Description

I had no idea science fiction and hi-fi would meet when I started my review of the Michell Gyro SE turntable. Michell, pronounced Mi-shell, like the girl’s name, is another Cinderella story of an unsatisfied and very talented model builder who decided to make something better. The Michell story skirts believability in a few aspects. First, John Michell designed and repaired a fair bit of audio kit back in the ’60s and ’70s, always supporting other companies.

Words and Photos by Graig Neville

In addition to his audio work, he also built models for Hollywood! He was commissioned by Stanley Kubrick to build and develop the space ship for 2001: A Space Odyssey. He also helped build models for George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise. Besides being mind-blowing in its own right, Michell claims the 2001: A Space Odyssey space ship model was the inspiration for the GyroDec turntable.

Mr. Michell finally decided to develop his own gear instead of supplying designs and elements for other manufacturers. He continued selling some of his design gear to others, but transitioned into a full-time manufacturer during the 1970s. Other important historical tidbits for Michell include the development of what they claim to be the first record clamp in 1977, and in 1982 the development of an inverted oil-pump bearing that is claimed to reduce friction and rumble. A smaller more compact version of the GyroDec, called the Michell Gyro SE, which is reviewed here, was introduced in 1999.

In 2002 Mr. Michell branched out into developing the entry-level TecnoDec, a tonearm, and an improved power supply to ensure accurate speed of the platter for the flagship Orbe turntables. Mr. Michell passed in 2003, but prior to his passing he had setup the company to be a family business, which is still under the same ownership to this day. Michell has branched out to develop cartridges and other accessories in addition to turntables and tonearms.

Michell turntables, specifically GyroDecs, have garnered quite the following over the years. Steve Jobs owned a Michell Gyro SE. The owner of Kiss the Sky, my local record store, still has his Michell from the 1970s. (It’s broken and I told him the company is still around today and can likely get his fixed.) So pedigree is solid and the longevity of the company is commendable. The Gyro SE, by the way, is Michell’s best selling turntable.

Inside the Michell Gyro SE

The Michell Gyro SE is a marriage of acrylic, aluminum, and Delrin. Three leveling feet and the three-spring suspension system attach to the acrylic base, the aluminum frame hangs from the suspension system and includes the inverted bearing and Delrin platter assembly. Three springs tie the platter and tonearm to the cast aluminum assembly which floats in reference to the acrylic base of the table. The idea is to isolate unwanted vibrations from the base and table interface. Michell even offers magnetic LEV feet to further isolate the table, but I didn’t have that upgrade on the review sample. The spring tension needs to be adjusted correctly or the table can bottom out (too tight) or bounce (too loose). Once the tension is adjusted properly the table damps out vibrations fairly quickly.

The platter has brass weights connected that lower the center of gravity of the platter, and besides being mesmerizing to watch, help stabilize the platter from eccentric loading and further vibration (e.g. one way to damp out vibration is to add mass). The platter material is selected to more closely match vinyl to increase energy transfer and reduce vibration transfer back into the cartridge stylus. Michell claims this reduces pops and clicks on the record.

An inverted self-oiling bearing puts the support point above the center of gravity of the platter assembly, even with the drive belt, which provides a more stable rotation with less eccentric loading. The bearing thrust ball sits inside an inverted cone and the brass casing is spiral grooved (called an Archimedean screw) on the inside to draw oil up from the oil well. A hole in the assembly allows oil to return to the bath. It’s an interesting and well thought-out bearing that should provide years of reliable operation.

The motor assembly is isolated from the entire turntable and drives the platter with a rubber belt that is optimized by running at the interface between the platter and the bearing. The idea here is to avoid eccentric loading of the platter, which can introduce a moment on the table leading to possible vibrations or speed variations.

Overall the table is beautiful and looks unique in my opinion, as much an object of art as audio gear, and certainly a conversation piece for those not deep into audiophilia.

Unboxing and Setup

The attention to detail on the packaging was excellent. Michell has given great consideration on how to box the Gyro SE in a same and logical manner. The unboxing and assembly instructions were good and detailed. In addition there is a video showing proper setup.

The one thing that came up that isn’t really in the assembly instructions or video is the exact spring suspension set up. During setup make sure to adjust the spring height correctly and to get the correct damping force on the suspension – just like tuning the suspension on a car. The suspension will bounce, and this is normal, but if the heights and spring lengths are not correct the table can bottom out or not dampen properly. At first setup the table was too bouncy, but improved significantly when I tightened up the springs and was more meticulous on the height. If you are buying from a dealer and they are setting up the table for you, this shouldn’t be an issue. Otherwise, I had no problems.

The Gyro SE included the T-8 tonearm, record clamp, and a dust cover for an MSRP of $6,999. Fidelity Imports sent the table with a Michell Cusis E cartridge ($1,199) installed.

The Michell Gyro SE Experience

Using the Michell Gyro SE was a pleasure. The ergonomics and attention to little details are excellent and well thought-out. For example, there’s a way to remove the locking clamp as the table is turned off that is elegant and requires a masterful touch. This requires the table to be turned off to flip the record, but as the platter is a hard surface this seems appropriate.

The Michell Gyro SE motor and belt drive had excellent torque. Cleaning with brushes elicited no reduction in platter speed that I could discern (which is a challenge with my Rega P3). I assume this strong torque contributed to the smooth and silky texture of playback.

I had a plethora of gear on hand for the review and mixed and matched several things, both solid state and tube, with the Michell Gyro SE. I’ll get into thoughts on the interaction with the gear more specifically, but overall the table was very isolated mechanically and perhaps a bit over damped on some material. This suited itself wonderfully to classical and jazz recordings, but lost a little pizzazz on pop and rock music.

The Gyro SE noise floor was very low, considerably lower than my Rega P3 (which was expected). But I found gear matching was critical for the Michell as I got a very different experience based on what gear followed in the audio chain. First, I had the ampsandsound Arch monoblocks (review forthcoming) and a Backert Rhumba Extreme 1.4 preamp along with a Parasound JC 3 jr phono pre running the Gyro SE. The sound was smooth, like really smooth, like too smooth. Vinyl has the analog quality that I find wonderfully engaging, but for my tastes too much smooth makes me feel like I’m losing detail, and tubes on tubes on analog was a bit more than I liked.

I switched over the excellent TAD electronics I had in house that included the M1000 and new C1000. This is is stupendous solid state gear and added back liveliness, dynamics, and slam that helped offset the smooth, which was more to my tastes.

Michell Gyro SE Listening

Playing Traffic’s John Barley Corn Must Die the Gyro SE was groovy, with a touch less energy than my Rega setup. The Gyro SE liked slightly higher loading than my Rega with the Cusis E cartridge. This cleared up the midrange beautifully. The Rega can sometimes feel a bit rushed in sound delivery, but the Gyro SE always felt more laid back and relaxed, not in an inaccurate way, mind you, but in a refined smooth way. Treble energy was good without being forward or sibilant, which allowed my Triangle Magellans to be utterly transparent and disappear.

I use Herbie Hancock Secrets as one of my reference recordings. This album is great because of the variety of real instruments and synthesizers. This requires the gear to blend acoustic and electronic instruments and the recording does it amazingly well, allowing the system to showcase how different natural and artificial sounds can be blended. It should all come together smoothly and cohesively.

The Gyro SE played this album back wonderfully. The overall sound was still slightly damped, but had a killer midrange texture and holographic 3D imaging that floated in front of the plane of the speakers (which is what I’m used to in this system). The Gyro SE was so smooth on this recording and felt like a continuum rather than a pause between the notes. The sound was airy and deep with great ambience, allowing me to hear subtle cues without hard edges or dryness. The clarity was crisp without being sharp with a very strong midrange to low treble presence. Sweet, articulate, impactful and emotional were my notes. The Gyro SE can groove! Digging deep into the musical nuances allowing me to hear minute details that my Rega overlooked.

Continuing the trend with Mannheim Steamroller Fresh Aire 4, the Gyro SE had good dynamics and ambiance, with an excellent vibe that suited New Age music incredibly well. Chip Davis and his Mannheim Steamroller work is some of my favorite music and the Gyro SE put me in my happy place for sure.

Finally, a bit of an off-the-beaten-path choice. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain was forward, in-your-face brass. The horns had impact and body with huge dynamics that will clean out your ears. If you have heard real horns in a smallish space that sense of realism and loudness can be borderline painful and the Michell Gyro SE reproduced that faithfully. Percussion instruments also had that sense of realism, especially tambourine. Music with a lot going on all at once can get congested during crescendos, but the Gyro SE kept it all clear and distinct. The snapping fingers and finger bells were far cleaner than I’m used to and allowed me to really audibly dig into the recording focusing on various elements of the music.

Compared to the Rega P3, the Gyro SE was way more refined, which was expected, but the Rega tended to have more energy, perhaps inaccurately so, but matched my musical tastes better. That is until I swapped out the Cusis E cartridge with the MoFi StudioSilver. This was at the end of the review period and was more of a check to see how much influence of the cartridge had on the turntable.

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy! The Michell Gyro SE woke up with this cartridge. Dave McNair opines that the cartridge is 30% of the sound of a table. With the cartridge swap, the Gyro SE was transformed. It was still smooth and silky, but less damped and had a wonderful energy. I was smitten by the MoFi StudioSilver (review here) and it was a great cartridge for the Gyro SE in my opinion.

This setup added back the energy I had in the Rega and the Gyro SE outperformed the Rega in every category after this. Now the Gyro SE is about five times the price of the Rega, so I expect it to outperform in every category. I think the selection of cartridge is critical and a opportunity to tailor an excellent table to your personal tastes.

Conclusions

For those looking for an object d’art and turntable, the Michell Gyro SE satisfies both. There are other manufacturers with suspension turntables somewhat similar to Michell, but the implementation of the Gyro SE is very good and reliable. The Gyro SE elevated my expectations of what to look for in future turntables. $7,000 is serious dosh to spend on a table without a cartridge, but in this reviewer’s opinion, what you get for your money is a level of built quality, refinement, and smoothness that is worth the money. Definitely recommended.

---

Michell Gyro SE Turntable—A Classic Revisited

you must believe in springs

The last time I checked in on a Michell turntable was back in 2000 with a review of the GyroDec SE. It’s time for another review don’t you think? This time it’s the Gyro SE. The basic design strategy remains the same (though the original’s Pabst A.C. motor has been replaced with a D.C. motor), so the big questions are: has the company maintained the high quality of the one reviewed twenty three years ago? And does the performance still hold up when inserted into a system vastly superior to the one back then? The “SE” stands for “spider edition”, that is, instead of resting on a large acrylic base, the SE sits on a compact three point “spider”.

In case you don’t know the history of this storied company: Michell Engineering founder John Michell passed away in 2003 but not before establishing a chain of succession that kept Michell a family business. The company known as J A Michell Engineering began in 1973 as a contract-work based engineering organization. In that capacity, Michell built early versions of Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntables designed by the late David Gammon, seen in “A Clockwork Orange” and in other films and as a work of art in museums. The Hydraulic Reference’s looks still get people ga-ga, but other than visual cool, I can’t think of one good aspect of floating a record on six points and leaving it to resonate rather than damping it against a full contact platter.

Like SME’s Alistair Robert-Aikman, John Michell was into building scale models, one of which was the space ship Discovery used in another Kubrick film, “2001 A Space Odyssey”. But enough about side endeavors and company history. Today’s J.A. Michell builds various iterations of the classic three spring suspended chassis design including multiple Gyro SE variants.

The full lineup looks like this:

 

The one reviewed here looks like this one, which is a better photo than I can take with the review sample sitting on a Stillpoints SS rack in my utility room adjacent to the main listening room.

The Michell websiteclaims that “although the modern GyroDec may look very similar to the original 1980s design, the current Gyrodec is far more sophisticated. Everything from the motor and power supply to the platter and main bearing has been redesigned and improved to ensure the performance and reliability of the turntable remains class-leading.”

That’s since the 1980s. The design of the one sent for review now appears similar if not identical to the one reviewed in 2000 and the quality of the many parts that go into a Gyro SE appear to be at least as well, if not better made. The presentation and packaging (as I recall it, and I do!) are better. The current Gyro SE costs $3999 w/o arm— add $179.95 for a Rega 3 point mount arm board (you can have a board drilled and weighted for your choice of arms).

I was sent a new Michell TA8 arm with the ‘table, directly from importer Fidelity Imports. It’s a Rega supplied arm, I’d guess an RB330, with a Michell machined counterweight and perhaps rear stub and maybe it’s been rewired but I’m just speculating (the cartridge clips look like Rega’s). The arm costs $999.00

According to Fidelity the ‘table costs $5498 with Michell’s Techno2 arm, which is a highly evolved Rega-based arm with its tube drilled out with 22 mass reducing holes, assembled using ultra-low friction polymer bearings, fully rewired with 99.9999 silver Litz wire, fitted to a VTA/SRA adjustable base and terminated with Michell’s Technoweight counterweight.

Also included was the HR9 PSU—an upgraded power supply ($999) for the ‘table’s D.C. motor, featuring speed adjustment and what Michell calls its “Never Connected” circuit (the supply is fully isolated from A.C. noise pollution). The upgrade is said to deliver a lower noise floor and better rhythmic “punch” and control. You don’t have to buy the ‘table with it, you can add it later.

Fidelity also sent a Michell Engineering Cusis C MC cartridge ($1999). It’s the middle of the three cartridge Cusis line and features 30μ pure copper coils, a boron cantilever/Shibata stylus assembly in an “open bottom” Acetyl body, which shows a familiar Samarian-cobalt magnet based motor I correctly guessed was Benz-sourced. Output is .4mV, internal impedance is 4.5ohms.

So, as delivered, the Michell Gyro SE as delivered with arm, upgraded PSU and cartridge costs $7996.

Classic Design

As Michell explains it on its websitethe design goal is to insure that “..the whole loop made by record, platter, bearing, (sub)chassis, arm plate, tonearm, and cartridge body should behave in an utterly rigid and non-resonant fashion.”

Michell’s three point spring suspension design is based upon a high mass sand-cast circular chassis into which is attached from below the main bearing—an inverted design featuring a case-hardened steel shaft with a modified Archimedean screw machined into the bearing housing’s inside bore that as the bearing and platter rotate draws oil up from a reservoir at the main bearing’s base to the thrust ball at the top, which fully lubricates the entire assemblage. The oil returns to the reservoir through a waste hole drilled into the bearing spindle. Fully lubricating with oil the entire bearing produces a “smooth ride” that seeks to avoid potential noise and vibrations. Setting it up requires filling a reservoir with the right amount of oil and then carefully sliding the bearing sleeve with ball in place over the spindle.

The design locates the point of rotation above the platter’s center of gravity and precisely at drive belt height, which self-stabilizes the platter/bearing assembly and prevents rocking modes. A precision-ground soft round-section custom compound belt, runs around the platter’s circumference and of course the motor pulley.

In the 2000 review I wrote “Assembling the ‘table is not difficult, but diagrams and visual identification of the parts would make it much easier, especially for novices”. Here there’s both a much better set of instructions with photos plus at the bottom of this review is an embedded video that shows the entire process. The Gyro SE is not the easiest turntable to assemble but if you follow the instructions you should have no trouble doing it and once it’s all assembled and working you’ll derive an extra bit added satisfaction along with perhaps some greasy fingers.

The three spring towers attach to the “spider” base and then once the outboard D.C. motor housed in a heavy base is carefully positioned and the chassis has been fully assembled—with the bearing and armboard/arm assembly in place—you carefully lower the now really heavy (but not so heavy that it’s a more than one person job) chassis onto the three spring towers, followed by the twelve inch platter made of a proprietary self-damping compound of carbon/vinyl-loaded acrylic with its “trademarked” hanging gold-platted brass weights.

 

Now, the many parts start looking like a turntable! The motor, fully isolated from the chassis, fits through a large left rear corner opening. The arm, cartridge and platter are rigidly coupled together on the chassis, which has a total weight of approximately twenty four pounds and is isolated from the outside world by the suspension. The floating system’s center of gravity is located well below the suspension points. Michell offers a wide range of “off the shelf” armboards for Rega, Linn, SME and Mørch arms precisely weighted to keep the mass and mass distribution of the chassis a known constant, which produces a stable suspended chassis design.

Since the supplied armboard is specifically weighted for the arm and the combination is intended to produce ideal weight distribution across the three point suspension, you automatically achieve close to pistonic “up and down” motion if you press down on the platter. Michell says it’s not essential to achieve it to get effective system performance and I believe them but if you do wish to tweak you can adjust individual spring tension and try to get it perfect, which or course I did. It wasn’t that far off unadjusted but I felt better after the bounce was just about perfectly vertical.

Once I was finished there i found that banging on the Stillpoints rack shelf did not at all phase the stylus as it ran through the grooves, nor did it produce any sound through the speakers. The suspension works as designed and without the need for obsessive adjustments or any adjustments actually. Im sure if I did the AR test a hammer blow wouldn’t have phased the Gyro SE either!

I’ll skip the rest of the set-up process because you can watch the video below if you are keenly interested. There are both similarities and differences between the GyroDec first introduced in 1982 and the Oracle Delphi introduced in the late 1970s. Today of course, though the Oracle and Gyro SE have a similar design concept, the Gyro SE is priced far lower than the Oracle—not that I’m suggesting a comparison.

I mounted the Cusis S cartridge and set tracking force and anti-skating. Since the arm doesn’t offer azimuth or VTA/SRA adjustments I didn’t look to see or measure what the cartridge produced because a buyer will almost certainly not check those things. Why obsess over what you cannot adjust? But I checked azimuth anyway using the Fozgometer 2 and the crosstalk between the channels (L-R and R-L) was within a tiny fraction of identical.

 

Sonic Performance

 

Every turntable design scheme has pluses and minuses. Proponents of either suspended or non-suspended turntables talk up their positives and omit their negatives. It’s like dating (I remember). The suspended design’s main negative is that even if the suspended part containing the arm and platter is rigidly coupled together and the motor is fully isolated on its own platform, any lateral platform movement will vary the distance from the motor to the platter, which inevitably affects belt tension and thus speed stability. Suspension tuning is critical to minimize this problem.

Eccentrically pressed records causes the arm to sway even minutely back and forth, which can induce softly sprung suspensions that are effective at isolation, to produce “porch rocker” effect, which can vary platter to motor distances and thus negatively effect speed consistency. Non-suspended turntable advocates point to that as the reason suspended turntables can sound “soft”. Suspended turntable advocates point to the outstanding isolation and quiet and around and around it goes!

After spending a great deal of time listening to and enjoying the sonic performance of this Gyro SE, I’d say it produces an ideal balance between effective isolation from the outside world and excellent belt drive speed consistency. Before breaking it down I measured performance using the Shaknspin app and got this result:

These are decent belt drive results but as a point of reference, the SAT direct drive turntable (which, with arm sells for around $300,000) has a DEV:00.07%. On the other hand, the recently reviewed, similarly priced Holbo, which also is belt driven had a DEV:-1.13%, which is not quite as good as the Gyro SE and it is non-suspended.

So how does this Gyro SE sound— fitted with the new TA8 arm and Claris S cartridge? I thought the bottom end performance was tighter, faster and somewhat cleaner and punchier than that of the Holbo. And based on what I wrote in the 2000 review, this Gyro SE has an improved and punchier bottom end. The mid bass bloom I noted back then was pretty much absent here.

 

I’ve been comparing pressings of Jazz Samba (Verve V6-8432) for a video review of multiple records in the Acoustic Sounds/Verve series including the newest one cut by Ryan Smith from the original tapes as well as my original pressing from 1962, one cut by Kevin Gray for Speakers Corner I forget the year, the Analogue Productions double 45 cut by George Marino and the new one. I love the record and can endlessly play it. It’s a jazz essential IMO and after evaluating these pressings on the Gyro with multiple reasonably priced phono preamps including the just reviewed $249 Spinstage, I felt confident I could describe the differences and pick a favorite. When I repeated the exercise on my reference turntable and phono pre, of course there was more there but the results were the same.

The Gyro SE fitted with the Cusis E added up to a very low coloration front end that had very good bass extension, cleanly rendered and “fast”. The overall timbral balance was supremely neutral and backgrounds were, as expected from a properly implemented suspended design, supremely black. I played the new Original Source DGG Schubert Trout Quintet with Gillels and the Amadeus Quartet (DGG 486 3848) and was especially impressed by the clarity and weight of the double bass as well as the image stability and soundstage three-dimensionality. The piano sound was remarkably coloration-free and the attack subtle and believably “piano-like”, thanks also in part to deft micro-dynamics. Even if you think you don’t like chamber music, you might like this!

What he said in that 2000 review: “You’ll find snappier performance and speedier transients from some non-suspended ‘tables, but you won’t get from them the luscious, airy mids offered by the GyroDec SE and other suspended ‘tables, or the GyroDec’s impressively black backgrounds—not at this price.” That was then, now I’d say I wouldn’t want “snappier performance” or “speedier transients”. This was just right.

How about rock’n’roll? I tried to twist the thing in knots with Mo-Fi’s bass-heavy/high frequency pushed Sticky Fingers (MFSL-1-060). It’s fun for sure but cartoony fun. Here, the minor dynamic and low frequency limitations revealed themselves but the funny thing is, they made this mastering more tolerable and less cartoony and there was sufficient well-carved bottom to make the play enjoyable.

I’m through complaining.

Conclusion

There are easier turntables to set up but if you follow the instructions—now with photos— I’m sure you’d have no trouble. You’ll be rewarded with a fine performing, supremely well-isolated deck whether or not you choose the TA8 arm and Cusis S cartridge. Whatever cartridge and arm do you choose, you’ll be hearing it and not this ‘table. Whatever are the Gyro SE’s issues, they are of omission not commission. Michell supports a wide variety of arms with “off the shelf” properly weighted armboards and can supply one for pretty much any arm you choose.

I spent a great deal of time listening to the Michell Gyro SE fitted with the Cusis S cartridge and while far more costly and higher performance turntables were in the room, not once did I feel I was paying a sonic price because the Gyro SE did so much right and really didn’t do anything wrong. If you have the opportunity to hear one, be sure to give it a spin before you buy anything in the under $10K price point. In a better world I’d have all the competition to compare it to and report back, but I don’t. That said, I’m pretty confident saying if you choose the Gyro SE you won’t regret the purchase.

---

Jico Seto-Hori Ceramic High Output Moving Coil Cartridge

The Seto Hori moving coil has a lot to offer to audiophiles at multiple levels on the hi-fi ladder, for its performance is excellent and its price tag is quite enticing. given the constraints of its price point, and there is genuine value here.. I have spent a great deal of time listening to the Seto Hori with a significant amount of modern piano music, and I have always found this cartridge to be uncannily accurate in reproducing this challenging instrument.. On my initial inspection of the cartridge, I noticed the thin boron cantilever and the miniature size of the micro ridge diamond, which are indicators of quality subcomponents. This is a high-performance stylus/cantilever assembly, and these components contribute significantly to the tracking prowess of the cartridge. his moving coil should be acknowledged for its accuracy, yet it should also be noted that the Seto Hori is equally adept at presenting the emotional facets of music. -Positive Feedback

CERAMIC BODY – MICRO-RIDGE LINE CONTACT STYLUS – BORON CANTILEVER – HAND MADE IN JAPAN Output: 2 mV  High Output MC Moving Coil Cartridge ( HOMC )

Nippon Seiki Jewel Industry Co., Ltd. “JICO”, an established long-established record company with a record of Production fof 140 years, will release the original MC cartridges “Seto carving / SETO-HORI”.

Seto carving wrapped the high-power MC cartridge engine with the body  of ceramic” and suppresses unnecessary vibration of the cartridge case itself with ” Japanese Walnut cabinet” casing.

“Micro Ridge Diamond Tip” with polyhedron and more than three times the life of normal record needle is mounted. The cantilever adopted a mineral “Boron” which has a lot of bending and high reproducibility of the low range.

Seto has been considered unsuitable as a cabinet of cartridge products after shirring “after baking”, but it was considered unsuitable as a casing of a cartridge product, but JICO had its own design shape with the studio of Seto-shi, Aichi prefecture Production, consideration of shrinkage rate over 2 years with the pottery from Oiki Oki, Toki City Gifu Prefecture. In the final mass-production process, we succeeded in commercializing the product by adding hand processing by JICO head office factory record needle craftsmen. Also, we used natural wood for the mounting base with the head shell. It is handmade MC cartridge made from pure Japan.

Output: 2 mV
Output balance: <1.5 dB / 1 kHz Stylus
pressure: 2.0 g
Channel separation: 25 dB / 1 kHz
Frequency response: 15 – 32,000 Hz
Output impedance: 130 Ω / 1 kHz
Boron cantilever

Chip shape: Micro ridge
chassis: crown and natural wood
body weight 11 grams *

“About 140 years ago we started a sewing needle factory for Kimono. ” Nippon Seiki Jewel Industry Co., Ltd. “JICO”,
We began manufacturing steel record needles in 1929 and modern diamond tipped styli in 1964, marking our company’s 55th anniversary 2013. Our factory headquarters is located in Hamasaka, situated on the Sea of Japan in the northern part of Hyogo prefecture, approximately 200km from the major urban areas of Osaka and Kobe.

In winter Hamasaka experiences heavy snowfall and long ago we were unable to travel even to the next town, being cut off by the many mountain passes. Therefore it was necessary to design, fabricate, and repair all production facilities and required equipment, such as our custom jigs, by ourselves. Even today, with advances in modern transportation infrastructure, three to four hours are required to reach a major city. In other words, enduring the hardship and inconvenience of geographic isolation has given us the technological strength to be self-reliant. As the maxim goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

We Hand Craft & Manufacture 2,200 different models of record styli Tested one piece at a time in Japan and produce an average of 120,000 pieces annually. Today the JICO name is well known by audiophiles around the world as the maker of the ( SAS ) Super Analog Stylus, a rare needle known for both superb quality and excellent fidelity.

Headshell Shown NOT included