Received The MC2000 Back From Expert Stylus Today

Hi neonknigh,  deed you got also the sapphire cantilever? Try to find

Orsonic headshell. You can't adjust stylus distance nor  azimuth

with an wooden headshell. 

Why did the cantilever need repair? The original stylus is press fitted. Was he able to do the same with the new one? What tonearm? Thx.

@nandric No, I kept the factory cantilever in place, this cartridge was considered among the top of the world when it was produced, I want to hear what it sounds like in stock form. The tapered aluminum alloy cantilever is critical to that sound. The Yamamoto wood headshells allows for both distance and azimuth adjustment. The Orsonic is too high mass to be used with this cartridge. You want as low a mass headhsell as possible, the Fidelity Research I have it on now if 5 grams, the boxwood Yamamoto is 5.5 grams. 

@lewm When I received the MC2000 I briefly installed it to give it a listen, and it performed like there was no diamond. I did look at the diamond was missing. Now I don't know if I received it from the seller that way, or if it separated when I cued it down due to bad timing. The reality is it did not matter because it was already going to Expert to get a new diamond since the cartridge is decades old and I have no idea how many hours were on the diamond. I also wanted the T2000 transformer the seller had, and it worked out well for me as he sold me the transformer several weeks later. When Hodgson inspected it he said the end of the cantilever would need repairs. I did not press him on how he did it, but the cantilever is whole, there is very very little epoxy at the diamond installation, and it in fact looks like a factory installation. It tracks well and has a very low noise floor, so far everything is pointing to a top rate job. 

Tone arm is a Dynavector DV505. I have a pair of them mounted on a Scheu Das Laufwerk No 2 turntable, and an Esoteric E-03 phono stage with 2 inputs. So if I am inclined I can compare two cartridges with the same supporting components all the way down the audio chain. 

I think we went over this ground before the repair. I also have my MC2000 mounted on a DV505, using a CF headshell. Mine was retipped by Axel, with original aluminum cantilever and original or original shape stylus, which I think was press fitted (no visible epoxy). Dave Slagle made the active step up device .

@lewm If there is epoxy it is very little, I pretty much see the tiniest spot of black diamond, and since diamond is typically clear I assume that has to be epoxy that is being used. But it is nothing like you see when a diamond is mounted to a solid boron cantilever. 

Well Axel is retired, and the choice of retippers available is diminishing, at least those with a great number of years of experience. Also its getting exponentially harder to find MC2000 that are good candidates for restoration. Most of the ones I see anymore have been abused and are on Ebay with bent or skewed cantilevers. Perhaps they make a good choice for a boron transplant like Raul thought sounded nice, but if you want one in original form it is a very difficult endeavor. Which is a shame, because from what I hear these are exceptional cartridges.