Lyra Kleos Repair

Hum,  not my experience at all nor a close friend.  

On another note.  I believe SoundSmith will retip or rebuild any of his cartridges for no more than 30% of the purchase price.  You might sell your Kleos for a few hundred bucks and combine that with what you'd spend on repairs and buy something better supported by the manufacturer.  Just my 2 cents.

A lot of people report good experiences with him, and in the grand scheme of things I don't think the typical retip is all that difficult.  I'm just saying when things go wrong with him, they go very wrong. 

Dave, we’ve been down this road... We disagree my friend. I have no issue with someone making whatever choice they wish to choose about what is their property. Yet the simple fact remains that no one, has the replacement parts, nor the knowledge base, possibly even skill level, to replace and rebuild that cart as it originally was. So what you wind up with is a "bastard" at a discount price. We can argue until the sun goes down but until someone can compare an original Lyra, side by side with a "bastard" rebuild and say they are the same, they are not. Now the question becomes, what will one wind up with??? Hard to say. I truly feel for mdb or any of us facing a due bill like the one from Lyra. But the difference between me and you as well is I absolutely refuse to villainize Lyra in this situation, as they did nothing wrong. The fact that their products are expensive is a relative one. IMHO they offer exceptional performance and value and yes, they are bloody expensive! And from my experiences with Lyra I am convinced that I get what I have paid for. My last two have lasted nearly nine years a piece, with a roughly 30% trade value. Everyone has to make choices based on their own economy and sense of value, I just wish to express in this regard that although many folks (including yourself) have chosen to go the SoundSmith route, it needs to be understood that you get what you pay for, and the sonic character of your cart will not necessarily have any resemblance to the original cart that was sent in for rebuilding, nor will there be any guarantee that it’s life expectancy will be that of the original product. I wish mdb the very best in whatever path he may choose and I hope he has a splendid listening experience.

I can, however, compare two identical carts.  Not $3,000 ones but 1,000-1,200 dollar ones and to my poor ears it is impossible to hear a difference.  Maybe the retipped one sounds slightly smoother when compared to the one that has over 2000 hours on it but I would expect that wouldn't you?  Otherwise why retip/rebuild?
Based on the way Lyra is treating this customer, I will choose to vote with my dollars and spend them elsewhere.  If I remember,  you were a little disappointed when they wouldn't give you a credit on a trade in.  
 You and many others have far better ears than I.   I respect that so will defer to your expertice.  
Good luck as well to the OP.

A smoothing can be deceiving. It could be a reduced sense of detail and micro-dynamics, and really be a lose of acoustic space or it could just be a refocusing/rebalancing and could be most pleasing. So subjective, so hard to say. 

Let's not create additional confusion here. Just to be clear, a "retip" = a stylus change, and although often not apples to apples, much less of a character changer and possible performance changer than a "rebuild"= different stylus, cantilever, suspension former, and hand wound coil. The later being what our dear friend mdb is looking at funding. 

With a Lyra made/ Linn branded cart, my understanding is Lyra will not give me the trade value Linn will toward same. Oh, well. 

I do agree with you Dave that we all have to draw the line on cost at some point. I'm not so sure I feel Lyra is mistreating anyone here though. If they had implied or expressed some kind of warranty against user mishap and then fallen short of that, I could understand some resentment, but given the circumstances (as much as it pains us) I have none and would not withhold future investment because of it.