Andy Kim - Needle Clinic

Another very informative report on the impact a Third Party Cartridge Service can have on a first impression of a returned Cart', either Serviced or Modified.

As stated in previous posts, A Time Served Technician who has a acquired a substantial understanding of a Cart's Assembly and has the inherent skills to optimise the Tolerances for the interfaces that might not be as exact at the time of Manufacture can produce a Cart' that will standout as a returned item.

Add to the assembly exchange parts that are improved as a result of their inherent mechanical properties and the Cart' in general finds a different level of performance.

There is little to be seen that suggests using this type of Service is not beneficial and not good value for money.

I will assume the 901 was approx' $1700 when purchased. If there was a 1000 Hours of usage prior to the recent overhaul, the Cart' has been a $1.70 per hour model.

I assume the Overhaul is $500ish, at present there is assumed to be $2200 invested into the Cart'.

If another 1000 Hours of usage are successfully delivered the Cart' has been a $1.10 per hour model.

Do this revisit to Andy Kim once more and the potential if the 1000 hours of usage is achieved, is a Cart' that will have offered up 3000 Hours of Service at $00.90 per hour. 

Great VFM comes to mind.  

Howdy,

Used Andy Kim's services and had a Grado Gold re-tipped due to an unexpected altercation between my kid and the cartridge, the cartridge lost.

After choking over repair costs, trusted Andy to fix my cartridge. 

I am no longer complaining over the costs, holy cow it was worth the price.  The Mirco Line Nude Boron is truly incredible.  My wife noticed a difference!

Andy was great to work with, tremendously communicative, and quick,

Andy is a true retipper, it's evident he is qualified and flipping good at his job!  

Thanks Andy

Another one of Andy Kim's happy customers here...he did me right. I'm hearing new facets of music I've listened to my whole life after getting my stylus re-tipped. Cheers, Andy.

I'd like to share my positive experience with Andy Kim. My Ortofon A90 was in need of a retip/rebuild as it had developed a noisy channel. Ortofon does offer a "rebuild/exchange" program but that was more money than I wished to spend, plus I was interested in the sound of this cartridge with a different stylus profile. I chose Andy as the rebuilder as he's here in California and offers a quick turnaround, plus his reviews were excellent.

Andy discovered damage to the Replicant 100 stylus plus a tweaked cantilever. His replacement cantilever has a micro-ridge stylus. He also reconditioned the suspension, straightened the remaining cantilever, and cleaned the cartridge internals.

The cartridge was back in my hands in a few days and, while it's impossible to compare this rebuilt cart with it's new self, it sounds top-notch. I've very pleased and it was much easier to dial in - Andy suggested 2.0 grams with a level headshell - bingo. On top of that I saved ~$1500 compared to a factory exchange.

I highly recommend Andy Kim's cartridge services. 

I agree with all the previous positive comments on Andy's work. My koetsu Rosewood Signature was returned in 8 days including shipping over the July 4th holiday, last week.

For comparison, a rebuild through MoFi and the Koetsu factory was estimated to be in  the mid 4 figures with a minimum 12 week turnaround. It was a no-brainer for me, and the workmanship was top notch.