Slate Audio - Brazen?

by **simonineaston** » 14 Jun 2004 18:15

A few years ago, I read some complimentary words written about a modification of the Shure V15 mk111, by, I think, Slate Audio.
I came by a V15 the other day, and thought about this service, but can find no trace of the product on the 'net - can anybody throw any light on the subject?
I think what the company did was trim off all the Shure shiny plastic, glue the cartridge body (which is actually tiny...) to a bit of ali., and pop in a vdh stylus, all of which made it it sound v. good. Has the company stopped doing this and/or has anyone tried a home made vs.?

by **sreten** » 14 Jun 2004 18:34

Sounds more like Stilton Audio to me, I had a Stilton Audio
rebodied (well an aluminium carrier) AT MC cartridge.

Most cartridges if they come apart can be improved by
glueing together, the really serious also glue in the stylus.

If you have patience making your own solid carrier is
fairly straightforward, but only worth it for a good one
piece arm.

sreten.

by **JaS** » 14 Jun 2004 19:38

I've no idea if Slate Audio are still going as they have been very quiet of late? I'm sure I've got the review somewhere though so I'll go take a look...

*edit*
Well I found the review and its got an address and telephone number for them. I've put the scan in the library: http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2396
*edit*

Regards,
JaS

by **simonineaston** » 15 Jun 2004 17:11

Thank you! :-)

by **Audie** » 16 Jun 2004 15:17

I think Slate Audio stopped trading a couple of years ago, but you could try contacting them ,in case they have resumed business.
I had no success in contacting them when I last tried. The business was run by Peter Soper and he used to advertise a lot,but that has ceased.

When I last spoke to Peter Soper and enquired about doing a "Brazen" mod.on my Shure V15 111,he wasn't interested in doing it.
I assumed then that he had discontinued the modification.

Regards

Audie

by **simonineaston** » 16 Jun 2004 17:05

Thanks for that info - I've decided to have a go myself as I have somehow ended up with 3 V15 MkIIIs !
So last night I used a razor saw to split the silver plastic shell down the back then placed a pair of external circlip pliers in the mount holes and POP the cartridge body is now free of all extras except the glue used to keep it firmly in the shell.
I'm going to choose a solvent carefully to remove the glue and then consider how to shape a suitable piece of aluminium.
The most important decision is what sort of stylus to use - does anyone know if there are any after-market sylii available for this cartridge that will improve the performance?
Or else has anyone tried doing what Slate Audio did e.g. removing the plastic damper from the original Shure stylus? (Surely it was there for a good reason...)

by **sreten** » 16 Jun 2004 19:33

The reccommend stylus for a V15III is a VN35MR, I wouldn't
be surprised at all if Slate Audio modded this rather than fit
an MR stylus to the "old" cantilever as implied in the article.

http://www.shure.com/accessories/acc-hifistylus.html
http://www.shure.com/xrefphono.html

The "damper" has no place on a serious audiophile cartridge,
but helps if the arm effective mass is heavier than ideal mass.

As you can see the stylus has no damper, and if you glue in the
copper section the plastic section and guard are superfluous,
minimum is removing the stylus guard.

sreten.

by **simonineaston** » 17 Jun 2004 17:45

Progress is being made :-) The glue used to fix the body to the plastic shell turned out to be readliy removed with a fairly mild solvent - white spirit - applied with a fine water colour brush, so I now have a neat clean cartridge body.
You say:
<<and if you glue in the
copper section the plastic section and guard are superfluous>>
I don't quite get it! Why would I want to glue it in and if I did, what glue would I use, and what would I do if I needed to change the stylus in the future!!??

by **sreten** » 18 Jun 2004 11:23

simon_painter wrote:You say:
<<and if you glue in the
copper section the plastic section and guard are superfluous>>
I don't quite get it! Why would I want to glue it in and if I did, what glue would I use, and what would I do if I needed to change the stylus in the future!!??

A good question is how do you get the stylus out of the Brazen ?
It seems you can't and retipping is the only option from appearances.
(unless you can pull it out via the cantilever ????????????,
sounds like a terminal procedure for that particular stylus)

Glueing the stylus in some people do, and then replace the whole cartridge.

Its done to increase rigidity and improve sound transmission through
the body, but only works well if the internals of the cartridge are solid,
this also applies to adding a high rigidity mounting bracket.

Same glue as used for the bracket, Araldite I presume.

sreten.