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Miyabi retip - the best options

Friends, call it my ignorance but only recently I learnt that there is no more Miyabi Labs. Takeda San, the maker of the legendary Miyabi cartridges has retired from the industry. I learnt this only because I am in the market to buy a new cartridge and possibly a Miyabi (though preowned).

47 Labs in their website have mentioned that they cannot help the existing Miyabi/47 cartridge owners for retipping or servicing issues so all of them (owners) are on their own.

In such a scenario what are the other options to retip or repair a Miyabi ? It is touted as one of the best cartridges ever and there are so many happy owners, I am sure people would have explored other options to have their cartridge maintained. So can we discuss, who are the other cartridge experts worth consulting when one needs help with a Miyabi ?

The usual suspect is of course Soundsmith but I am not sure if they are good enough to re-make a Miyabi!!
pani
ira2000
10 posts
 
Hi,

I may be a bit late to answer your query but here goes. My Miyabi Srandard needed re-tipping and like you I learned of Takeda not working anymore. So I decided to, instead of re-tipping to get another cartridge. Big mistake. I got a Ikeda 9TT based their superb reputation. Well, to be brief, it just had none of the magic of the Miyabi. Less 3-D, no comparison in dynamics, and on and on. So I gto rid of it in a matter of weeks. At this point I realized I could continue buying cartidges that would never measure up to the Miyabi. So I had Soundsmith do the re-tip. Happy to say this as about 2 years ago. I went for their premium job. That meant a different type cantilever - boron and stylus line contact. It sounds superb. All the magical qualities of the Takeda's masterpiece are still there. FYI - since all of this went down I read Syntax's comment referring to the new Ikeda cartridges as fake. I also read a number of glowing reviews of the 9TT. Now I know who not to pay attention to for audio
advice.
pani OP
1,219 posts
 
Ira2000, I took a slightly different path. I sold the Miyabi and tried some other cart. None of them worked for me until I came across Audio Technica ART9. It is one heck of a cartridge. It did everything that the Miyabi did in terms of dynamics and staging but took the game one level higher in terms of speed, neutrality and directness (in the truest sense). What I hear now is almost a direct microphone feed like quality. No coloration, no veil, no limits on dynamics, just near live presentation. Check it out, the price will amaze you but the performance will blow you.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Hi Pani, As J.Carr explained in one of his post the
advantage of aluminium cantilever in comparison with
the 'exotic kinds' is that the stylus can be pressure
fitted. In all other cantilevers the stylus must be glued.
So there is then the glue between the stylus and the
cantilever. As far as I know Axel Schurholz
(www.schallplattennadel.de) is the only one who can provide
such combo. The stylus is the so called 'fine line' and is
of high quality. If I remember well Takeda san used special
kind of (aluminium) cantilever. Shorter than usual and with
different shape. I don't believe that the same cantilever
is available but the nearest you can get is by Axel.
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