Koetsu Urushi stylus shape

Dear @thekong  : "  about 20 years ago...." or today no re-tipper will make that your original cartridge performs the same, no one.

R.

Hello, I came across this thread a bit late but I have first hand experience with what is being discussed so I thought to chime in - if a bit late. I have a small collection of Sugano built Koetsu which I am rather fond of. My favourites are two MKI Urushi which were the swan song of his personal production. These were the first to feature platinum magnets and unlike the Urushi of today have aluminium chassis with the Urushi lacquer on the outside much thicker than you see in todays models. This cartridge weighs 13g and I prefer them to Jades and Coralstones. I used the first one for several years until the stylus departed and being of the opinions stated above I sent it to Expert Stylus. It came back with the stylus grossly askew and when I mentioned this they said it must have been my mishandling and I would have to pay for another retip. I went forward despite the fact that I had not mishandled the cartridge. Upon return the cartridge in no way sounded like it had before, all the magic was stripped from the presentation, even after 50 or so hours of break in, and thus I shelved it. I pulled out its stable mate, only several serial numbers apart, and the difference was gross, night and day. The rebuild had none of what I seek in Koetsu. Eventually I sent it back to Koetsu and it was more than fully restored exceeding its older and more worn stable mate on its return. There are a lot of opinions floating around. The real life experience above means I will only be sending my Koetsu off to Koetsu for rebuilds. It is common to see third party rebuilt Koetsu for sale and this is for a reason - you lose a beautiful cartridge along with the cost of the cheap and disappointing rebuild...

Following the advice of Raul, I finally sent my Urushi off to Expert Stylus. In my opinion, they were very professional from start to finish. They determined that the OEM cantilever and suspension were in fine shape and did not need work. They then replaced the OEM stylus (whatever it is) with a Paratrace (whatever that is). The whole transaction took not more than a month, including back and forth shipping, and they paid the return shipping cost. (I live on the East coast, USA.) I now have a few hours on it, and I feel very strongly that the cartridge is at least as good as or in fact better than it ever was. I agree with Mijostyn that one’s aural memory for detailed sonics is poor at best; suffice to say I am very happy with the re-tipped Urushi and have moved it up a few notches among my LOMC cartridges. In contrast, I sent two other lesser cartridges to SS on about the same date, and 8 weeks later I have no new info on those two, except they were received. Not that I lack faith in SS to do a great job eventually. (Those are vintage MI types; no factory repair or re-tip is available.)

Thermio, I feel for you, but my experience with Expert was very different from yours, obviously. I am curious, did Expert replace both cantilever and stylus on your Urushi? Because if they replaced only the stylus, it hardly seems credible that they could blame you for its being askew, if that was the case.  Did they imply you had removed and re-glued a stylus tip?  Not something most of us could even attempt at home.