Stylus just falls off?

Just to be clear - has the stylus fallen off the cantilever, or has the cantilever broken off the cartridge?

The stylus is usually attached with adhesive to the cantilever, so it's possible the adhesive has failed....but in over 30 years of vinyl listening I've never had this happen to me (though I've heard of it happening). I have however broken a few cantilevers through carelessness/lack of attention.

If the cantilever is totally undamaged, and assuming you haven't been using any dodgy solvents to clean the stylus, then I'd say you have grounds for a warranty repair by VdH. No idea what VdH's policy would be on this.

Thanks everyone. The cartridge had never been used until mounted a few days ago, and had been played for some number of hours by the tech to determine the best set-up. He is exceptionally careful, and I watched him move the tonearm, and there was no contact with the cartridge whatsoever. Assuming it is just the stylus, hopefully VdH will just repair it under warranty, but in any event it should be an inexpensive fix at worst.

Are we talking Stylus or Cantilever? I have a hard time believing as you were preparing the table for transportation one of you looked over at the arm and cart, and noticed the stylus missing. Its difficult to glance at a cartridge and see the stylus missing from the cantilever. Again assuming the gentleman removed the arm and set it on the shelf and at that moment you noticed the stylus missing. How did he set a tone arm on a shelf with the cartridge still mounted to it? Most tone arms dont sit up right easily, with out being mounted.

Now if you transported the table to your home set everything back up and lowered the arm on a record to listen and the arm, cart and cantilever skated across the record, then how do you know what happened? Transporting a turntable arm and cart is risky business. I would not of removed the arm and cart from the table. I would of taped it in place. Thats simply unnecessary work. Transporting only an arm with a cartridge attached is dangerous. How do you orientate the arm? The arm mounted to the turntable is a much better situation for driving home.

Anyways I hate to be doubtful, but if you were moving and dismantling the table, chances are one of you made a mistake and failed to realize it. If the table was sitting at home, unplayed, with no children, wife or maid around, you come home and the cantilever or stylus are lying right below where the arm is resting... That sounds like it just fell off. The fact that you were in fact removing the arm from the table with the cartridge still mounted, leaves me to believe a mistake occurred. If I have to remove a tonearm, I remove the cartridge first. Tonearms are much harder to break than cartridges, but they also have a bunch of moving parts, that makes them buggers to hold, mount and remove. Always take extra steps to protect the cartridge.

Rudy

I have no personal experience on this, but the several posts I have read over the years about diamonds falling off all cited VDH cartridges.

Rudolffzigray: I have a Basis turntable. The tonearm mounts to a very heavy and solid insert that sits in the chassis of the table. I have transported it many times this way without incident. In any event, the stylus was found to be missing at the tech's shop, after we had disassembled the table (removed the belt, the platter, and the tonearm + base) and moved the pieces to the front of his shop for loading into my car. I noticed the tip was missing, he confirmed this, and we were both struck by how bizarre this was, since I had watched the entire process, and nothing had touched the tonearm (he handled it by the base).

I share your sense of disbelief, since that was my initial reaction as well. But it happened.

The VdH cartridges are relatively easy and inexpensive to re-tip, and I believe this is because the stylus is part of a "sleeve" that slides over and attaches to the cantilever. It makes sense that if the adhesive was not properly applied, or otherwise failed, the sleeve could fall off. And this did occur after only the relatively brief number of plays needed to mount and test the cartridge. If in fact there was an adhesive failure, it would be more surprising if this had occurred after several hundred hours.