Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic. Read 111 times.

rastage

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?
« on: 15 May 2024, 10:16 pm »
Been running a Dual 1229 table with Shure M91ED cartridge for many years. A while ago, the right channel started dropping out. I was able to get it back by re-seating the headshell in the tonearm. Now the right channel is gone and won't come back. I tried swapping the leads in the headshell, and the problem dutifully jumped to the other side (left channel out). Next thing I tried was disconnecting the R and L leads from the shell and letting them dangle, then replacing the shell in its seat. I was able to touch each lead in turn with a finger, and got the expected hum from each side. Reconnected the leads to the back of the cartridge, no right channel. Does this mean that the M91ED has gone bad internally? Has anyone had a similar experience? (I also tried swapping in a spare headshell that had an M44 in it, which worked fine on both channels, so I don't think it's the connection in the arm itself.)

FullRangeMan

  • Volunteer
  • Posts: 20010
  • To whom more was given more will be required.
    • Never go to a psychiatrist, adopt a straycat or dog. On the street they live only two years average.
Re: Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 05:47 pm »
If you had a microscope you would check the stylus/cantilever since you use a removable shell/leads.

thorman

Re: Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?
« Reply #2 on: Yesterday at 06:38 pm »
  There are always a ton of them on Ebay and very reasonable prices too. The M91ED is a good cartridge and much better with a Jico SAS Stylus. I would buy a nice condition used M91ED and go to LP Gear and order a Jico Stylus and you will be shocked at how much better it will sound...

rastage

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
Re: Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?
« Reply #3 on: Yesterday at 06:48 pm »
No microscope. Do you think it's worth trying to swap a new stylus into the existing M91ED, or could it be a bad internal connection where the stylus enters the cartridge that won't work regardless of stylus?

FullRangeMan

  • Volunteer
  • Posts: 20010
  • To whom more was given more will be required.
    • Never go to a psychiatrist, adopt a straycat or dog. On the street they live only two years average.
Re: Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?
« Reply #4 on: Yesterday at 07:11 pm »
I would not replace the stylus without have a good tech opinion on the internals.

I unaware a new cart price, but if its cheap get a new one.

/mp

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 241
Re: Help with Shure M91ED troubleshooting?
« Reply #5 on: Today at 12:47 pm »
Duckduckgo (anonymized google) is your friend:

vinylengine's cartridge database lists ~10 different M91ED variants. The suffix-less one shows a $180 MSRP.
A resistormag article says Shure ceased all phono cart manufacturing in 2018.
Shure's homepage doesn't mention phono cart's among its products.

Hope this helps.