Cartridge repair by Moscow based Roman??

@hdm this is fine, but it’s you and your cartridge/records, i don’t know anyone in this world who will use a Line Contact tip for 6000 hrs. If it is good for you please do not try to tell anyone that it is normal, because it is not.

You will never find anything what you said online in any documentation from anyone, so you don’t have to learn from me, indeed. But you can learn from experts and cartridge designers. 

The longest life span for a MR tip that i ever seen was for the brand new MR tip for ZYX Premium 4D and it was 2000 hrs estimate at 2g tracking force. Some cartridges can track at 1.2g tracking force and i can believe that MR tip on those cart can be used a bit longer.

How come anyone can use one LC tip for 6000 hrs over 7 years ? This is beyond my understanding, sorry. It’s like telling people that the earth is flat and lying on 3 turtles.

Here is an article from SoundSmith, i think as a re-tipper he could lower the typical life span of the styli, but not too much. Here is a quote from that article:

Wear, Tear and Life

So we know that the more extreme line contacts reduce wear.... but what is the difference?

Apparently according to Jico (manufacturer of the highly regarded SAS stylus), the amount of playing time where a stylus will maintain its specified level of distortion at 15kHz is as follows:

• Spherical / Conical - 150hrs
• Elliptical - 250hrs
• Shibata/Line contact - 400hrs
• SAS/MicroRidge - 500hrs

This is not to say that at 500 hrs a SAS stylus is "worn out" - but at that stage the wear has reached the point where distortion at 15kHz surpasses the level specified by Jico for a new stylus. (Which I believe is 3%).

Some manufacturers have traditionally defined a stylus as being "worn out" when it starts to damage the record... in these terms the figures provided by Jico can at least be doubled, and in some cases quadrupled.

Summary

In pure sonic terms on pristine vinyl a top notch elliptical can do as well as all but the very best Line Contact / Shibata styli, but will ultimately be surpassed by the better MicroLine styli.

However in terms of reduced wear on both stylus and records - the entry point is the Line contact / Shibata category.

In terms of playing back worn vinyl line contact stylus types also have an advantage in that they can contact "virgin" unworn vinyl.

Narrower side radius = improved tracking and reduced high frequency distortion.

Do we really need a peeing contest?

OP,
I would shoot Steven Leung an email with your details. He fixed a Koetsu for me that was dead in one channel in under 3 week turnaround at what I consider a fair price.

Yes you will need to send it to him for him to evaluate, he won't give you much of an idea by description or even photos.

Vasaudio@comcast.net

How come anyone can use one LC tip for 6000 hrs over 7 years ? This is beyond my understanding, sorry. It’s like telling people that the earth is flat and lying on 3 turtles.

Chak
That is NOT what HDM said at all.
He meant a culmination of 6000 hours total time from a number of carts, not on ONE stylus!


Btw, you mean we are NOT on Discworld?

☹️☹️

Even if i needed a re-tip i would never send my cartridge to Russia.

@uberwalts

I ran Denon 103R’s, both stock and modified (mainly with line contact styli) for about 7 years and about 6000 hours.

If you can explain then how many times it was re-tipped?
If the total is 6000 hrs then it must be re-tipped nearly 6 times, because Line Contact life span is about 1000 hrs max (read SoundSmith article above).

Was it re-cantilevered each time, because the one and only advantage of the aluminum cantilever is that a diamond can be pressure fitted through this cantilever with minimum glue.

If the tip was glued on existing cantilever then it’s inferior.

If the cantilever was replaced with a better one then the cost of such refurbishing job is equal to the better MC cartridge.

It’s been said many times on this forum, but people still ignoring it and always claimed the re-tip is fine and always better than the original etc and so on and on ...

But i agree with @hdm that it’s very bad idea to ship a cartridge for re-tip to Russia when there are at least SoundSmith in USA and Expert Stylus in UK ... both with very strong reputation and ages of experience.

The best way to get the ART-9 back to work is to ship it directly to Audio-Technica in USA or JAPAN and replace it with a brand new sample. Or continue suffering from purchase from grey market dealers with no support from the AT.

P.S. What he does with your Koetsu is probably just soldering together a broken wire for $400.

Let’s face it: It was not even re-tip on existing cantilever (very difficult job even for SoundSmith) or replacement of the whole cantilever (stadard process for re-tippers).

If someone will do that the total cost will be 50% of the AT retail, because this cartridge can be found for $900 NEW or even cheaper. A low hrs (perfectly working) AT ART-9 can be purchased much cheaper than NEW. In my opinion re-tip or re-cantilevering make no sense at all for this model, it will cost too much and the sound will be different. This is a relatively cheap LOMC and if it was a grey market sample then it’s better to find a MINT- condition used sample with discount if having ART-9 is so important.