Andy Kim - Needle Clinic


I wanted to put this post out there about Andy Kim of Needle Clinic, located in Bellevue, Washington. As many may know, Andy is a cartridge re-tipper. I tried to find some older posts to add my comments but couldn't find them. So I'll start another OP. I just got my Lyra Kleos back from Andy today. Here's my comments.

My Kleos sounded a little off lately, so I thought it should be checked out. I sent it to Andy Kim. It turns out all that was needed was the stylus required a cleaning and polishing. Andy reported back that the stylus only has about 10 percent wear; IOW plenty of life left.

So I remounted the Kleos today and have been playing all types of music: rock and roll, classical, and so forth. The Kleos sounds wonderful; just great. Kudos to Andy Kim.

Fyi -- some may ask why I didn't send it to Peter Ledermann at Sound-Smith. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he's been unusually busy lately -- and with good reason -- and turn around might be a bit delayed. Also, I'm not sure Peter uses replacement cantilever/stylus assemblies that match (or at least come close to) the original. Andy does.
Anyway, that is a bridge I don't have to cross today.

Bottom line: Andy turned my cartridge within a week of receipt and I am pleased.
bifwynne
Bif,

I can't speak for Lyra, but some stylus profiles do maintain a useable shape without serious sonic degradation longer than other shapes.

The worst case would be a conical stylus (which has a spherical cross section across the groove contact points). Even new, such profiles have limited HF extension and detail retrieval, since a contact diameter equal to the width across an LP groove is many times larger than the radii of HF's and lower level details. These "fat" styli can't trace shorter wavelengths and slur right over them. Worse, with every bit of stylus wear, this contract radius grows progressively larger. The sonics of a a conical stylus, limited to begin with, deteriorate steadily from hour 1 of play and constantly thereafter. This is exacerbated by the fact that, when new, all pressure is concentrated on two single points of contact, so wear from friction will be faster than on styli that have vertically longer contact surfaces.

Elliptical styli are better. They have shorter contact radii (in cross section) but longer contact surfaces (vertically). Their wear from friction will be slower and the resulting sonic deterioration less.

Better still are micro-ridge styli, as used by Lyra, ZYX and others in higher end models. The cross section of a microridge stylus looks something like a football with a tiny rod poking out at each end (the ridges). These ridges, which is what the stylus rides on in the groove, have a very small diameter, as small as 3 microns. As they wear down, the shape of the remaining portion of the ridge remains... wait for it... UNCHANGED! Those 3 micron contact radii are maintained until the ridges are entirely worn away. IOW... virtually NO sonic degradation. Further, the ridges are parallel to the groovewalls, making a very long contact surface (vertically). Friction is thus spread over more diamond surface, reducing the rate of wear.

This, by the way, explains the high sensitivity to SRA adjustment of micro-ridge styli, whereas conical styli are almost entirely indifferent to SRA.

So... am I surprised that your Kleos shows so litte wear? Not at all. Enjoy!
01-20-14: Bifwynne
Ha ha. I remember that. Jeez ... we are old farts.
I saw the film back in the day also, but I DON'T remember that. Maybe that's also a sign of getting old :-)

Best,
-- Al
He told her to hold the chicken salad, not the toast; it was the toast he wanted. Just fyi.
OK, a bit of research discloses that none of us are remembering it correctly. What Rpeluso said is correct, except that "her" was not Karen Black, it was a waitress played by Lorna Thayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtfNE4z6a8

Best,
-- Al
lol - I saw Five Easy Pieces when it came out too, but didn't remember anything about toast in reference to Karen Black.....had to look it up - it was actually a chicken salad sandwich (??) that Nicholson said she should put between her knees, according to Wikipedia. :-D

Thank you for the information about Andy Kim and the cartridge repair/retipping services he offers, Bifwynne. I couldn't find the Needle Clinic on line ( google search=drugs, anyone? lol) but did find a post about Andy Chong Kim on the Vinyl Asylum. For those that were "Needle Clinic" challenged like I apparently was, his website is:http://www.phonocartridgeretipping.com/index.html

Holly