Shure M55E

A $35.50 moving-magnet cartridge that Shure's own ad copy measured against the V-15 - and, by the numbers, held its ground.

Overview

Seven grams. That's the whole thing - a tiny electric generator that traces a miles-long groove and hands the signal to the rest of the chain without subtracting anything. Shure's own advertising for the M55E made that argument directly. It described the cartridge as the smallest monetary investment in a system and the one on which the ultimate sound most depends. It was a sales pitch, but it wasn't wrong.

The M55E is a moving-magnet stereo cartridge with a user-replaceable elliptical diamond stylus of 0.2/0.7 radii. Tracking angle is the standard 15 degrees, and Shure rated it for forces as low as three-quarters of a gram. Vertical and lateral compliance are both given as 25 × 10^-6 cm/dyne. That is high enough that the cartridge was clearly designed for the low-mass arms of its day, not the heavier transcription arms then going out of fashion. Frequency response is quoted as 20-20,000 Hz, output as 5 mV per channel at a recorded velocity of 3.54 cm/sec. Channel separation is stated at 25 dB at 1,000 Hz and 20 dB at 10,000 Hz.

The stylus assembly is the part that matters most in practice, and Shure made it replaceable - the N55E. The company's own literature pitched the N55E as an upgrade path. An M44 owner who could track at a gram or less could swap in the N55E stylus rather than buy a whole new cartridge. That is why so many M55E bodies survive today with third-party or worn styli fitted, and why the condition of the stylus matters far more than the cosmetic state of the body when buying used.

Shure's advertising placed the M55E explicitly below the V-15 in the lineup. The copy said it "compares favorably to the incomparable Shure V-15," which is a nice way of saying almost. The same ad claimed remarkable freedom from IM, harmonic, and tracing distortion, and said the M55E audibly improved the sound of both monaural and stereo records. At $35.50 it sat in the middle of the Shure range, above the budget M44-7 and below the V-15. The pitch was professional performance at a modest price, and the period press largely took it at face value.

High Fidelity (January 1966, p.70) listed the M55E at $35.50 in its equipment column, confirming the price and identifying it as a magnetic stereo cartridge with elliptical stylus. The same magazine's coverage of the period treated the elliptical Shure as a serious component rather than an accessory. The HiFi-Stereo review of the Empire 888P in July 1965 (p.49) gives a benchmark for what the M55E was up against. That cartridge tracked test records at one gram and measured 5.7 mV output, with 25 dB separation up to 8,500 cps. The M55E's 5 mV and 25 dB at 1,000 Hz sit in the same territory.

The M55E turns up in period system write-ups as a reference-grade choice, not a compromise. An Audio reader profile from August 1966 (p.16) shows a St. Louis audiophile running a Marantz 7C and 7T preamp, a Marantz 10B tuner, a JBL Paragon cabinet, and a Crown 300 tape transport. The turntable carried two cartridges: a Grado BE and a Shure M55E.

What makes the M55E interesting now is the same thing that made it interesting then: it's a low-output, high-compliance moving magnet with a genuine elliptical tip, and it will still track modern vinyl at a gram if the stylus is good. The 15-degree tracking angle, the 25 × 10^-6 cm/dyne compliance, the 5 mV output — none of those numbers are exotic today, but they were the difference between a cartridge that mistracked loud passages and one that didn't. The M55E was built to not mistrack.

The body itself is robust — there's nothing in it to wear out except the stylus — so the practical question when buying is always the same. Is the N55E stylus genuine, and how many hours are on it? A worn elliptical will chew records just as happily as it plays them. A genuine N55E, or a quality aftermarket replacement, is what makes the cartridge worth owning.

The M55E brought the elliptical stylus and the 15-degree tracking angle to a price that didn't require a second mortgage. Shure's advertising called it "a very special value at $35.50," and the period press didn't argue.