A Soundsmith Re-tip Believer

Glad you like it, with relatively cheap cartridges upgrade is always possible, but you forgot to mention the total price you paid. Was it $850 cartridge from the start? And as i can see SS price for your new cantilever is $400?

What you did is not a re-tip, you’ve got new cantilever, it’s refurbishing job, Peter replaced conventional Aluminum cantilever with more exotic Ruby cantilever.

Re-tip is replacement of the tiny diamond tip on existing cantilever.

Dynavector Micro Reach (or Micro Ridge) diamond is great, not sure why anyone think that Optimized Contour Nude Contact is any better ?

Of course it was better idea to replace the whole cantilever, because the only benefit of the aluminum cantilever and micro ridge combo is the fact that nude diamond goes through the cantilever (pressure fit). Replacing just the needle tip on sch cantilever will ruin the whole principle and will require more complicated job and a lot of glue to fix the diamond.

In this situation you’re getting better Ruby cantilever with equal diamond.

But Dynavector cartridges like DV23RS MR in NOS condition with unique short Ruby Prism cantilever and Micro Ridge stylus available for about $500. And it is not the only alternative to your DV.

For those who prefer refurbished over original it might be ok, i do not belong to this group of people.

Re-tip or Refurbishing is problematic with much more complicated cartridges that already comes with exotic cantilevers and diamonds from the start, sometimes refurbishing is downgrade for such exotic cartridges, because the choice of cantilevers is limited for re-tipper, cartridge manufacturer have exclusive access for their own cantilevers. This is where standard option from SoundSmith and others is not the best solution. Also i’m not sure how compliance issue can be solved.

But anyway, for some average cartridges anyone can ask retipper for better cantilevers or diamonds, the only question is the cost in comparison to the cost of a brand new better (original) cartridge.

A high Output MC cartridges must be compared first to MM or MI if the owner have some limitation on his phono preamp, because even if the SoundSmith system claimed to be a low mass the High Output MC required more coil winding and as a result you have higher moving mass which is not benefit (for Moving Coil system).

Even cart producers would need an extra worker for retips.
They also get the same cantilever/stylus combo's ready-made
by supplier. Why should one retiper in an factory be better than
the usual kind? BTW there are ''usual kinds'' with +40 years experience . There is no such ''animal'' by cart producers.

@nandric 

Cartidge producers at Dynavector never refurbish their cartridges or re-tip them, i think in this world the policy is to give a customer the best (aka brand new cartridge with warranty) instead, but with very special discount to support this service policy of exchange. 

No doubt that Peter is one of the best in business, but the OP has a brand NEW cartridge, not something old or special. His cartridge is still available in the shops and i believe supported by Dynavector for exchange. Better (different) cartridges are also available even at lower cost (including those MI from SoundSmith). 

Dead quiet or not - this is not a character of the sound. The best way is to compare refurbished to the original in the same system and then it will be fair comparison. Vinyl can't be dead quiet anyway, it is not digital. Even mastertape has some tape hiss.

SoundSmith can't repair many cartridges, because they are unique, some of them are Dynavector with short Ruby or Diamond cantilevers, no one can get those cantilevers anymore. This is one example why re-tipper is not the best solution, not in every situation and it's primarily depends on the cartridge design. Sometimes they simply can't help.

@tooblue

I too am in the Soundsmith rebuild/retip camp. Currently waiting on his Grace F9 Ruby Optimum Line Contact replacement stylus for my Grace

I’ve seen his own (completely different) styli for Grace, did you try ?

I’m a big fan of grace original sound and i have almost every model and almost every styli made by Grace for F9, F14, LEVEL II.

It would be nice if you could compare SS to some of the best Grace (RS14 styli are compatible with F9, but F14 LC-OFC generator is also huge upgrade over standard F9 generator).

My favorite original stylus for F14 (compatible with F9) is the one with beryllium cantilever.

When you're ready for original Grace let me know, maybe i could help with sealed NOS styli, i have many. 

I cannot understand the attraction for vinyl in the first place when you can stream noiselessly for a whole lot money and you never have to get off your seat to change a record. Turn tables are really cool looking but they also collect a lot of dust. I think one of these days we will see turn tables in museums and the young people will wonder why people ever bought them.

Young people actually buying turntables right now, normally very cheap turntables, but they want it, believe it or not. Those young cats born in the digital era having fun with vinyl and turntables, because it’s a physical object and the best media format ever made. It’s cool and nothing can replace it. Digital is just a free bonus and a part of our digital life nowadays, but vinyl is something special and this is why a lot of cool records getting more and more expensive over the years, while digital versions available for free. What young cats never buying is CDs.

Digital podcasts and radiostation stream ... this is all cool to discover music to buy on vinyl. 

Perhaps people who like vinyl like noise with their music in order to replicate music hear during the 1920’s to 1950’s?

Noise is everywhere outside your window if you’re living in the big city, from your neighbours etc ... Maybe it’s noise free in the bunker or in the private house somewhere in the woods ? But living in the big city is not noise free, unfortunately. The noise from vinyl is hard to detect in the normal listening session.

I’m not sure that music from the 1920 is interesting for young generation, but music from the 60s, 70s, 80s was a source for sampling for next generation of music producers and actually modern music based on samples, this is why for young generation the original source of samples is something interesting, people may never heard the original before, only via their favorite producers who samples very short piece of music from the past to build everything around these beautiful pieces, because modern producers often can’t even play real instruments - this is also a part of the digital era, the era of sampling.

Vintage vinyl and music from the 70’s era is amazing source for new discoveries when musicians and recording engineers were trained to make it live (not edits, often in one take in the studio).

One question for everyone:

If a refurbished cartridge is almost always better than the original cartridge (as many people claimed here) then why all those experienced  cartridge designers are so stupid that they can't make what re-tippers can? 

There must be some secret, right ? Only re-tippers know how to upgrade the a cartridge to the next level, but for some reason most of the re-tippers never produced their own cartridge. Indeed, why ? Because so many people standing in the line to send them all those cartridges from internationally renowned designers pretending for upgrade. 

Ruby are indeed very attractive (visually), i like ruby and sapphire cantilevers on my cartridges. Beryllium was an ideal material, but it does not look so attractive and no one can offer beryllium cantilever anymore, none of those retippers.

Regarding SoundSmith i think everyone should try his own cartridges if you like so much his cantilevers on some other cartridges. 

Probably his own design is even better as it must be a pinnacle of his knowledge and research. Right ? 

Garrott brothers retipped all those Koetsu, Decca cartridges in the past and their reputation was second to none. Their own MM cartridges are still available, even their own vintage MC (very rare). 

Any other re-tipper who actually design cartridges ? Yes, Van Den Hul, but he's retired ? 

Anyone else ? Please remind me 

Yeah, Expert Stylus in UK is @nandric favorite, especially then the GBP exchange rate is no lonres so strong as it was before (when it was almost twice as much than USD). 

I've heard about Expert Stylus and even contacted them few times, they are very nice in communication. I knew them because of the Stanton/Pickering fan club, seems like the Expert Stylus was the manufacturer of the Stereohedron diamonds for Stanton/Pickering in the 70s/80s/90s.  

The Denon DL103 is an example. It can be improved by a different cantilever and stylus. JICO made a living by producing improved stylus / cantilever packages for cartridges. That doesn't make the designers stupid. They just designed to a price point.  

@bpoletti The idea to produce styli for discontinued MM cartridges is great, but JICO also made them to keep the price low, except for SAS which is the most expensive. But even SAS can't surpass original MR on many vintage MM, i think they are equal. Cheaper JICO styli are not better than originals (especially those originals with beryllium cantilevers), it is only compromise (something better than nothing) for many owners of old MM.

Upgrading a Denon 103 does not make its designer stupid, it was designed in the 60's and today standard is different, but it's questionable (at least for me) why not just buy a better cartridge instead? If someone willing to end up with triple price with their DL103 it's ok, but i just don't get the logic behind this process since better cartridges available at the same price. 

Regarding modern cartridges i think it's possible to buy a better one, no ? 

 

     

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