Cartridge repair by Moscow based Roman??

Great learning from the many comments so far. Thank you all. So just to be clear: I tried to slip the stylus guard onto the cartridge but in doing so ended up snapping the cantilever backwards and it broke off and got lost. Next, I will check out Expert Stylus, Andy Kim (anyone has his contacts), CartridgeLab and anyone else you recommend with a detailed chat before acting. I had started by checking with AT Japan. When I cleared the fog of confusion their English created I gathered that the replacement with a new piece could be done at $1000 which is way higher than the $876 I paid for it. Next, I am definitely interested if there were a lightly used cartridge from a known seller but will come back to this option after checking out the above re - tippers.

if you really want to fix your ART9 then don’t waste your time and go with Expert Stylus (UK) or SoundSmith (USA) if you want to insure yourself, this is where you can get the best possible quality, the rest of the re-tippers are not a company, but a private individuals, you never know what you will get from them. Some horrible stories about Andy Kim are on this forum, do not deal with him.

Actually every re-tipper will promise you everything, some will give you lower price, but you never know what you will get and how long you will be able to use refurbished cartridge. you can actually sell your broken AT to some re-tippers to get rid of this broken cartridge for some money.  

If your cantilever it broken then it is not just a re-tip, you need a new cantilever, if the cost is more than $600 it make no sense, you can find a better (used or even NOS) cartridge at $600 (MC or MM/MI) with decent cantilever and stylus tip. I think a new (fully original) cartridge is always better. If you choose between refurbisged ART9 for $600 or brand new ATR9 for $900 then it's much better to buy a new one for slightly higher price. 

AT service is much cheaper if your AT cartridge was purchased from official AT dealer, then you can just exchange old cartridge to a new one with discount. The situation you’re are in looks like your AT is grey market product, this is the reason you can’t send it back for exchange program.

Hi Chakster, thanks. The cartridge I bought was from the official dealer. Just the price they offered was the discounted price as JPY107k, compared to JPY140k for new. What is wrong here is that the retail discount at that time was very sharp from Needle Doctor, and the replacement price now is higher than the new price of 2 yrs ago. But valuable tips. Let me work on them.

Try to work it out with your AT dealer and let us know. I think it is very important for every AT owner.

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