Cartridge Damaged, need advise on getting new

There’s every chance it will be as good as it was when new, assuming the person who works on it knows exactly what he or she is doing. It most likely won’t be the same as before, but that’s a different matter altogether.

I’ve had a number of cartridges retipped or rebuilt (by Soundsmith, Benz Micro, VdH, Expert Stylus) and every one sounded just as good or better than before. The latest, an AT-OC10, was a particular success and is now about as good as anything I’ve heard after a trip to Soundsmith.

As long as you’re not swapping the boron cantilever and line contact stylus for something inferior you have nothing to worry about.

I had Soundsmith do 3 retips for me over the years. I wouldn’t expect them to be better. Maybe as good as original if your lucky. But all three i had done sounded different than original. I even did a direct comparison between a retip emt tsd15 and a brand new one. Very different sounding. I think some people send in worn cartridges and get them back sounding better because they sounded bad at the time of being worn out. I don’t feel any retip is as good as original. Unless maybe the denon 103 people seem to like to retip. No experience with this. I do recommend SoundSmith though. Their work is excellent and both the Peters are great to do business with. For $450 they will make your worthless broken cartridge into something quite decent. If you don’t like it you can probably sell it for more than that.

Really, I was advised it may actually sound even better.

Of course, for this reason there are so many re-tipped cartridges for sale on ebay.

If a re-tipper himself will tell you that after his service it will be better than Dynavector then why he’s not a cartridge designer who can make much better cartridges using his magic parts ?

You’d better read what cartridge designers like J.Carr (Lyra) posted about re-tipping process here on augiogon long time ago, and why it must be avoided if you like the original sound of certain manufacturer (like Dyna for example). Especially if your re-tipper will change the whole cantilever.

And people who always claimed re-tipped cartridge is better than the original can’t even compare original to re-tipped sample, normally they got their re-tipped cartridge in a few month since it was shipped to re-tipper. If you can compare one thing to another with 3-5 month gap between the listening session then you must have some special computer brain.

Normally A/B comparison is the answer to all the question.

P.S. In my opinion it's better to buy another original cartridge. Personally i would never re-tip/refurbish any cartridge if original manufacturer can't service them with original parts. 

You can only upgrade very bad cartridges like Denon DL103 with better parts (different cantilever, different stylus profile), but if you cartridge already top class then it's not a good idea. Re-tippers have no idea about calculation made by cartridge designers, the sound can be way off that calculations. J. Carr explained it as a cartridge designers, so i trust him, not a re-tippers. 

I will say again that i think retipping is a good choice if finances are an issue. I’d rather have a top cartridge retipped than a brand new inferior cartridge. @chakster 
did you read my last post? I had an emt tsd 15 retipped by Soundsmith. Im actually listening to it at the moment. When i got it back i compared it directly to a new one with about 20 hours on it. Both were very different sounding. The original was definitely better though. But the retip didn’t cost much and for 1/4 the cost it’s money well spent. It’s good too. Just not as good as the original. This whole retipping thing should be looked at for what it is. Cost effective. I see people trying to sell retips for high prices, thinking they are like new again. They are not. A retip is just a retip. 

Too add: years ago someone visiting broke my transfiguration temper w. I listened to cd’s for a year because i couldn’t afford a new one. SoundSmith to the rescue. For $450 I was back listening to my system. Just kidding. I never did actually listened to many cd’s.