I am always surprised when you guys use the term "Dead Quiet". Hasn't everything in the last 40 years been dead quiet? After all, we had to send an analogue signal to the moon, then send back an analogue reply from a battery power supply. Since a minuscule amount of the ever widening, transmitted signal reached a quarter of a million miles away, silence became golden. Dead quiet was perfected a half century ago. Why do you think so many designers came from the space program, e.g. Julius Siksnius of Audire (Apollo rocket scientist), Stuart Taylor (Bryston, Adcom), and others? Plenty of other people figured out how to use products developed for space exploration, products that all came from the original output transistors co-opted from NASA for early car electronic ignitions. What exactly still hums, hisses, etc? Hell, The original Audire Diffet 1 preamp had plenty of gain to run a low output M/C cartridge, without a head amp. (The 1A effectively got a diminish circuit switch to keep from blowing your speakers when switching back to a higher output source.)
A Soundsmith Re-tip Believer
To paraphrase Michael Elliott, the eventual guru of Counterpoint, "price point defines the limits of the quality of the parts used in a piece of Hi-Fi. If a comparable profit margin could be attained using superior components I would have used them".
Hence the debate of re-tipping a cartridge, or buying a new one through a manufactures exchange program. Based on Counterpoint's paradigm, better products use better parts, that's why they're better products. This was the pivotal reason I had Peter Ledermann rebuild my Dynavector HOMC 20X2 cartridge, instead of going the exchange route.
A 20X2 is not as esoteric of a cartridge as the coterie use, but it's not bad. The reason I chose the 20X2 over the far more expensive LO Dynavector TE Kaitora is because of my Pre-amp (Gain 46db). The 20X2's factory cantilever is an aluminium tube and the stylus was a Micro-Ridge affair.
Using Counterpoint's philosophy I had Mr Ledermann replace the aluminium tube cantilever with a ruby and the factory stylus with an Optimized Contour Nude Contact Line Diamond. This combination creates an ultra low mass system according to Mr. Ledermann.
These bonuses are augmented by the fact that a gem stone is more inert than an aluminium tube. Plus an Optimized Contour Nude Contact Line Diamond has better tracking characteristics and superior sonic retrieval to a Micro-Ridge, and it has a lower mass. If these mods don't elevate the source to a better over all cartridge than why are they found on cartridges a few heads further up the totem pole.
The sound? Dead quiet. Beautifully transparent, gorgeous sound stage, and the imaging! Rich highs that are not intrusive, mid-range to die for, well controlled bass which I wish had more authority (could be the Pre-amp tubes), and a couple surprises. Very rewarding to good recordings, but unlike the Grado, not brutal to not so good recordings, and no Grado hum.
I'm in the re-tip camp. If any of you are pondering over the idea of exchanging your cartridge or having Soundsmith rebuild your current cartridge, my experience has been totally positive going the Peter Ledermann way. I'm just saying.