Japanese audio brand JICO's cartridges and needles will be more widely available in the UK thanks to a new distribution deal.
They'll be sold in musical instrument and record shops as well as specialist retailers.
If you've been hankering after a hand-crafted cartridge or need a new needle for your turntable, the FEEL FLOWS Audio Collective has some good news for you. Its distribution arm has partnered with Japanese brand JICO to make JICO's products widely available in the UK and Ireland.
JICO's hand-assembled cartridges and needles have a great reputation – for example, the newly announced Korg turntables we reported on recently have a JICO model at the top of the range to make them even more attractive. And the brand has been making needles for record playback since 1949, styluses since 1966. The firm itself is even older than that, in fact – it was founded in 1873 to make sewing needles for kimonos.
Today it makes over 2,200 models of stylus, including its most famous model, the Super Analog Stylus, plus the popular Shure N-44G replacement stylus.
That's a particular lifeline for vinyl lovers, as Shure discontinued all of its phono products between 2013 and 2018.
JICO cartridges and styluses: from ultra-affordable to super premium
Those 2,200 different models come in a very wide range of prices. The current cartridge range starts at £39.95, while the Seto-Hori Remodel MC cartridge is at the other end of the bracket, with an RRP of £3,299.95.
While the brand has been around for a long time and built its reputation on making very accurate copies of other firm's styluses and cartridges, JICO is now keen to establish itself as a designer as well as a manufacturer.
As part of that plan, it launched its own new cartridge, the Clipper, in October 2024. JICO hopes to establish it as a superior alternative to similarly priced models.
JICO's cartridges are already available from specialist Hi-Fi retailers. But, the new distribution deal means that JICO's products will be available through a wider range of outlets, including DJ, record and musical instrument shops, too.
