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Who's done it besides me ?

The worst thing you could do while playing some vinyl snap off the *&%$# cantilever yes I did it so pissed
So my table is a Clearaudio Performance DC with Clarify arm ,Talismann cartridge ,Outer Limit weight and HRS record weight 
When to flip the record took everything off flip the record then put HRS back on when to put on the Outer Limit on and SNAP caught it with the side of my pinky I guess boron cantilever are really brittle can't find it any where accept a few shards I'm allways so careful I keep the guard and dust cover on when not using it 
So if you have totaled your cartridge how did you do it and did you replace it retip it upgraded it or down graded it like to hear your stories and you can see my rig in virtual systems 
Time to take a deep breath and pour a bourbon and no I didn't have one before LOL

Enjoy your music
Tom
128x128tomstruck
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
millercarbon doesn't look like a Stanton on your tonearm  LOL

Look closely, Grasshopper. You have eyes yet you do not see.
Technics SL1700, Stanton 681EEE. 
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367#&gid=1&pid=11




yeti42's avatar
yeti42
287 posts
 
I’ve always avoided cartridges where the cantilever sticks out the front like the Lyras and Clearaudios because I know what I’m like. My lesson came cheap from my first moving coil, a Goldring Eroica L of which I bent the cantilever fitting it to a Townshend Rock mk2/rega 300.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
The Stanton has an aluminum baseball bat for a cantilever. Bend it enough and it will tear. Boron is very strong but brittle. Go far enough and they just snap. They stick the cantilever out there so that there are no reflections off the body. Lyra does the same thing. Like a wood turning lathe you have to be very deliberate when you approach it as you are always close to disaster. 
I did snap the cantilever off a Grado. But, it was an old worn out cartridge. I was playing around with it under a microscope. I'm not having it retipped. If I do another Grado it will be an Aeon. 
Old MM cartridges can not compete with a modern MC cartridge or a Grado. I have never used a Soundsmith cartridge so I can't say for sure but I suspect them also. 
justmetoo's avatar
justmetoo
381 posts
 
Actually I still quite don't know HOW it really happened, but that very front, squeezed flat part of the alu cantilever, where the stylus is inserted, of my gorgeous sounding SURE V15 III MR... alu cantilever snapped or just fell off during simple foreward cleaning strokes of my stylus brush.
It broke off exactly by the fold/transition line from the tubular to the squeezed flat part. 
I do have a suspicion, that it might have been helped by corrosion of the aluminium, it looked darkish grey, not the usual more silverish colour. 
Has anyone ever experienced such a thing at all?
Michélle 
larryi
4,112 posts
 
I've never damaged a cartridge that way.  Nothing gets close to the stylus, except for stylus cleaning tools.  I would never use a perimeter clamp/weight because of the inconvenience and risk of accidentally hitting the stylus.  

I don't have to worry about accidentally putting the needle down on a moving platter, or accidentally hitting the arm off of its rest because the arm is always cued up when not in play.  I cue up at the end of the record and only cue down when it comes time to play the record.  

I like cartridges with the stylus sticking out in front because they are much easier to clean and to align properly.  
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