Audio Technica AT ML-180 Cartridge Advice

Dear chakster. Lpgear stylus is not the same as AT 160 ML.               AT 160 ml has gold plated beryllium cantilever. In order to compare styli holders their inside-- is more interesting than their front side.        One can then see the kind of coupler  by each (round or rectangular)  and conclude which can be used ''as is'' or would need ''surgury''.       That is removal of the stylus from one cart and ''trasplatation'' to the other.

AT probably produced its own cantilevers/styli combo's in the  past     but at present all manufacturer get styli from their supplier. So             like the retippers they can ''chose'' what is available . The mentioned  ''short supply''' of the boron kinds illustrate this state of affairs. Ergo    chakster assumption about ''cantilevers made and adjusted for specific cartriges  by the producers''  can't be true.  

AT’s hollow tapered gold plated boron cantilever is definitely unique, look at this image and tell me if any other company mouting their diamonds like that. Anything before the AT-ML170 looks way different. The AT-ML150 and AT-ML140 are different, not only because they are not Boron, but also because the stylus tip mounted on the cantilever using different method like all the newer ATs. 

P.S. I have never trusted LPgear, they are always selling products that looks different from the original.

The materials that cartridge manufacturers can ask the cantilever manufacturers to use can either come from the cantilever manufacturers, or be sourced by the cartridge manufacturers. This is true for every part of the cantilever assembly including the cantilevers themselves, coil bobbins, suspension wire, connection fittings, glue, etc.

For example, the high permeability bobbin material that is used in the My Sonic Labs and AirTight cartridges does not come from the cantilever manufacturers, but is rather supplied by Yoshio Matsudaira. As a result, only the cartridges brands that are personally affiliated with Matsudaira have access to this material.

As a second example, when it seemed as though cantilever-grade boron would become extinct, we (Lyra) procured a limited amount of suitable material and delivered it to Namiki, so that the Delos could remain in production without any major changes.
Some manufacturers who couldn't source their own supplies of boron were forced to change their cantilevers to other materials such as sapphire.

The same flexibility in sourcing holds true for the processing of materials. If cantilever manufacturer doesn't have access to processes such as diamond-coating, EDM, some forms of annealing, micro photoetching, microscopic laser machining etc., the cartridge manufacturer is allowed to deliver various parts of the cantilever assembly to specialist processing facilities, then return the processed part to the cantilever manufacturer so that they can be incorporated into the cantilever assembly.

Some cantilevers may use relatively standard parts, but others may involve varying degrees of custom design and fabrication (anywhere from a little to a lot).

Dear @jcarr : Thank's to share your knowledge level. You are an expert and we are only audiophiles and some of us even a little " stupid " when we think we know everything in something we know really almost nothing.

Thank's again for put ligth on that matters/issue.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.