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

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.

For anyone who continually posting that all cantilevers are the same and comes from the same manufacturers, please show me a Boron cantilever like this one designed and patended by ZYX for their Airy, Premium 4D and related expensive models. I’m tired to post this example, but this is in fact a unique cantilever construction and none of the vendors can do the same, they does not have access to this cantilever type.

As for the vintage types of the cantilever i must say they are all different, there are many of them, they are not the same and made individually for specific cartridge designer. Even aluminum cantilevers are all different. Even when you change one Boron to another Boron they are not the same. Ruby, Diamond, Beryllium are also different, there are many different Ruby, different Beryllium, different Diamond cantilevers. And the diamonds are also completely different. So you have no idea what a retipper will use as an alternative even if the type of cantilever (or stylus profile) is the same as the original. Especially if the original cantilever was made 35 years ago and replaced to something made today. I’ve checked maybe more than 50 top cartridges from the 70s/80s (and some new carts too) under macro lens and took a pictures of each of them. Different manufacturer have been using different cantilevers and different diamonds.

Retippers normally limited to one of each type, no more (made today).
Some cheaper retippers can use donors (parts replaced from used cartridges).

Always buy an originals, don't bother with the crap

Good luck

Dear chakster, I know that you are very fond of those '''hollow''
boron tubes or cantilevers. But how many do you like? As you can
see on your own picture there is one extra tube on your ZYX in
which the stylus is glued. What one does not see is the extra
aluminum ''tube'' on which the coils are fastened and in which
the cantilever/stylus combo is glued. The so called ''join pipe''.
When I posted my sample to Axel he installed an new boron
cantilever and his ''nude Shibata'' instead of this ''remarkable''
ZYX cantilever. Why do you think that this way of installing the
stylus is better than usual? Or, to put this otherwise, why is one
extra tube necessary? When this stylus is wear off the new
stylus can't be glued instead. So the whole new cantilever/stylus
combo will be needed which is much more expensive than stylus
only exchange. Or so I think because of my own experience. 
BTW what I admire in Axel's work is his persistence to do his
job. As I wrote in my ''irreparable carts'' thread those glued 
together plastic bodies have no ''entrance'' possibility to their 
inside parts. How then should an ''retipper'' fix, say, the damping
 or the coils of such cart? Axel cut and drilled the body to get
inside. I don't believe other retipper will even try to do this.
BTW he was not able to fix this way my Sony XL 88 D. 
This Sony was of the same ''plastic glued together body''.