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

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.

@thehorn Let me ask you a few questions:

If you, or anybody else, is so happy about refurbished cartridges then why not just buy all the cartridges broken for peanuts and send them to SoundSmith ? A broken ZYX cost $250 instead of $5000. Sounds like a good plan ? Just add $350-700 for SS rebuild. Genius ? Are you sure ?

Maybe some people just don’t understand or they don’t know yet that SoundSmith refurbished is "always better than the original" ? Right ? Or not ?

For those people J.Carr’s opinion is not the authority at all, they always think they know better than one of the most advanced cartridge designer (the owner of Lyra brand).

It’s funny to look at reaction of some members when they can read different opinion, but it’s important to hear both sides to make your own conclusion. This is why i am posting here. A few member doesn’t like it, but i don’t care.

Your cartridge available cheaper from other dealers and i hope you can make your own search, also a component retail price stated in this review as $850.

Anyone can buy a better cartridge even for $350-450, for example the Audio-Technica AT-ML150 OCC with Beryllium Cantilever (much better than Aluminum) and MicroLine stylus (one of the best ever). This is MM cartridge. In my previous post i have mentioned a LOMC cartridge for nearly the same price with exotic cantilever. Now you can compare SS prices for cantilevers like Boron or Ruby with the most advanced diamonds. They are more expensive than entirely new cartridges. Taking in count what J.Carr said i would never spend on refurbishing when the original (better) cartridges available for the same price.

This is my personal opinion as a cartridge collector. I’ve had 4 Dynavector cartridges, the last one on the shelf is KARAT DV-17D2. I have never seen a refurbished cartridge that can be better than the original cartridge (if we’re talking about good ones). Even if you can upgrade an inferior cartridge with better cantilever/stylus there will be another original cartridge that will much be better.

And yes, in this aspect i trust J.Carr more than to anyone else on here, becase they are not cartridge designers (unfortunately).

Cartridge refurbishing service is a compromise and a good business too, some vendors can do the quality job, some can’t. I’ve seen under macro lens many cartridges, including refurbished carts. SS can do the excellent job, but not better than the origina cartridge designer (when it comes to a good cartridges).  

For this reason i have recommended SoundSmith cartridges originally designed by Peter L. as a good alternative to any refurbished carts. You have to watch his lecture and you will see why he prefer an MI over MC.