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Possible stylus damage to my DenonDL103

I screwed up! I was wiping some dust off the surface of my Rega and the cloth must have caught the tip of the needle on my new DL103 and bent the cantilever to one side. With my fingernail I pushed it back towards straight but not enough. I need advice. Can it be straightened or can just the needle be replaced or am I out of luck? It only had two hours on it.
solarcarl
readster
241 posts
 
just because the cantilever become bent, or askewed, doesn't necessarily mean that the cartridge is ruined, give it the old infallible, listening test, if it sounds ok, then it's fine.
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
A retip from Van den Hul will cost more (tip/ship) than a new 103 will cost.
nightdoggy
32 posts
 
I'm with you. I do not think you should risk record damage, however, so cut and run. I broke the cantilever suspension wire off of my AT 150ML 3 or 4 weeks ago using a discwasher SC-1 (stylus cleaner. The cartridge had at most 10 hours on it. I never had this happen using the SC-1 in the past, but the 150ML has the smallest cantilever I have ever seen. It is almost too small to see. Here are some of the other cartridges I have destroyed since 1973 due to mounting, drops, snags etc:
Shure M91ED, Stanton 881 MkIIS, Micro Acoustics 2002E, ADC XLM, Denon DL-301, AT AT12XE, B&O MMC20CL, B&O MMC2 and my favorite all-time cartridge, the Ortofon M20FL Super (tears).
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