Sometimes even a small and simple step begins a long quest for missing pieces. Yesterday we set up the new TV cabinet ordered from Sears.ca; for the first time in years there's a safe and stable place to set up the old JVC turntable and I can finally get cracking transcribing all that vinyl to Ogg. A first test of a disk showed the kids did more damage running the old needle over the rubber mat than I'd though; our new missing piece quest is for the near-microscopic diamond tip of a Shure N97HE stylus, all that stands between us and some 2000 old recordings.

By an amazing co-incidence, there's a post on eBay for a tantalizingly close match N97GD that's started a secondary quest to find out if it's at all compatible with the original M97 cartridge. I hope Shure's tech support are friendly!