Fidelity Research FR-7 Repair

Thanks for the information, both of you. I'll see what they say when they get back to me and ask about aluminum/nude contact line diamond combo. I thought the cartridge had a magical something that I never heard in subsequent cartridges I tried. At this point I'm hoping to get some of that back. If after repair it's not to my liking I'll look into FR-7fz. I just would prefer to not spend that sort of money now. 

Dear chakster, You changed the question . The question was or
assumed to be about sound not styli variations.

everything can affect the sound quality: mass, length, shape, mounting method whatever ... you name it

Whatever the stylus shape or cantilever material they all need to be glued or fastened into cantilevers and glued into joint pipe.

stylus gluing is the worst method

whatever retipper mount to the joint pipe will change mass, resonance etc ... if it’s not the original parts choosen by original cartridge designer, those aluminum cantilever used by Ikeda is not available today, it can be only different aluminum cantilever (or completely different material like boron and others)

As you I also admire Takeda’s Miyabi and Ikeda’s FR-7fz. Both
with aluminum (alloy) cantilevers.

I admire ORIGINAL design of the cartridges i like, if i don’t like the cartridge i will never retip or refurbish it (pretending for upgrade).

I’ve heard some great MC cartridges with aluminum cantilevers such as Ortofon SPU Royal G mk II with Replicant-100 stylus, Miyabi MCA and Standard, FR-7 and FR-7fz ... even MM cartridges like all Stanton Pickering (they are all with aluminum cantilevers). All those aluminum cantilevers are different when i look at them under my macro lens, all diamonds are different (the Replicant-100 is huge, the Miyabi’s PH Semi Line Contact is very small, Stanton/Pickering’s Stereohedron is somewhere in the middle ... they are all press-fit which is great). Anyway, this is original design and they are all spectacular cartridges, i wouldn’t change anything in this design.

My philosophy about vintage cartridges is something like this:
Stick to the original design and if you don’t like it - don’t use it and buy something else until you will find what you really like, don’t try to make a Frankenstein out of some dead cartridges, i do not trust to retippers.

They said my cartridge survived the damage but needed replacement. I was worried something was torqued deep inside. They're suggesting the boron option, I've asked about the change in sound since the original was aluminum. The story continues. 

letch, ''They said my cartridge survived the damage but needed
repalcement''. This make no sense. Not the cartridge but the
cantilever/stylus combo needs replacement. They suggested the
most expanisive alternative. Deed they mentioned the price?
My estimation was +/- $500 for boron + stylus. This can be done
by any retipper. Boron cantilevers with styli are produced by
two Japanese companies. Both manufcturers and retippers 
are provided by the same companies. In some sense you will
get a new FR-7. Anyway no worry about stylus condition. 

By survive, they meant that I didn't trash the entire cartridge beyond repair. A mover loaded my turntable, with cartridge attached, into a truck on it's side and piled boxes on top of it for a drive from NYC to LA. They didn't heed my instructions that it was fragile, etc. That move was a disaster from every standpoint.

It's $450 for the boron replacement. They said it's the strongest material and that's a heavy tracking cart. At this point I just want to get my turntable up and running. I've never mounted a cartridge before but these are times when it makes sense to start learning how to do that. I'm going to get a MintLP protractor for the FR-64 to set things up when it comes back.