All Shure cantilevers employ a thin-walled tubular design.
At comparable levels of rigidity, this type of construction requires significantly lower mass than a solid rod design. Cantilever mass is also affected by the type of construction material used - different materials require different amounts of mass to produce the same amount of rigidity. The Shure V15VxMR cartridge provides a good example for understanding cantilever mass. The several other cartridge manufacturers working with exotic metals invariably use them in their solid form, thus nullifying the inherent advantage that these materials have over less expensive alternatives. Cantilevers for the other models in the Shure line are fabricated out of heat-treated aluminum alloys.