Benz LP Ebony, and S-Class Ebony

Try the Audio Additives digital gauge. It's $99 and I like it a lot. I've seen the same thing under a different name for about twice as much. Obviously made by the same people. I used a Shure for a while before I got it and was very close to what I get with the digital but the digital is much easier to use without all the bouncing of the Shure.
Do you know if I have the option of re-tipping or upgrading this LP or is that only for original owners?

Thanks

All Benz would want from you, to give you a new S-class is an LP from anywhere, broken or not, and 2000 dollars. Enjoy!!

I was getting some signals that the new S line of Benz headed things in the direction of "brightness", "presence" "resolution" and all those words that mean "away" from musicality and harmonics and tone. Any firsthand knowledge? It's difficult to be totally objective after committing to a large purchase. I just worry sometimes that buyers "make" the new sound what they think they want it to be after spending all that money.

Hi Stringreen,

These cartridges are sensitive to .02-.03 grams tracking force changes. Yes, that's not a typo. You should be able to find a few digital gauges in that $100 price range that will give you .01 g accuracy.

You'll find quite a few comments by Doug Deacon and myself on this topic - that you want to be on the threshold of mistracking. Once you get more than say, .05 to .10 grams above this threshold, the dynamics tend to become compressed. I wonder how many wonderful cartridges have been misjudged because of lack of attention to this?

Also, my experiments with arc-style protractors (see my forum - in the Setup and Tweaks section) along with the several active threads on the topic on this forum for a lively discussion. Using an arc-style protractor has been a revelation to me.

One of the side benefits of this more accurate alignment (arc protractor) is that VTA becomes less twitchy. Amen to that!

Mintlp is (according to reliable reports) producing reasonably priced (for one-off work) arc-style protractors and delivering them in2-3 weeks. You can read about all of the details in the above referenced threads.

Enjoy!
Thom @ Galibier

Thanks for the information Thom..I feel a digital scale for me does not make sense. I suspect that cartridges have their individual "perfect" vtf. Once found, there is no need to recalibrate. The Shure scale brings you in the ballpark, but one must use his/her ears and adjust carefully, adding and removing weight until that magic vtf is found. It isn't necessary that I know my cartridge's magic force, because the next cartridge off of the assembly line will have a different one. Although I would like to definitively say that my LP needs 1.865 grams for Nirvana, another's will need heavier or lighter vtf