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. 

 

drbond

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.

Soundsmith retipped my Monster Cable Sigma Genesis 2000 cartridge (don't laugh, it was made by Zyx) and did a great job. It was not a fast turnaround, but within the time they estimated.

I would guess that SS does more retipping of other brands than it does on its own cartridges. You will be hard pressed to find a negative review of their work. In my case, I had them redo a Grace Ruby with sapphire cantilever and OCL stylus. (Original Ruby has elliptical stylus.) I am very pleased with results.

@mijostyn 

The Linn Krystal has a aluminum tube cantilever, with a vital fine line stylus (whatever that means).  It seems like aluminum would be the reasonable replacement option from Sound Smith:

Aluminum Alloy Cantilever; Nude Hyper- Elliptical Diamond $200

 

Sound Smith recommended the Boron, because of "the stylus profile", and it's also the most expensive option

Boron Cantilever with Nude Contact Line $450

 

What do you think would match best with the Linn vital fine line stylus?
Thanks. 

@drbond, Boron generally stiffer and most high end cartridges are using it now with a few using diamond. One uses a cactus spine! I would go with Soundsmith's ruby cantilever and OCCL stylus. They use this set up in the Sussurro and The Voice so, I know they have it available. The question is will they put it in someone else's cartridge? I think the OCCL stylus is going to be the closest to the Krystal "vital fine line" stylus. 

My problem with the aluminum cantilever is the way the stylus has to be mounted leaves a lot of mass at the end of the cantilever in the worst place. As far as aluminum cantilevers go I think AT makes the best one, a tapered tube. I think they use it in the VM760SLC. The Ruby cantilever in the Soundsmith cartridges is very fine. It is red which is cool but it looks like it would snap at the slightest tap. It is actually very tough and holds up well.