A little over a week ago, my M97xE came un-glued. I was attempting to get an exacting 49mm stylus to headshell tail distance as is the specification for my turntable. I had a problem doing this, apparently caused by a burr under the head of one of my mounting screws, which made it impossible to make the adjustment hold; and, attempting to just lightly tap the cartridge in place with the handle of my magnifying glass, the cartridge body separated from its die cast mount. I sent the broken cartridge to Shure; and, in just a day after they received it, I received a replacement at no charge, which was a surprise as I expected they would just re-assemble the broken cartridge. Now, I've gotta tell ya, that's service. At any rate, I now will study methods of mounting this replacement cartridge to achieve the desired alignment, which brings me to my point: I also own an Ortofon 2M Red. It cost me about $100 as did my 97xE. The Ortofon was easy to align perfectly within a few minutes, not the case with the Shure. In spite of this, that's to say having perfect alignment with the Ortofon and not so certain alignment with the Shure, the Shure still has sounded better to me on most of my records. Once again, I'm sorry that Shure is closing its cartridge operation. Ironically, I see that retailers are now asking $200 for the 97xE. I'm sure they'll get it, since owners of this cartridge like me know it delivers an experience much like the V15V-MR, which, even at $200 is a very good deal.
