Shure Says "Goodbye" to the Phono Cartridge Business

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, DCRTV.com Mailbag:

/ May 4 Messages /
....

Hey Deejays ... better get your turntables up on Craigslist NOW: www.radiomagonline.com (5/4/18)

Shure Says "Goodbye" to the Phono Cartridge Business

The company cited cost and quality control issues

TOM VERNON MAY 2, 2018

NILES, Ill. — For anyone who has worked in broadcasting for any length of time, the name Shure is synonymous with two things, microphones and phono cartridges. Today, the company announced it was getting out of the turntable stylus and cartridge business, effective Summer 2018.

In a press release, the company explained, ''In recent years, the ability to maintain our exacting standards in the Phonograph Cartridge product category has been challenged, resulting in cost and delivery impacts that are inconsistent with the Shure brand promise. We believe that the proud legacy of Shure Phono is best served by exiting the category rather than continuing production under increasingly challenging circumstances.''

When the compact disc was introduced in 1982, the handwriting was on the wall for vinyl. The market for broadcast and consumer turntable cartridges eventually plummeted, but did not disappear entirely. Clubs continued to play vinyl, as disco evolved into house and techno. Scratch mixing as an art form came along, demanding even more rugged styli. Beginning in the mid 1990s, the renaissance of vinyl as a high-fidelity analog medium also kept records alive. But the economy of scale was gone, and many of the remaining cartridge brands began on-demand production runs. The end result was often dealers out of stock for some brands, and increased cost when stock was available.

Shure started out in 1925 as a radio parts wholesaler, and grew to become a global player in the audio electronics market. Its current product line includes, wired microphones, wireless microphone systems, in-ear personal monitoring systems, conferencing and discussion systems, networked audio systems, as well as earphones and headphones.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Odd. Everyone says vinyl has been selling better now than in decades. . . . nt

[mikeysnot]

2. I've bought three records in the past month alone...

to LP's and a 7".

[OriginalGeek]

3. I only buy vinyl if I have a choice

and just got a new turntable late last year. Nearly every band I like offers their new work on vinyl and often with collectible merch included or special colored vinyl editions. (or both)

Seems like a bad time to jump out but no worries, others will fill the void. I like collecting vinyl and will continue to do so (and often have to pay extra to do it) because now I can.

[mr_lebowski]

4. Well this is a sad day indeed. End of an era ... bummer (nt)

[Scurrilous]

5. I used to sell Shure cartridges when I worked in a stereo store.

Made good commission on them.

Me: "Here's your turntable."

Customer: "Where's the needle?"

Me: "That'll be an extra 50 bucks."

[rsdsharp]

6. I just bought a Shure cartridge

6 weeks ago.

[malthaussen]

7. Man, that's like Heinz stopping selling pickles...

... oh, yeah, they have.

-- Mal

[hunter]

8. There are a few brands of phono cartridges selling for $3000 or more.

In my opinion people who buy these cartridges have too much money and not much sense. I'm not going to swoon when someone shows me their $3,500 phono cartridge. I wouldn't disrespect anyone who showed me a higher end Shure.

There's a limit to the sound quality you can get off of vinyl. Beyond a certain point any engineering improvements you make to a phono cartridge are lost in the noise and you end up with the equivalent of a solid gold toilet. It might be the greatest toilet in the world, a perfect powerful flush every time, but it's not the gold that makes it so.

At the other end of the price spectrum there are plenty of $20-$30 cartridges, typically Chinese and ranging in quality from poor to very good. The good ones really are good enough for most applications.

Shure's market was the middle price range of phono cartridges, selling for $60-$120. The quality was reliably good-to-excellent but Shure couldn't compete at the low end of the market.

Worse, since their name was associated with good quality moderately priced cartridges, they couldn't compete with the absurdly expensive and over-hyped cartridges.

I play records on a record player my wife gave me. It was used in a university library for maybe forty years before it was sold as surplus. I rebuilt it good as new. I'm fond of it because it plays records the way most people would have heard them, and it's the kind of machine sound engineers optimized music for. I also have a turntable with a Shure cartridge that I digitized a few records with many years ago, but it's now buried deep in our garage with the early Macintosh computers and 8" floppy drive.