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

Interesting topic -Rebuilt vs "mildly" used.  Rebuilt IF, you know the rebuilder is experienced and skilled in this delicate craft and has proven results such as customer reviews.  Industry recognition would also be a plus.  If rebuilder is local to you, it might be prudent to visit the shop and check out their work.  In a perfect word they may even have a TT or two set up to hear the quality of the rebuilds that you are considering.  If not local does rebuilder have an active website so customers can communicate with them.  As for used if there is a source that you trust, such as audiophile forums, Audio dealers, etc. that might be an option.  In either case Happy Hunting.  Ps;  there are some quality new cartridges available at affordable prices if you shop around 

Dear @vetsc5  : Rebuilt/refurbished vs re-tipper. Here some of us couls have a little confusion because both terms are different.

Rebuild means: carrridge re-coil, new suspension , new cantilever/stylus  and some time even output pin connectors when normally re-tipper means cantilever + stylus.

Forme no matter what rebuild/refurbished is forbiden in a cartridge and cartridge second hand re-tipped too.

That is different when the re-tip is made to a cartridge I own and that I know perfetly his quality level performance.

@inagroove  that's exactly my first hand multiple experiences with.

@viridian  , agree with you. Normally I ask to the re-tipper to change only the stylus and the cantilever when it's totally necessary.

R.

I've used Soundsmith several times and always been thrilled with the results. If you have one of their cartridges retipping is very affordable at about 20% the cartridge price.

I usually buy gently used and get a cartridge I couldn't normally afford. 

Lalitk, Thank you for your kind words. I do nothing now, except occasionally I consult; I am retired.  Why I can spend so much time on this forum. Too much.  Although I trained clinically in internal medicine and infectious disease, my career was at the lab bench trying to figure stuff out. Did some vaccine development en passant, which I hope some day will bear fruit.

@lalitk Don't let @lewm fool you. He worked at Wuhan  (just kidding)

Lew that rather large drop of glue is a Soundsmith trademark. If you look at this post and compare mounting techniques, Ortofon uses a similar method. https://imgur.com/gallery/stylus-photomicrographs-hmTaO0m  The resin used is similar to what is used to hold carbon fiber strands together and is very light and strong. Notice that Lyra and MySonicLab use an alternative method mounting there stylus in a forked cantilever with much less glue, but the stylus is surrounded in metal. This method certainly does a better job at controlling Zenith, but I could not tell you which is better from an effective mass standpoint. The diamond cantilever of the Ortofon and cactus spine of the hyperion leave no other option. Nonetheless all four are fine sounding cartridges. I ordered the Jico SAS/B stylus for the V15 VMR and will post a picture here. I will be very surprised if it is as clean as these high end styluses. Most of us are use to seeing the swaged styluses of aluminium cantilevers. The aluminum cantilever is compressed and angled at the very tip and the hard stylus pressed right through the soft aluminum. This is relatively easy to do but not as reliable from an orientation perspective. I have seen zenith and SR angles all over the place.