Hey,
I’ve had the Shure Whitelabel for a number of years. As some of you might remember, it was discontinued a few years back. Bought up a bunch of spare styli then, but I’m soon in need of another one.
I see that there are at least one company making replacement styli for it:
Does anyone have any experience with them or know if there are other good ones? The reviews for the Jico seem to be a bit mixed.
I dunno about this one, but I bought an alleged replacement on eBay once and it sounded completely terrible.
Hmmm. I’m a bit skeptical of this one too. Shame that Shure doesn’t make them anymore, as I quite like it and don’t really wanna go through the hassle of finding a new one that sounds good.
What are you using these days then?
My gf has a pair of these Banana cartridges which you can still by the stylus for, so I’m muddling along with them at the moment.
However, I am thinking of getting the Q-Bert ones. Hearing a lot of good things about them and they’re relatively inexpensive.
I have Whitelabels as well, and I am on my last set of needles.
Jico gets all-round flop ratings.
Someone on Reddit mentioned these:
https://www.juno.co.uk/products/tonar-nwhlb-replacement-diamond-dj-stylus-for/731033-01/
From Tonar. Not super pricey. Anybody want to risk trying them out?
Not exactly pricey, so might be worth a shot, as I really like the Whitelabels.
Edit: never heard of Tonar to be honest. But then again, I’m not really all that well versed in these things these days.
Was going to try the Jicos but having second thoughts now. I thought I’d seen good reviews about them some time ago. I know I heard the Tonars are pretty bad.
Don’t use the turntable much so it’s taken a while until I need to replace - so annoying given the time / research went into them in first place.
I don’t know about the Whitelabel replacements, but Tonar and Jico both make stylii for the discontinued Shures that I use - the M44g. The Tonar are cheap and noticeablely not as good.
Not tried the Jico yet, but the spec is high and I’ve seen them recommended by several DJs I hold in high esteem, so that’s good enough for me.
That’s helpful, more research needed. Seem to be a wide range of prices for Jicos online which makes me worry about knock offs, but would rather this than completely new set up.
Juno carry the Jico range. The Shure replacements are in their second iteration so maybe it’s a case of old stock being sold off cheap that you’ve seen.
Jico makes Tonar needles. Not sure if to a different spec/quality to their own.
From what I’ve read there’s a bit more to it than that.
For the Shure M44 series for example the Tonar 6361 and 267 are reportedly not made by Jico (267 is Swiss made, 6361 likely is too).
The Tonar 6548 and 6546 are reportedly made by Jico but to a different spec than their own (no tension wire).
For the Whitelabel the Tonar 6559 is shown as made in Japan on this site but I’ve not seen it confirmed as Jico manufactured.
They are much cheaper than the Jico branded ones.
I actually found another replacement stylus in a box in the studio, so looks like I’m sorted until that one wears out. 
I get the feeling I’ll probably have to find a new cart when that time comes…