JICO keeps evolving
JICO, Nippon Precision Jewel Industry Co., Ltd., has been leading the replacement stylus manufacturing industry for more than a half-century. We take pride in producing high-quality styli to many record players all over the world. In recent years, we have been exploring “JICO sound”, our own sound, utilizing our existing technology.
We keep asking ourselves what the “JICO sound” is and how to define it. At JICO, we generate many ideas from the perspective of listeners and also as sound engineers.
“We need sound like this!” “We want to create such a sound!” “We would like to deliver that sound to our customers!”
We believe that by continuously challenging ourselves in this way, our company and products can continue to evolve. Therefore, JICO has established a new original brand “JICO Custom Shop”, to foster our customer’s affinity with us. We promise to pursue “JICO sound” to satisfy all of our customers. We hope that all of our customers understand and empathise with our new idea, and look forward to our new product series.
Tribute to Shure Styli
In 2018, Shure unexpectedly announced the production closure of all Shure phono products. Two and a half years later, in spring 2021, JICO will launch a special cartridge that serves as both a genuine replacement stylus for the Shure 44 model, and as a JICO replacement stylus.
Following the termination of Shure’s styli production, JICO will continue the production of cartridges and replacement styli for the Shure 44 model, to serve Shure 44 users and with full respect to Shure.
Our products are not simply replicas of Shure models, which merely resemble and copy the appearance of the original. We will develop new “best-of-the-best” products which combine our manufacturing craftsmanship with our understanding of Shure’s original wisdom.
Custom Shop Series
JICO'S HIGH-END PRODUCTS (selling dates TBA)
Q1) What made you decide to develop these cartridges
A1) We’ve received numerous inquiries from customers all around the world since Shure made a public announcement to cease production for phono products in 2018, to develop and introduce a cartridge that will replace Shure M44 cartridge. It was fortunate enough to see people believed in JICO that we have skills to take over where Shure left off, which have led us decide to develop these cartridges.
Q2) Which part did you put the most effort into?
A2) Primarily, we’ve decided to create the identical shape with the originals. Next step is to make the specifications as same as possible. The major obstacles we’ve faced was to collect these genuine cartridges in a good condition to collect and analyze the data by dismantling them into small pieces such as yokes, coils, and polepieces. We’d be extremely fastidious about the unique sound quality that M44 produced.
Q3) Tell us about future development
A3) The main focus is to develop “JICO” original sound. Basically speaking, we will continue to develop products something that audiophiles would request for. At same time, we are thinking to introduce products that will make analogue music more enjoyable; for instance, by inventing products that many people wish “they had something like this” to make them happy and entertain and also develop a product that nobody would imagined for.