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Broken cantilever Need options...

Hello All,

I am a recently entrant to the dark side, I had suspected that I would be initiated at some point. Well, that point in time came last night. As I attempted to put the stylus guard on my Clearaudio Concerto, I heard a tiny snap. Yep, you guessed it, cantilever broke clean off. Can't find it anywhere in my berber carpeting.:tears:

Well, I chose to sleep it off rather than stew in it, and when I woke up this morning to research my options, I quickly learned that I just became a member of a very large and anything-but-exclusive club. I bought the cart used as part of a bundled package. So far, I understand my options to be as such:

1) Buy a new one ($2,750 MSRP);

2) Send to retailer for re-tipping. $1,500 option for online retailers that I've checked;

3) Send to retailer for trade-in. Haven't gotten a price yet, but I'm guessing that will be more than the re-tipping will cost;

4) Send to Soundsmith for re-tipping. Probably between $300-$450, but obviously not OEM;

5) Sell cartridge as is.

I'm open to any other suggestions. Dark side, indeed!
asindc
chayro
3,010 posts
 
That's unfortunate. I was just looking at the Needle Doctor site and it appears that what they are calling a "retip" is actually a cartridge exchange. You send them $1500 and they send you a new cart. You then send your old one back to them. If you're really in love with that cartridge, that seems like the best option. Clearaudio makes some decent MM carts for a lot less money, but you probably won't be satisfied and end up spending more down the road. Best of luck.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Asindc, sorry about your carty mishap. Your tale is exactly what I talked about in another OP about super high end carties. It's a heart-break when a carty breaks; but from what I've read, and based on my own experience, the stylus in most carties have a top life span of 2000 hours. If you use your vinyl gear as much as I do, that might be 12-18 months and then it's retip time. So one way or the other, sooner or later, you'll be laying out big bucks.

Btw, there's a couple of folks on the Gon who own and swear by the Benz LPS. That carty costs $5K new. Think about the heart-ache if that carty breaks or just wears out.

I recently started an OP about Peter Ledermann at Soundsmith. I just had my trusty "mid-fi" SS Zephyr retipped for a song, more a tune. And I'm back in business.

My suggestion is that us LP spinners be more practical about the cost of breakage and normal wear. I believe that some of the Soundsmith higher end carties come with either life-time free or reduced price retip charges. That makes a lot of sense to me. Perhaps there are other high-end carties that come with similar retip/repair arrangements??

Hope you work something out that doesn't break the bank.
andyprice44
133 posts
 
Soundsmith does top notch work. If I were in your situation, I would contact Peter at soundsmith to see if he could repair it. I am almost certain he could. It all comes down to how much money do you want to spend. If it bothers you that the replacement cantilever won't be OEM then, you need to send it back to the manufacturer. Contact soundsmith and see what they say. Best re-tips in the business
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
There's also the possibility that the Soundsmith cantilever repair is *better* than the OEM.
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