Teach me about cartridge 'retipping'

I just had my Benz Micro Wood M2 cartridge serviced by Steve Leung at VAS. It was very dirty and rusty after 8 years of no use... For $350, Steve did a great job servicing the damper, suspension and lightly polished the stylus diamond to spec as well. I did that not thoroughly researching enough as I likely would have been better off getting the cartridge rebuilt. It does sound great though..
But, I’m glad I didn’t as I changed lanes and wound up buying a Benz Micro LP-S a few days ago and will sell my Wood M2 along with my
Basis 2001 t.t./Rega RB900 arm since I upgraded to a Vertere Acoustics MG-1/SG-1.

But if you intend on keeping your cartridge, I agree, get it rebuilt.

I apologize if this is a bit off topic, but how many of you remember Needlestein (Joseph) on AudioKarma. He put up so many amazing posts and threads on AK regarding cartridges, styli, detailed pics of needle shapes/profiles, etc. over a period of years. It was extremely useful and excellent information. He unfortunately got kicked off of AK for breaking some kinda rule regarding his retipping carts for people on AK, which he of course charged for. I had him retip a few of my carts, and he always did a fantastic job. He now offers his services on eBay. 

The most terrible thing is when he was removed from AK, so we’re ALL of his amazing words of wisdom, his informative posts, and even the phenomenal  pics of different stylus shapes and profiles taken with a digital microscope. Just, POOF! Gone! It sucked. 

@technick, I remember him well and he was a wealth of information. I understand why he was kicked off AK and he was warned repeatedly about selling his services in the TT forum. But to delete all of his post was a terrible thing to do.

BillWojo

Speakers can be upgraded with different parts. Amplifiers, CD players, phono stages, turntables, tone arms- even speaker cables, power cords and interconnects can be upgraded in the aftermarket. Only phono cartridges cannot.

Re-tippers can buy only what’s available from Namiki or Ogura (or maybe some others), while the cartridge manufacturers can order exclusive parts patented/manufactured for their own cartridges only. But the question is not even a quality of parts, but a calculation of mass, resonances etc that only original designed can do manufacturing/voicing his own high-end cartridge. Sometime this is a long process and they try different parts before choosing what they are using. Why do you think re-tipper in his garage can do better if he don’t even have an access to those exclusive parts manufactured only for the specific cartridge designers?

You can upgrade weak parts in the products (like amps whatever), not sure how you can upgrade a reference class, you can only change something pretending for upgrade, but only certain kind of people have this habit, most of them are very strange, the best of them design their own products instead of upgrading others.

Cartridge is the most important part in analog chain.

Everyboby knows JICO, their stylus SAS (bury, boron, sapphire) replacements for old MM cartridges is an upgrade for mediocre cartridges, but not an upgrade for top of the line reference class cartridges. Many original styli are much better than best SAS replacement. With MM you can immediately change your stylus and compare, with MC people are waiting for their cartridges from a re-tipper for a 1-5 month and they can’t compare re-tipped and the original, but i think it’s very important to compare side by side the original and re-tipped sample (I did that with some very rare re-tipped/refurbished MM).

Another weird habit is to invest over $1k to a $300 cartridge, some people love it. Denon 103 is one of them, instead of buying a nice $1500 cartridge they are happy to invest $1000-1500 into a $300 cartridge and raving about the result they are hearing. 

Chakster,

The other important point to ponder is: not all things are known about how to upgrade a cartridge, nor is all lore and intelligence applied available only to the makers of the past.

New things or new ideas do show up in the now, not just in the past. New thinking can create new advantage, in newer products. It’s not just a rehashing of the old, with a set of now limited resources, all downturn...as you are saying.

As in, all is not lost.

Eg, if I come up with a new understanding and then apply it on a current build or design, there is as a chance or opportunity.. that it may exceed some of the cartridges of old, in some given important ways. Ways that people can clearly hear.

It’s not all about a downturn and forgetting our history, and losing the lore and physical devices, etc...in the mists of time.

Advantage and change and elevation from the old can come from different directions. (delineated specific ways, of course, not some nebulous nonspecific overall)

So, if i say I’ve taken a current design and made changes that elevate it from what is currently at the peak of lets say MM design (that is current manufacture), there is no real credible reason to doubt that to the point of outright dismissal, especially if one has not listened to it.

To say such a thing would be disingenuous and misleading for all the wrong reasons, and none of the right ones. It would ruin the logic of your position by being a falsifiable position. Falsifiable via listening, possibly... but immediately falsifiable by logic alone.

New thinking and new application of said new thinking can/may/might elevate to new levels, it can/may/might make the current deficits less of a problem....if done correctly.

In effect, If someone comes along and is doing their best to take current design to a new level and reclaim some of the older lost ground and quality levels, in some way... where.. if you sit there and say, as a response... "it's no good compared to what used to be available, and that one must try to only buy the very limited number of old NOS cartridges in order to get to the best", well, that's just disingenuous and damaging to the potential of the now, and the future. 

It can be interpreted by some, as saying 'only older things are good, all your new stuff is junk'. To judge without reason, in some small to possibly major way, depending on how it is voiced. I personally don't think that is your intent, but it seems to be sounding to any reader as being that way.