Who's done it besides me ?


The worst thing you could do while playing some vinyl snap off the *&%$# cantilever yes I did it so pissed
So my table is a Clearaudio Performance DC with Clarify arm ,Talismann cartridge ,Outer Limit weight and HRS record weight 
When to flip the record took everything off flip the record then put HRS back on when to put on the Outer Limit on and SNAP caught it with the side of my pinky I guess boron cantilever are really brittle can't find it any where accept a few shards I'm allways so careful I keep the guard and dust cover on when not using it 
So if you have totaled your cartridge how did you do it and did you replace it retip it upgraded it or down graded it like to hear your stories and you can see my rig in virtual systems 
Time to take a deep breath and pour a bourbon and no I didn't have one before LOL

Enjoy your music
Tom
128x128tomstruck
Chakster to each his own. Only MM cartridges have removable styli. I know of no MM cartridge including the Ortofon 2M Black that can approach the performance of a modern MC cartridge, or a wood bodied Grado. I have owned all of them, Shure, Pickering, several Stantons, Empire, ADC, Goldring and I'm probably missing a few. Why? Better materials science with magnets and cantilevers. Better techniques of mounting styli and better styli. Much smaller armatures with less wire and lower resistance (much stronger magnets) leading to  much less moving mass. Much tighter tolerances. I used to see new cartridges with cantilevers and styli pointed in odd directions although all the Stantons I had were right on which is why I had several of them. All the modern cartridges I have gotten have been right on and these include Grado, Clearaudio, Koetsu, Lyra and Ortofon.  You can buy any of these cartridges knowing they will be aligned perfectly. The level of quality far exceeds that of anything I saw in the old days. I have no reason to look back. 
millercarbon went by the one you had listed the Koetsu black goldline  What is the reason that you painted the cartridge with total contact
@mijostyn, funny how experience are often not quite the same... 
Firstly, I did have more than one quality issue with e.g. Ortfon, such like skew cantilever, gaping cartridge body of two different and then top MCs of theirs. So much for that. 

Mostly reasonably good MMs tended to sound more musical, using SUT and straight MC into pre made not the hoped for improvement using MCs for me. 🤪 

Right now I'm using a P77 cart into MM input of Levison pre with 47k standard loading is more musical than e.g. my Cadenza Black with my Fidelity Research X1 medium, and there are some other vintage MMs at least challenging both my Cadenza and Quintet Black. 

With all the MCs I've owned I fiddled for ever with the loading all over the place from 50 through 47k ohm, when using MC 60dB input and NEVER heard that more musical liquid sound of my far older vintage MMs. 

In short, high, higher, highest resolution is NOT quite the answer if it creates a sound more like some middling CD sound. 

And so, as I said, experiences do differ, for better or for worse 😉
Michélle 
Justmetoo, look at the bright side. You are certainly saving a lot of money.
There are too many variables at play for me to be able to explain your experience. As an example, if your speakers are on the bright side many MC cartridges will sound edgy. The real expensive ones will not. I currently have an Ortofon Windfeld Ti and it's construction is meticulous. There are very few cartridges that can better it's sound and they are painfully expensive. As for cartridges at the bottom end of their line I can not say. The Windfeld is currently the least expensive cartridge I own. Of course, it is just as easy to break the cantilever off an expensive cartridge as a cheap one and even more tragic. The Talisman is actually the best value in the Clearaudio line and a very fine sounding cartridge once it is broken in. Clearaudio cartridges start out too bright. This goes away in 50 hours or so. 
Tomstruck, are you going to send it back to clear audio? If you are please tell us how much it cost to repair it!
@mijostyn,
yeah, kind and true words. 
My Burmester 961 speakers with AMT tweeters are not easily to be called, - 'mellow'. They are very resolving and the all Mundorf caped x-overs make it however never ear-flossing like, thankfully.
Of course there is also my SME V tonearm and SME 10 tt, all Ag wired from cart pins through to phono-pre input.
Yet, the tonality of all me known and heard MCs e.g. Lyras, Peer Windfeld I owned, to Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge, to mention some I recall, ALL top MCs for my humble pocket, sounded different, less 'harmonic'. No fiddling, no loading variation, SUT or not, and even using different phono preamps, however always solid state ones. 
There we go. 
One, Lyra Dorian with a snapped of cantilever I'd also had repaired by Jan Allaerts, it was no good with a top Gyger stylus on boron cantiler, and not much improved at all after a further expensive rework. So much for 'top' re-tipping services.
Not to be repeated for me either. 
Just sharing, one may take from it what ever makes sense 😉
Michélle