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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
frank4166
1 posts
 

I have used Andy's service twice.  The first was retipping my Accuphase AC3 in 2018 with micro ridge nude diamond.  The second time is my Highphonic MC-A6 last week with same type of tip/cantilever.  Both cartridges show sound improvements over the original, very fine high end and in great detail.  

I highly recommend Andy to everyone for cartridge repair/retip.

Frank

 

stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,468 posts
 

I just had my Winfield cart retipped by Soundsmith.  Quick turn around, excellent sound. 

ssand1's avatar
ssand1
33 posts
 

I recently had my Ortofon Bronze retipped by Andy. Everything about the experience was outstanding. Amazing quick turnaround and the cart sounds phenomenal. 

fbpearce
57 posts
 

I damaged the stylus on my Dyna 20XXL. Andy replaced the damaged stock stylus with a new microridge-that was 4 years ago and its still sounding better than the original on my Amadeus Mk2. The replacement made a positive impact on detail and even more so on channel separation. He completed the work quickly and communicated well throughout  the process. Highly recommended. The community is lucky to have Andy as a resource. 

dptunes
1 posts
 

Just had Andy repair my Rega Apheta 3. He re-tipped it with a micro ridge nude stylus boron. Sounds fantastic - a significant upgrade over how it sounded before. He also did the repair in record time and was great to work with. I highly recommend him.

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