I’m not saying he’s a liar. I’m saying that he proposes an argument that is either convincing or not to you.
Teach me about cartridge 'retipping'
Thought I would throw this out there for comment by long time vinyl aficionados...
We all have cartridges we love, some are pricey treasures... but they wear out eventually even with much care and diligence in use.
There are still some good folks with excellent reputations doing retip services of various makes - Peter at SS, Andy Kim in WA, Steve Leung in NJ etc etc... not to mention some of the manufacturers of course, who still do them. It would seem to me these old craftsmen may or may not be passing along these valuable skills to younger apprentices.
I have bought a couple Grace F9 retips from Peter Ledermann - they work wonderfully. No longer having a fresh factory F9L I will never know whether they sound different. But they sound great.
Curious to hear comments about how these retips are done, and whether they can reliably reproduce the original sound signature of the cartridge. I wonder, for instance, about how the cantilever is removed and reinstalled, relative to the suspension of the original cartridge, etc etc. Is the suspension replaced? What is a suspension comprised of, for example, in a typical higher end MC cart like a Dynavector a Lyra a VDH...
Of course, as time passes, the original cartridges age and I can imagine suspensions in them eventually get compromised as well...
We all have cartridges we love, some are pricey treasures... but they wear out eventually even with much care and diligence in use.
There are still some good folks with excellent reputations doing retip services of various makes - Peter at SS, Andy Kim in WA, Steve Leung in NJ etc etc... not to mention some of the manufacturers of course, who still do them. It would seem to me these old craftsmen may or may not be passing along these valuable skills to younger apprentices.
I have bought a couple Grace F9 retips from Peter Ledermann - they work wonderfully. No longer having a fresh factory F9L I will never know whether they sound different. But they sound great.
Curious to hear comments about how these retips are done, and whether they can reliably reproduce the original sound signature of the cartridge. I wonder, for instance, about how the cantilever is removed and reinstalled, relative to the suspension of the original cartridge, etc etc. Is the suspension replaced? What is a suspension comprised of, for example, in a typical higher end MC cart like a Dynavector a Lyra a VDH...
Of course, as time passes, the original cartridges age and I can imagine suspensions in them eventually get compromised as well...
- ...
- 61 posts total
I read this comment all the time on forums but not one customer has ever said, “Great work! But it sounds different than it did before and I wish I bought a new one instead.” That has happened exactly zero times. Quite the opposite. People are very very happy to have their cartridge back. People often know nothing about cartridges, turntables, tonearms ... etc. Most comments are irrelevant and can’t be used as evidence that re-tipping or rebuild with different materials are any better (if the original cartridge wasn’t entry level model like those 103 that are so easy to upgrade). People suffering when their only cartridge is broken and they want to get it back to life quickly, that’s it, they are happy once it’s back to their tonearm and they can continue to enjoy their music. Most of them are even more happy when they can pay less than retail price of a brand new cartridge. But they are not an experts, they are average users of analog systems. Reading comments from such people when they are raving about retipping/rebuild you’re quickly realize that it might be their 5th cartridge in entire life (or probably first MC). Those comments are useless for those who really understand what is a good cartridge and why certain original cartridge is so special. |
chakster People often know nothing about cartridges, turntables, tonearms ... etc. Most comments are irrelevant and can’t be used as evidence ... People suffering when their only cartridge is broken and they want to get it back to life quickly ... Most of them are even more happy when they can pay less than retail price of a brand new cartridge. But they are not an experts, they are average users of analog systems ... it might be their 5th cartridge in entire life (or probably first MC). Those comments are useless for those who really understand what is a good cartridge and why certain original cartridge is so special.There is so much speculation here in one post that it boggles the mind. I am simply confounded that retipping of MC cartridges is so derided by some. |
Chakster is right, though. Answers about quality and capacity to recognize quality, must be qualified. the old analog crew with the greatest level of knowledge and lore, is pretty well gone. and there are people celebrating their new carts as being newly re-tipped. Good on them. But does the re-tipped cartridge exceed the original version, from back in the day? that is a giant unknown. If someone who was enjoying a re-tip were to explain their background in cartridges and analog experiences... and what they look for in a cartridge and how they hear... then maybe we could qualify and quantify their opinion. Professional reviewers are that person, in most cases. Someone whom we have a reference point for. A disturbing amount of mediocrity in audio is touted as being the best. There is a reason for that. It's a bell curve, the middle is fat and thinks it represents all that there is. The middle could not be more wrong. It is a smaller number of examples, but the same still happens in the rest of the audio world. A reality we face. One that is inevitably endemic to the newly more common aspect of cartridge re-tipping. |
- 61 posts total