Any experience with Sound Smith repairing stylus on non-Sound Smith cartridges?
I was reaching across my Rega P8 turntable with Linn Krystal cartridge (four months old with 250 hours), and the back of my finger hit the stylus, and severely bent / broke the stylus and cantilever, as the stylus is now pointing straight down,and the tip is facing backwards (instead of down). I was probably going to send the Linn cartridge to Sound Smith for repair. Has anyone had experience with their various stylus repair options for Linn (or other non-Sound Smith) cartridges?
Thanks.
I had them re-tip my Hana SH. The diamond just disintegrated after about 300 hrs. I had them do the Ruby Cantilever / Nude Contact Line Diamond. Great work received it back in 2 weeks. Blows away the original SH. Much better highs, deeper more defined bass. I just love the sound. I went with the middle of the line just to try their work, very satisfied. Kind if wished I went with the next level. |
@drbond , Soundsmith is perfectly capable of doing a SOTA rebuild on just about any cartridge. It is safest to use the same type of stylus the cartridge was supplied with. If you change profiles even going for a more modern one, you can not be quite sure what will happen. If you are going to upgrade in the near future this is certainly the cheapest way to get back to playing records fast. Linn does not make cartridges at all. Someone else does it for them and brands it as a Linn. Lots of companies do this. whart's Air Tight is actually a MySonicLab creation. |
Peter did a retip on my Transfiguration and it came out great. As far as the original sound, you have to remember that by the time you send a cartridge in for a retip, it’s because the sound is off somewhat, so it’s hard to know. But it does sound excellent. And it was nice paying $500 instead of $5k for a new one. As far as what to do, I let Peter decide what was best. He ended up just doing the stylus and leaving everything else. |
I broke the cantilever on my Clearaudio Virtuouso Wood cart and had it rebuilt by Soundsmith. It sounded great. When I broke it again (arggh!), I sent it to Andy Kim, who was much faster and if I remember correctly, the price was a little less. I recently sent a trashed Zu Denon DL 103 that came with a turntable I bought to Andy and it sounded amazing when he was done with it. Soundsmith does quality work and if that's your preference, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Andy is another option worth considering. |
