Anybody out there re-cantilever their cartridge with a Soundsmith Contact Line diamond ?

@jollytinker, my comment wasn't meant for you, apparently you haven't met the intended target.

For me, the most significant information in the cited post by J Carr, who does know about this stuff, is that the cartridge is a closed system made up of parts that have been selected to work well together, or at least according to the designers idea and ingenuity.  If one wants to preserve the SQ one paid for in the original purchase, one is well advised at least to stick with the same cantilever material and stylus geometry as per the original, when re-tipping.  Thus, for example, one ought not to install a boron cantilever in a cartridge that was originally designed with an aluminum cantilever in mind.  This is according to J Carr's post; I have no dog in the fight.  So also, if one believes that the ZYX boron cantilever is unique to ZYX and cannot be obtained through the services of any after market re-tipper, then one is obliged to go back to ZYX for the re-tip.  I wonder if the same can be said for Koetsu.

In general, I agree with whoever said that there is a very finite choice of companies that make cantilever/styli.  So in general, but maybe not always, all the re-tippers must work with a very few suppliers.  Perhaps ZYX and some others are exceptions, because it certainly is possible that such boutique companies have exclusive deals with the few suppliers in existence; that's why they get the big bucks.

The question is : what are the sources of one's information?
My, say, theoretical source, is the information we got from
J. Carr, according to whom the least intrusive is stylus only
change. Nobody ever mentioned damper (''rubber ring'') change
while we have no idea about ditto suppliers . From my friend
Axel Schurholz I know first that changing the stylus only is much
more difficult than cantilever/stylus combo as provided by the
suppliers. But the price difference is about 200 versus 500 euro.
So, obviously, the retippers will prefer the combo. 
Then not all styli shapes are available to all retippers. This means
reduction of choice, I wrote to Japanese ''jewel'' companies 
for Axel who accepted too many orders but never got answers
from them. So the styli choices were reduced to boron/nude
Shibata or aluminum /elliptical. The problem by stylus only retip
was according to Axel the right dimensions for an particular sample.
BTW he refused to do ''stylus only'' repair so I moved to ''Expert
stylus. UK''. This company produce their own stylus called 
''Paratrace'' which looks like micro ridge. This work is done by their
their chef engineer with 40 years experience.
Depending from  one's perception of the involved costs and own
means one will chose accordingly. I seem to be more pragmatic in
 this sense than my Slavic brother chakster. Despite the fact that 
I can afford more expansive solution I will always choose for stylus only solution. 

Thank you Gentlemen,

 for your contributions. And @chakster, very good of you to take the time to draft such a comprehensive post. Seems like you have a good heart.

@tooblue ; your sense of humour appears to contain elements of provocation. Our jibs have a similar cut.

 

Guys for me, my listening room is 13x14x8, with a 7ft wide archway which leads into another 13x14x8 room. The room is treated with conventional materials, front wall has a heavy blind, crown-mouldings, corner book cases, rug, and picture frames. Had I an 18-20x28-35 room with 12ft ceilings, I might consider changing my preamp for one that could boost a LOMC 0.03-0.25. But sonically/financially I can't justify shelling out that kind of money to jump on the Law of Diminishing Returns game. Further more I am not interested in adding another phono preamp either. I like my preamp.

 

I run an Oracle Delphi II table, with a modified Rega RB300 tonearm. The arm is rewired and has the elliptical Kerry Titanium counterweight.

Cartridges are the Grado Sonata I, and the Dynavector 20x2.

My Pre-Amp is a two box AUDION Premier 2.0 Line Preamplifier / MM, with four Siemens E88CC 6922 tubes.

Tuner: Philips AH673

Amp is a Classe' Audio DR9

Speakers are 946 Focal Electra's, and I keep a pair of Meadowlark Heron Hot Rods laying around.

Cables are XLO UltraPlus and I use Kimber speaker wire.

 

It's not a bad system. Would I like to move up to a Class A amp and run a pair of Martin Logan Summits - - perhaps. But in my room I don't think they'd work.

 

So as you can see Gentlemen I'm limited to either a HOMC cartridge or a MM. Getting back to @chakster, I'm not sure where you've found a Dynavector 20x2 for $800 dollars? The Needle Doctors wants $1,150.00 US, plus being Canadian the exchange tacks on another 36 cents/dollar.

 

Cartridge exchange: $700 CDN/$520 US. Rebuild $350 US/$475 CDN.

Classe DR9 is already Class A.