Refurbished / Re-tipped Cartridges - Are they worth Buying?

Agree with those above who have had good experience with Soundsmith rebuilds. Peter rebuilt a Lyra Skala for me a year ago and I’ve been very happy it. It is a beautiful, musical experience listening to records now.

Once he gets the cart he does an assessment of what needs to be done and what options you have. He is very clear on cost up front, so it’s a user friendly experience. Plus my wife was very happy that I spent under $1k instead of $9k+ on a new Lyra.

Another reason to prefer the factory is the parts selection process. A factory can afford to order many parts and use the best only for its most expensive cartridges, and sell or throw away the dregs. A retipper, perhaps not.

When it comes to most moving coil cartridges "retipping" is a misnomer. They simply hand you a new cartridge in exchange for the old one. What happens to the old one is a mystery. My guess is that most of them find the round file.  I personally would never have a pricey MC like Raul's Lambda SL replaced by anyone other than the original manufacturer. 

Vintage cartridges are another story. I have tended to shy away from these as I was never impressed with their build quality. Now, companies like Jico are manufacturing replacement styluses for legacy cartridges with modern materials. Sentimentality finally got ahold of me and I purchased 2 Shure V 15V cartridge bodies with the intent of getting Jico styluses for them. Back in the day the V15 was the cartridge to own and I wonder how it stacks up against modern cartridges. Curiosity killed the cat. 

Regarding Manufacturers using newer methods or parts. I had an interesting experience of 'older' and very similar upgraded versions.  I have an Ortofon MC Anna Diamond that I bought used from a dealer I trust, but partly on the basis that the price paid plus Ortofon's refurb cost* was less than the price of the new cartridge, so I figured if I got 'half' life cycle and a full cycle on refurb I'd done ok to good.

But when I upgraded my main room turntable and the old one went to the lounge I decided to not put a cheaper cartridge and ordered an MC Diamond that has the Multi Wall Carbon Nanotube technology they developed and used on the Verismo.  Whilst I had heard one, I hadn't heard it comparatively on my system and replaced the Anna (which had sounded great) on the new deck and I was impressed by an immediate improvement, better than I had heard on the demo. 

So if Ortofon want to use that new nanotube technology when they eventually rebuild my Anna (and I have had well over a half life with it so far) I for one would be very happy to have the 'new' process included.  In fact I plan to ask them for it. 

*which is described in full and is basically a clean out of everything from the titanium shell and then a rebuild to the production process.  

stateside, if they been retipped by one of the big 3 -- VAS, soundsmith or groovetickler, then yes theyre worth it.