Reparation xv1s

Soundsmith, Neeleclinic et al will repair your cartridge, but it will not really be a XV1s. Its a bit of a crap shoot. You might like the resulting sound better, or not as much. The only way to get a real XV!s is to get a real one.

In addition to Soundsmith you could check with www.phonocartridgeretipping.com. I have had Andy at Phono Cartridge Retipping and Soundsmith both perform work before and have been happy with their work.

There is a company in Europe called Expert Stylus (I think) that does this also. No experience with Expert stylus, but I have read good reviews.

I can share with you some experiences with two of the companies named. First is Soundsmith, they installed a new saphire cantilever and their top stylus on my Dynavector XX2MKII cartridge. It came back a much better sounding cartridge than it was when new (to my ears).

Second is Expert Stylus and Cartridge Company, in London. I had them modify a Zu Denon 103R cartridge with their white saphire and Paratrace stylus. It is one of the best sounding cartridges I've heard (it compares very favorably with my friends' XV1S/Triplaner combination).

So, I can heartily recommend both these companies. Since you are in Europe, ESCCO is closer. Either way, it will be a three to four month wait, as both have large backlogs.

Andy is in Seattle (west coast, USA), and may not require such a long wait time.

Good luck, regards,
Dan

Dynavector rebuilt my original XV-1 twice. they keep the chassis and basically replace everything else.