pair of the SD 44-7's stylus and I was so impressed that I purchased another pair, then I had a bright idea to purchase a set of the SD 44-G's, but I didn't like the idea of swapping out the stylus too much, so I purchased a pair of the J44D cartridges. They both sound GREAT, I can only imagine what the natural diamond nude variants sound like if these SD sound this good.
Oh, this is awesome. I managed to grab some original Shure's before things folded and they may have a few more plays in them so, knowing that Jico has put some affordable, quality alternatives to market is great. Thanks Mojaxx
I think seeing the Shure logo has sort of a placebo effect that makes the purists feel they're worlds superior but recently I had a friend place black gaffer tape to cover the branding between a Jico and an original Shure M44-7 stylus without me seeing and I could not tell which was which! Can't wait to try this SD variant, nice review!
Shures M44 held the groove so well when scratching and reminded me of the OG Stanton 500’s. Thanks for sharing this because I was gutted when Shure just shut up shop on there carts, still love my Concordes though. Love, Purpose n Peace MCD
Still baffling that the jico styli have much higher recommended tracking forces than the OGs after all these years. 4g+ really puts me off compared to the 1.5-3g with the originals
Yo i got mine today this stylus are Dope for scratch with real vinyl turntablist style too no jump i got heavy hand too they still new too i was shock jico did it for the prizes is not bad before they go up I send to buy two more pair
have you tried the 100 sounds m447 replacement? I picked up a pair in Japan and they are really good, really loud, but also a good sound too. I also picked up a nagaoka m44 replacement, and it's really beautiful sounding, much like the m44g, if not better still.
Interesting that these Jico needles are really being used. I remember getting them from AliExpress back in 2016/17 and I was really unimpressed how they were compared to the original Shure needles.
@@freshprinceklassen I thought so because the ones I tried were so bad I tried em once and have em as a backup for when my m447 die and then I've Ortofon VNL as backups. I do not want to have to use those Jico XDDD
Maybe you had then weighted incirrectly? Ive had my sd nudes for a while. They seem ok. However, I tested the VNL against a jico. The sound on the jico was more present, beit only very small difference between the 2. I think the jico di sit more in the groove and, like you say. Probably create cue burn quicker. Id be interested to know how you got on woth the vnl though. Ive only had those short term.
Are they good with real vinyl records to scratch i was wondering i bought some cheap diamond needle for the n 44 7 at first they sound like sht once i use it for a couple of days the Bass starter to sound better n the hight it doesn't skip at all i was shock it work good with technics n vestax sound nice now i just bought one to check it out it track really good i still got the shure 44 7 but it sound it more louder that those fake m 44 7 i bought them on eBay i do hard scratch with real vinyl records n it doesn't scratch my records i be DJ since 89 i tried so many cartridge in my life but this cheap m 44 7 diamond sound good i do turntablist style Free style on 2024 with real vinyl records it took around a week so they sound with bass n clear im still shock im going to buy this jico to check them out with real vinyl records i pay $22 dallor usd for those cheap needle cartridge is crazy that i like the way it sound n bass too n hight
Interested to hear how these compare with the similarly priced Nagaokas. Not keen on the solid baby blue colouring of the 7s though. Ruins the aesthetic of the cart.
How do these compare to the Ortofon Digital Mk2? I own a pair and they are great but ugly as F***!! I’m considering the Jico’s but they have lower output.
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
I used to work for JICO from 2014- 2017, so I may have some valuable insight for you all.
Firstly regarding synthetic vs natural diamond: The main difference in sound quality between the ND and SD will be the stylus tip diameter and resultant surface area of the contact patch. It speak to these specific models, but the difference in tip radius isn't necessarily more economical to produce in the case of conical aka spherical tips. The cost of manufacture of tips is much more related to the curvature or shape of the tip rather than the size of its radius. However, being that these are both presumably conical styli, the difference in sound quality due to tip radius is much less than that of the difference in sound quality due to the curvature of say a conical vs an elliptical stylus, so if it's high fidelity you are looking for, pony up to one of the elliptical options before considering the Natural over the Synthetic option.
The one advantage that Natural Diamond has over Synthetic is that it is considerably harder, and therefor will last longer before requiring replacement, if used properly. How much longer, you ask? That will all depend on your personal usage, tracking force, and condition of the records you use them on. But given the price difference of Natural being 1.7 times the cost of synthetic, I highly doubt the Natural Diamond version will last 1.7 times as many hours of play in your record grooves.
Secondly: The reason for the offering of Synthetic tipped styli has been a long time coming. Back in late 2016 / early 2017 I remember reading industrial diamond industry white papers about the forecast for natural diamond material. All of these industrial use natural diamond are essentially 'waste' or byproduct of the diamond mining process. The size of diamonds we are talking about for styli, dental drills, burrs, ball-bearing measurement calipers and the like are of no use to the commercial diamond industry - we're essentially looking at diamond powder and what is left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. But given that the industrial diamond market is dependent upon whatever extractive capitalism is thieving from African mines, the forecast for those mines was not good.
Much like oil, a very very small percent of the natural diamond produced by tectonic forces can be found in the upper reaches of the Earth's crust. Forget about mountain top removal or massive strip-mining operations. Natural diamond which is of any use to the commercial, and therefore industrial diamond market, like petroleum, is increasingly harder to come by and requires extensive geological survey and deep mining operations, which in turn requires massive amounts of capital. Hence the reason for extractive capitalism enabled by predatory practices of the World Bank / IMF is deeply invested in keeping African nations in the role of client states to their economic hegemony. As you might expect, China aggressively invested in all kinds of industry on the African continent over recent years, and the growing Chinese middle class, along with their growing salaries, mean that the margins on those investments are getting smaller and smaller, which translates to higher prices for both commercial and industrial diamond applications on the retail market. I predicted nearly 8 years ago that JICO would have to invest in Synthetic diamond manufacture in order to keep up with the evolving market conditions, but being the only non-Japanese employee in an 80-person strong company, and the first non-Japanese in the firm's 100+ year history, my call to action was ignored.
Prior to this, JICO's only foray into synthetic diamond manufacture was co-development of a prototype synthetic diamond cantilever stylus which featured a natural diamond, nude mounted tip. I don't recall the name of the company which actually did the synthetic diamond cantilever manufacture, but I attended an internal industry trade show in Hamamatsu where we exhibited our R&D along side the manufacturer of the cantilever. Suffice to say that given the state of the company when I left it, JICO has neither the capital nor the engineering prowess to be manufacturing synthetic styli on their own, and would need to procure these SD tips from another company, presumably the same one who manufactured the prototype diamond cantilever.
So consider these factors when assessing the value proposition and cost performance of an ND vs SD stylus - it's not just the stylus tip or the manufacturing cost you are paying for, they are also passing the profit margin markup of the third party which is selling the tips (and in some cased cantilevers) to JICO on to their customers.
Thirdly: All the boring industry stuff aside, if you've read this far then you know that Nude Mounted stylus tips are superior in quality to the manufacture of bonded tips. So the fact that the SD are offered as Nude Mounted styli speaks to the quality of craftsmanship that JICO is renown for.
Speaking of that quality craftsmanship, from a technical and manufacturing perspective, JICO styli are every bit as high quality, if not even higher, than Shure branded styli in regards to the N44-7 / N44-G stylus variants. By the time Shure stopped manufacture of the 44 series, they were using styli with no tension wire connecting the moving magnet to the brass shank piece within which it oscillates, creating the variations in magnetic field which are to be transduced by the cartridge poles, if I recall correctly. Again, I can't speak to the specific styli mentioned in the video, but one of the main differences between JICO branded styli of any model and that of the unbranded styli which they sold through their European and US distributors is that the JICO branded versions all carried a tension wire, which improves the accuracy and fidelity of the electo-mechanical energy being transduced, and therefor eventually the sound which is reproduced. It is possible, given the fairly large difference in price between the SD and ND versions of these N44 variants that the SD version may *not* include a tension wire, despite being a JICO branded styli. This is pure conjecture, but one that is based on the average price difference at retail between the non-branded, JICO manufacture styli sold via distributors and those JICO branded offerings available direct via their webshop - the main reason for that difference in price being that these are all hand-assembled styli, and the inclusion of the tension wire alone requires nearly as much additional time to manufacture by hand as does the rest of the entire stylus assembly. It would be interesting if someone dissected a dead N44-7 SD stylus to investigate whether or not it has a tension wire, but usually it is easily identified by looking at the top or sometimes bottom of the brass shank: if there is a small hole drilled into the shank that has been filled in with solder, then chances are the stylus has been manufactured with a tension wire.
On one final note, anyone reading this who is a business associate of JICO: If you encounter a man by the name of AOKI TAKASHI who may or may not still be employed as a member of the JICO board of directors - be very, I repeat VERY circumspect of anything he tells you. The man is known for his deceptive, duplicitous nature, and is very clearly an abusive person with classical Narcissistic Personality Disorder and sociopathic tendencies. I have also personally witnessed him engage in gaslighting tactics, openly abusive language toward his subordinates in front their colleagues, and misogynistic treatment of and contempt for his female coworkers. Be warned.
Thanks for this long comment, it was a fun read! After these months, have you been able to know if the SD version has the tension wire? I recently bought 2 turntables, both with original Shure capsules but one of them has an unbranded stylus and it sounds terrible. I am looking for a reasonably priced replacement
@@goyolake thanks for reading. unfortunately I am not able to confirm whether or not the SD version of a JICO branded stylus includes a tension wire, but I would imagine they do, as that was one of the main indicators of quality between styli manufactured by JICO and sold under their brand as opposed to those they produced as OEM products for distributors to brand before selling to retailers and directly to their customers. personally, I would still buy a JICO branded stylus over that of any third-party manufacturer, however, simply on the speculation/expectation that it would indeed include a tension wire. also be advised that older JICO branded products did not have any branding on the actual stylus, but if it was in JICO packaging and purchased directly from their website, it would have included the tension wire. even if, hypothetically, your used stylus (which "sounds terrible", as you say) were a JICO brand product with tension wire, that does not preclude the possibility that either the stylus tip was worn out or that the tension wire had broken (making it functionally useless), among other possibilities.
@@noisemodule Thanks for the reply. No, no, I'm quite sure my bad stylus is not Jico. I'll try one of these SD when I swap it!
A loquacious & enjoyable read. We are a supplier in Australia for the Jico stylus/carts and can vouch for their build quality. It appears that they have indeed bested the original Shure stylus for the 477 with the recent Nude/SD range.
I'm glad that Jico is continuing to provide such things. Having written as much, I am not their target audience since I long since moved onto the Ortofon Concorde/Taruya style personally. Yet, even 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had M44-7s being shown on screen, which for me really makes me wonder what deejay was doing consulting for that movie since those have long since been discontinued.
I have to agree. I purchased a pair of the SD 44-7's stylus and I was so impressed that I purchased another pair, then I had a bright idea to purchase a set of the SD 44-G's, but I didn't like the idea of swapping out the stylus too much, so I purchased a pair of the J44D cartridges. They both sound GREAT, I can only imagine what the natural diamond nude variants sound like if these SD sound this good.
excellent review! I've been struggling to source solid replacements for my m44-7's, I think I'm going to be giving these a try
Oh, this is awesome. I managed to grab some original Shure's before things folded and they may have a few more plays in them so, knowing that Jico has put some affordable, quality alternatives to market is great. Thanks Mojaxx
I think seeing the Shure logo has sort of a placebo effect that makes the purists feel they're worlds superior but recently I had a friend place black gaffer tape to cover the branding between a Jico and an original Shure M44-7 stylus without me seeing and I could not tell which was which! Can't wait to try this SD variant, nice review!
Uh Intimidation Blue in the Background! dope!
Nice!!...Always Good to have some options on the platter👍🏽🤘🏽
Shures M44 held the groove so well when scratching and reminded me of the OG Stanton 500’s.
Thanks for sharing this because I was gutted when Shure just shut up shop on there carts, still love my Concordes though.
Love, Purpose n Peace MCD
I remember first using a pair of Stanton 500's, then I went with the Stanton 680 EL MP's, until going with and sticking to various Ortofon Concords.
Those stanton 680s were amazing
Thank Mojaxx!!
Great content as always. Thank you!
Thanks for this ..
Great video, thank you!!!
Great video
Thank you 🙏🏾
Nice!!! Mo.
Good stuff.
Glad I stocked up on m447’s in 2009. I think I still have 4 unopened full cartridges. :)
Sell us yee lol
Ortofon dj concorde is my choice
Still baffling that the jico styli have much higher recommended tracking forces than the OGs after all these years. 4g+ really puts me off compared to the 1.5-3g with the originals
Same here. I used Shures at 2.5g and never had any issues with tracking. 4g seems way too heavy. I don’t want to risk my vinyl.
@@justwantanotherchance same here. Seems like quite a major thing that no-one seems to mention when talking about these styli
There’s SD stylus cartridges that has the original weight specs for the 7 and the G on the jico website but not the stylus
@@alabamaslimone3535 I think I read somewhere they don't track as well when back cueing etc
@@moket123 The "DJ" variant of these SD styli tracks great and sound great at 4 grams
I still rock Shure OGs
Yo i got mine today this stylus are Dope for scratch with real vinyl turntablist style too no jump i got heavy hand too they still new too i was shock jico did it for the prizes is not bad before they go up I send to buy two more pair
Told you, even the 44G sounds great, it has a more tame sound though.
@@alabamaslimone3535 thank you bro 👍😎
@@alabamaslimone3535 thank you so much I'm going to purchase them too the 44G jico I want to heard them too thanks 👍
have you tried the 100 sounds m447 replacement? I picked up a pair in Japan and they are really good, really loud, but also a good sound too. I also picked up a nagaoka m44 replacement, and it's really beautiful sounding, much like the m44g, if not better still.
And Concorde don’t need a headshell
Interesting that these Jico needles are really being used. I remember getting them from AliExpress back in 2016/17 and I was really unimpressed how they were compared to the original Shure needles.
The nude version is definitely much better than the version from around the time you tried them, sonically and performance wise.
@@freshprinceklassen I thought so because the ones I tried were so bad I tried em once and have em as a backup for when my m447 die and then I've Ortofon VNL as backups. I do not want to have to use those Jico XDDD
Ehhhh I’m still an Ortofon VNL guy. I got the Jico stylus when they first came out and they really ate up my records. Massive cue burn.
Maybe you had then weighted incirrectly? Ive had my sd nudes for a while. They seem ok. However, I tested the VNL against a jico. The sound on the jico was more present, beit only very small difference between the 2. I think the jico di sit more in the groove and, like you say. Probably create cue burn quicker. Id be interested to know how you got on woth the vnl though. Ive only had those short term.
Interesting video but why not stick to the Tonar styli which are half the price?
I imagiine those Tonar eat up your real wax an don't sound as good either. Probably only good for control vinyl.
@@chrisleigh4278 Thank you! And it was Mojaxxx who’d put me on game with the Tonar too.
@@stevedub5006Knocking stuff without having tried it out are we? You should definitely check em out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised 😏
@@xenofyl1 no thanks, $20 are not going to be touching my expensive wax anytime soon.
@@stevedub5006 🤦🏽♂️ They were recommended by Mojaxx himself and they do an excellent job.
I've tried jico circa 2019, and was not satisfied. So from 2020 till this day my choice is taruya 03m
Are they good with real vinyl records to scratch i was wondering i bought some cheap diamond needle for the n 44 7 at first they sound like sht once i use it for a couple of days the Bass starter to sound better n the hight it doesn't skip at all i was shock it work good with technics n vestax sound nice now i just bought one to check it out it track really good i still got the shure 44 7 but it sound it more louder that those fake m 44 7 i bought them on eBay i do hard scratch with real vinyl records n it doesn't scratch my records i be DJ since 89 i tried so many cartridge in my life but this cheap m 44 7 diamond sound good i do turntablist style Free style on 2024 with real vinyl records it took around a week so they sound with bass n clear im still shock im going to buy this jico to check them out with real vinyl records i pay $22 dallor usd for those cheap needle cartridge is crazy that i like the way it sound n bass too n hight
You won't be disappointed, trust me
@@alabamaslimone3535 thank you so much I just purchase them on Rock n soul new York City thanks 👍😎
How you liking them?
Interested to hear how these compare with the similarly priced Nagaokas. Not keen on the solid baby blue colouring of the 7s though. Ruins the aesthetic of the cart.
Doh, bought new Qbert OMs yesterday as the Jico’s styli were too expensive! 🤦♂️ Might be irrelevant now but how were the Nagaoka DJ-44Gs?
So, are they synthetic? Or lab grown? Im interested to know. Cos, In theory, lab grown / Synthetic diamonds are actually purer.
How do these compare to the Ortofon Digital Mk2? I own a pair and they are great but ugly as F***!! I’m considering the Jico’s but they have lower output.
is there anything for Stanton 500s?? I always liked those for all types of Turntablism -
where do you get these in europe?
Look at DaCapo Audio.
…. Put the Needle on the Record …
Jico are over priced.Shure m-447 being they originally needles where never near that expensive. Unfortunately they are discontinued 😒
Sorry that thing is DAM TO EXPENSIVE dir what it is
Not to mention the import cost!!
Artificial ?! Naaah.
I stay natural like with women.