Received The MC2000 Back From Expert Stylus Today

@lewm If there is epoxy it is very little, I pretty much see the tiniest spot of black diamond, and since diamond is typically clear I assume that has to be epoxy that is being used. But it is nothing like you see when a diamond is mounted to a solid boron cantilever. 

Well Axel is retired, and the choice of retippers available is diminishing, at least those with a great number of years of experience. Also its getting exponentially harder to find MC2000 that are good candidates for restoration. Most of the ones I see anymore have been abused and are on Ebay with bent or skewed cantilevers. Perhaps they make a good choice for a boron transplant like Raul thought sounded nice, but if you want one in original form it is a very difficult endeavor. Which is a shame, because from what I hear these are exceptional cartridges. 

Hi neonknight, As J. Carr explained the only advantage of aluminum

cantilever is that the stylus can be ''pressure fitted'' while by all other

(''exotic'') kinds the stylus must be glued in the cantilever. This means

glue between stylus and the cantilever which compromise rigidity of

the combination. 

Dear Lew, If you mean my MC 2000 than this one was never retipped.

Not even by Axel . 

Dear Nandric, I do refer to the MC2000 that I bought from you.  I thought you told me it was re-tipped by Axel with one of his last assemblages (cantilever and stylus) that either resembled the original or was per original Ortofon spec.  If it IS original, then all the nicer.  Definitely an aluminum cantilever with press-fitted stylus; I've examined it under my microscope.  As you already know, it is a favorite.  Based on other writings of JCarr, I would think it is best to stick with Aluminum, since the suspension, etc, was designed with the mass and flexibility of aluminum in mind.  But I would be curious how it would sound with sapphire or boron.  Sapphire would be closer to aluminum in mass, I think.

Dear @lewm  : Boron cantilever puts the 2000 in a higher step on overall quality performance. I made the comparison against an original one. I owned 3 of those cartridges. VdH made the     work. Boron stiffer material helps with the resonance tonearm/frequency due that we have to remember that the measured compliance of the 2000 is over 30 cu and this means that that resonance frequency with high mass tonearms will be at 4hz-5hz.

R.