Anybody out there re-cantilever their cartridge with a Soundsmith Contact Line diamond ?

Have had it done 9 times by Soundsmith, everything from his level ll rebuild when it was still referred to as a ruby cantilever with the line  contact stylus, his level lll ruby line contact stylus rebuild to just recently his boron cantilever with line contact rebuild on my worn out ZYX Universe which I am just amazed at how good it sounds. The cartridges done prior consisted of Shelter 901, Shelter 90X, 2 Shelter 501s, 2 Lyra Helikons, Koetsu Black and a Dynavector DRT XV1s. All rebuilds mentioned made the cart in question sound better than stock with the exception of the Dynavector DRT XV1s which was a lateral move and the Universe which sounds to my ear as good as the stock ZYX. When my Dynavector needs rebuilt I will get the boron cantilever rebuild on it as well. As far as the tracking of the album and more surface noise I don't seem to hear an increase but perceive less noise, maybe due to where the stylus is tracking the grooves of my albums some of which are 65 years old but in well maintained shape. You are going to get your usual nay sayers about cartridge rebuilding by an outside repairman other than the original manufacturer and I say just ignore them.

I thought I was in the clear, but now I’m informed that a Contact Line Diamond stylus with three times the contact area, picks up a ton of surface noise off the record. So much so that the surface noise can become forward on all but the most pristine records. So much so that the surface noise becomes intrusive.

If this statement could be true then the best stylus would be Conical, but it’s the worst ever. So the advanced profiles will bring you the music, accuracy and less record wear. However, comparing to MicroRidge his Contact Line is not an improvement, but also very nice profile.

When people proceed with SoundSmith retipping i would ask why not just buy SoundSmith MI cartridge instead ? Only his own cartridges were designed for use his cantilevers/diamonds. Cartridges from other manufacturers designed for use with different cantilevers/diamonds and it’s a complex question why "x" cartridge is better than "y" cartridge.

Your Dynavector is a $850 cartridge and you can buy plenty of amazing cartridges for the same price or even lower.

Maybe it’s time to try something different? Or you are so in love with DV-20x2 ? SoundSmith can definitely bring your Dyna back to life, but if you like his vision i would look at his own cartridges instead (they are reasonably priced and he could service them at very low price too).

Thx Tooblue,
your input is appreciated.
As for your question Chakster

Maybe it’s time to try something different? Or you are so in love with DV-20x2 ?

The 20x2 has never turned a revolution. It was damaged when being set-up.

Audiogon has no shortage of naysayers who will defend “manufacturers’ original” against everything. 

Audiogon has no shortage of naysayers who will defend “manufacturers’ original” against everything.

As much as a bunch of people who will always claim that refurbished cartridge is better than the original. So why do we need the originals if refurbished always better ?

When i ask those guys they can’t compare side to side (at the same time) the original versus same model refurbished. This is a problem. Normally people biased by the fact that their broken cart is back to life for less than the original manufacturer charge for retip or exchange, and they are happy about it.

There are so many technical aspects in cartridge design that people don’t understand. Each cartridge is different. I believe that people at SoundSmith learned a lot to make their own cartridge. In terms of service this is definitely the best option. As for the sound quality i hope SoundSmith cartridge owners can chime in and make a comments.

I had the cantilever, contact line stylus work done by Peter on my Cardas Myrtle Heart.  Excellent work.  

I had my Dynavector 10x5 redone by Soundsmith with a ruby cantilever 6 years ago with line contact stylus. I was very satisfied. It has become long in the tooth, so I now have a lightly used 20xl2 .When more funds become available again, I will have the 10x5 retipped as a backup and the 20xl2 will be sent out after it comes back.  I had ruined a 20xs through poor handling last fall that I sent to  them, unfortunately it was beyond repair and they did not charge me. Peter and his crew do excellent work, highly recommended.

Thank you,

upstateaudio, - irish_tim, - johnsonwu, - and - tooblue, for sharing your personal dealings in having your cartridge work done by Soundsmith. Actually having the work done, and in the case of "tooblue" multiple cartridges, has provide my search question with empirical experience.

Anyone out there had a Soundsmith modification done to their cartridge, if so which option had you had done, and what’s been your experience?

As for "chakster", although your contributions maybe well intended, they do not address the question, you do not  appear to have any personal experiences in dealing with Soundsmith’s work, therefore your input adds up to nothing but conjecture and a waste of everyone’s time including your own. Perhaps in the future you’ll consider directing your energies in less vacuous pursuits.

@thehorn - I had the soundsmith upgrade to the ruby cantilever with the optimized countour contact line stylus

The results were excellent compared to the conical stylus of the original cartridge.

However, as you get to the more advanced stylus contours you should take care to align the cartridge with greater precision.

To accomplish this I used one of the Mirror protractors and the results were a great improvement.

The free paper protractors on the web do not provide the degree of accuracy required for any stylus profile more advanced than the eliptical stylus. Don't get me wrong - it will play AND sound very good, but precision alignment sounds even better.

I found the mirror protractors are worth the investment and easier to use than the paper variant.

Regards - Steve

As for "chakster", although your contributions maybe well intended, they do not address the question, you do not appear to have any personal experiences in dealing with Soundsmith’s work, therefore your input adds up to nothing but conjecture and a waste of everyone’s time including your own. Perhaps in the future you’ll consider directing your energies in less vacuous pursuits.

I believe my statemend does not hurt your feelings?

SoundSmith retipped many thousand cartridges from all over the world (from very old to brand new). Peter is one of the well known retippers, there are many in every part of the world.

I decided NOT to proceed with SoundSmith cantilever/stylus for my ex ZYX Premium 4D SB, because this cartridge has unique cantilever that no one can provide, there is no equal replacement from any retipper in the world. That cantilever was made exclusively for ZYX. This is one of the reson this cartridge cost $5000 and factory exchange (instead of retip) will cost 60% of the retail price. Why i did not proceed with relatively cheap (compared to ZYX factory exchange) SoundSmith service? See J.Carr quote below.

I have personal experience with another qualified and highly regarded retipper from another country, and i have compared retipped/refurbished cartridge to original cartridge (same model), i must say that the difference was huge and not in favor of refurbished cartridge. In my case one Boron Pipe cantilever was replaced with another (different) Boron Rod cantilever with the same stylus profile, but slightly different mass. So i will never ever retip/refurbish any cartridge. My cartridge was Technics 205c mk4 and it was MM cartridge, not MC. I have a few more different cartridges retipped/refurbished, never again!

If you don’t want to study the subject and all you need is some other members to tell you "yes, go for it" then it’s up to you. Your cartridge is not special and i think you can theoretically upgrade to a better cantilever and stylus.

But this is not universal rule and does not apply for every cartridge if you want to know the full story.

No one can explain better than J.Carr who is a (Lyra) cartridge designer himself. And this is what he said:

To retip a cartridge that was originally equipped with a stylus made by one manufacturer with one made by a different manufacturer is like rebuilding a Porsche engine with Jaguar pistons and crankshaft - the components used for rebuilding may be of high quality, but the design philosophy is rather different from the original.

Still, as one poster wrote above, changing only the stylus will alter the sound less than if the cantilever material is changed. When a cartridge is designed, the designer will consider the moving mass (sum of the stylus, cantilever and coils), the resonant character of the cantilever, and the (sonic) propagation velocity of the cantilever (affected by the cantilever’s mass and rigidity), then choose the suspension and dampers accordingly. If you change the cantilever material, you are effectively throwing the original designer’s calculations away.

Try to understand what a cartridge designer explained on this forum once.

Some people just don’t want to understand it, they just trying to save money of third-party service instead of original designer service. They can refurbish many cartridges making a very strange hybrids out of the genius original design. It may be impressive for you, but not for me, because i know what i’m talking about.

I would rather buy another original cartridge (and i did that many times) instead and it’s far more reasonable when the cartridge is about $800 like your Dyna.

For under $500 you could buy a Dynavector KARAT 23RS with unique short Ruby cantilever and Micro Ridge stylus. Here is the interview with Dynavector cartridge designer. I paid $400 for NOS on ebay last year. This is a whole new cartridge (much better than yours), but you will pay more to SoundSmith just for refurbishing (for new cantilever and new tip). Makes no sense to me, maybe it’s ok for you.

I had the entry level rebuild done on a Sumiko BPE 3 it came back sounding amazing.

Dude. Your comments to Chakster really weren't called for. He offered sound advice and said nothing to disparage you, nor did he pursue vacuity in any way. I agree that you may be better served by spending a little more money and buying a different cartridge. In addition to the ones that Chakster listed, the Hana cartridges offer tremendous bang for the buck. And another thing to consider: soundsmith retips take a famously looooonnnnggg time. If you feel like playing records in the next four months or so, then you'll need another cartridge anyway. 

I say this as someone who has done three retips with soundsmith and wouldn't hesitate to use them again. They've done nice work for me on two dynavectors and a denon 103. I wouldn't have them work on my fancy Zyx's for the reasons Chakster mentioned. 

Cartridge Nazi? Heh. I guess you're offended by my Zyx comment @tooblue . Actually I would just prefer to have Mr nakatsuka work on my cartridges if possible and he won't touch them if someone else has worked on them. I'm sure your SS-zyx sounds wonderful. They do know what they're doing 

@jollytinker, my comment wasn't meant for you, apparently you haven't met the intended target.

For me, the most significant information in the cited post by J Carr, who does know about this stuff, is that the cartridge is a closed system made up of parts that have been selected to work well together, or at least according to the designers idea and ingenuity.  If one wants to preserve the SQ one paid for in the original purchase, one is well advised at least to stick with the same cantilever material and stylus geometry as per the original, when re-tipping.  Thus, for example, one ought not to install a boron cantilever in a cartridge that was originally designed with an aluminum cantilever in mind.  This is according to J Carr's post; I have no dog in the fight.  So also, if one believes that the ZYX boron cantilever is unique to ZYX and cannot be obtained through the services of any after market re-tipper, then one is obliged to go back to ZYX for the re-tip.  I wonder if the same can be said for Koetsu.

In general, I agree with whoever said that there is a very finite choice of companies that make cantilever/styli.  So in general, but maybe not always, all the re-tippers must work with a very few suppliers.  Perhaps ZYX and some others are exceptions, because it certainly is possible that such boutique companies have exclusive deals with the few suppliers in existence; that's why they get the big bucks.

The question is : what are the sources of one's information?
My, say, theoretical source, is the information we got from
J. Carr, according to whom the least intrusive is stylus only
change. Nobody ever mentioned damper (''rubber ring'') change
while we have no idea about ditto suppliers . From my friend
Axel Schurholz I know first that changing the stylus only is much
more difficult than cantilever/stylus combo as provided by the
suppliers. But the price difference is about 200 versus 500 euro.
So, obviously, the retippers will prefer the combo. 
Then not all styli shapes are available to all retippers. This means
reduction of choice, I wrote to Japanese ''jewel'' companies 
for Axel who accepted too many orders but never got answers
from them. So the styli choices were reduced to boron/nude
Shibata or aluminum /elliptical. The problem by stylus only retip
was according to Axel the right dimensions for an particular sample.
BTW he refused to do ''stylus only'' repair so I moved to ''Expert
stylus. UK''. This company produce their own stylus called 
''Paratrace'' which looks like micro ridge. This work is done by their
their chef engineer with 40 years experience.
Depending from  one's perception of the involved costs and own
means one will chose accordingly. I seem to be more pragmatic in
 this sense than my Slavic brother chakster. Despite the fact that 
I can afford more expansive solution I will always choose for stylus only solution. 

Thank you Gentlemen,

 for your contributions. And @chakster, very good of you to take the time to draft such a comprehensive post. Seems like you have a good heart.

@tooblue ; your sense of humour appears to contain elements of provocation. Our jibs have a similar cut.

 

Guys for me, my listening room is 13x14x8, with a 7ft wide archway which leads into another 13x14x8 room. The room is treated with conventional materials, front wall has a heavy blind, crown-mouldings, corner book cases, rug, and picture frames. Had I an 18-20x28-35 room with 12ft ceilings, I might consider changing my preamp for one that could boost a LOMC 0.03-0.25. But sonically/financially I can't justify shelling out that kind of money to jump on the Law of Diminishing Returns game. Further more I am not interested in adding another phono preamp either. I like my preamp.

 

I run an Oracle Delphi II table, with a modified Rega RB300 tonearm. The arm is rewired and has the elliptical Kerry Titanium counterweight.

Cartridges are the Grado Sonata I, and the Dynavector 20x2.

My Pre-Amp is a two box AUDION Premier 2.0 Line Preamplifier / MM, with four Siemens E88CC 6922 tubes.

Tuner: Philips AH673

Amp is a Classe' Audio DR9

Speakers are 946 Focal Electra's, and I keep a pair of Meadowlark Heron Hot Rods laying around.

Cables are XLO UltraPlus and I use Kimber speaker wire.

 

It's not a bad system. Would I like to move up to a Class A amp and run a pair of Martin Logan Summits - - perhaps. But in my room I don't think they'd work.

 

So as you can see Gentlemen I'm limited to either a HOMC cartridge or a MM. Getting back to @chakster, I'm not sure where you've found a Dynavector 20x2 for $800 dollars? The Needle Doctors wants $1,150.00 US, plus being Canadian the exchange tacks on another 36 cents/dollar.

 

Cartridge exchange: $700 CDN/$520 US. Rebuild $350 US/$475 CDN.

Classe DR9 is already Class A.

@thehorn Let me ask you a few questions:

If you, or anybody else, is so happy about refurbished cartridges then why not just buy all the cartridges broken for peanuts and send them to SoundSmith ? A broken ZYX cost $250 instead of $5000. Sounds like a good plan ? Just add $350-700 for SS rebuild. Genius ? Are you sure ?

Maybe some people just don’t understand or they don’t know yet that SoundSmith refurbished is "always better than the original" ? Right ? Or not ?

For those people J.Carr’s opinion is not the authority at all, they always think they know better than one of the most advanced cartridge designer (the owner of Lyra brand).

It’s funny to look at reaction of some members when they can read different opinion, but it’s important to hear both sides to make your own conclusion. This is why i am posting here. A few member doesn’t like it, but i don’t care.

Your cartridge available cheaper from other dealers and i hope you can make your own search, also a component retail price stated in this review as $850.

Anyone can buy a better cartridge even for $350-450, for example the Audio-Technica AT-ML150 OCC with Beryllium Cantilever (much better than Aluminum) and MicroLine stylus (one of the best ever). This is MM cartridge. In my previous post i have mentioned a LOMC cartridge for nearly the same price with exotic cantilever. Now you can compare SS prices for cantilevers like Boron or Ruby with the most advanced diamonds. They are more expensive than entirely new cartridges. Taking in count what J.Carr said i would never spend on refurbishing when the original (better) cartridges available for the same price.

This is my personal opinion as a cartridge collector. I’ve had 4 Dynavector cartridges, the last one on the shelf is KARAT DV-17D2. I have never seen a refurbished cartridge that can be better than the original cartridge (if we’re talking about good ones). Even if you can upgrade an inferior cartridge with better cantilever/stylus there will be another original cartridge that will much be better.

And yes, in this aspect i trust J.Carr more than to anyone else on here, becase they are not cartridge designers (unfortunately).

Cartridge refurbishing service is a compromise and a good business too, some vendors can do the quality job, some can’t. I’ve seen under macro lens many cartridges, including refurbished carts. SS can do the excellent job, but not better than the origina cartridge designer (when it comes to a good cartridges).  

For this reason i have recommended SoundSmith cartridges originally designed by Peter L. as a good alternative to any refurbished carts. You have to watch his lecture and you will see why he prefer an MI over MC.

For anyone who continually posting that all cantilevers are the same and comes from the same manufacturers, please show me a Boron cantilever like this one designed and patended by ZYX for their Airy, Premium 4D and related expensive models. I’m tired to post this example, but this is in fact a unique cantilever construction and none of the vendors can do the same, they does not have access to this cantilever type.

As for the vintage types of the cantilever i must say they are all different, there are many of them, they are not the same and made individually for specific cartridge designer. Even aluminum cantilevers are all different. Even when you change one Boron to another Boron they are not the same. Ruby, Diamond, Beryllium are also different, there are many different Ruby, different Beryllium, different Diamond cantilevers. And the diamonds are also completely different. So you have no idea what a retipper will use as an alternative even if the type of cantilever (or stylus profile) is the same as the original. Especially if the original cantilever was made 35 years ago and replaced to something made today. I’ve checked maybe more than 50 top cartridges from the 70s/80s (and some new carts too) under macro lens and took a pictures of each of them. Different manufacturer have been using different cantilevers and different diamonds.

Retippers normally limited to one of each type, no more (made today).
Some cheaper retippers can use donors (parts replaced from used cartridges).

Always buy an originals, don't bother with the crap

Good luck

Dear chakster, I know that you are very fond of those '''hollow''
boron tubes or cantilevers. But how many do you like? As you can
see on your own picture there is one extra tube on your ZYX in
which the stylus is glued. What one does not see is the extra
aluminum ''tube'' on which the coils are fastened and in which
the cantilever/stylus combo is glued. The so called ''join pipe''.
When I posted my sample to Axel he installed an new boron
cantilever and his ''nude Shibata'' instead of this ''remarkable''
ZYX cantilever. Why do you think that this way of installing the
stylus is better than usual? Or, to put this otherwise, why is one
extra tube necessary? When this stylus is wear off the new
stylus can't be glued instead. So the whole new cantilever/stylus
combo will be needed which is much more expensive than stylus
only exchange. Or so I think because of my own experience. 
BTW what I admire in Axel's work is his persistence to do his
job. As I wrote in my ''irreparable carts'' thread those glued 
together plastic bodies have no ''entrance'' possibility to their 
inside parts. How then should an ''retipper'' fix, say, the damping
 or the coils of such cart? Axel cut and drilled the body to get
inside. I don't believe other retipper will even try to do this.
BTW he was not able to fix this way my Sony XL 88 D. 
This Sony was of the same ''plastic glued together body''.

Interesting thread... :)My take on this is that, sure - if you have your cartridge rebuild by SoundSmith or someone else with similar rebuild-offering, the cartridge will not come back as being the same as the original and it will not sound the same as the original. This may not automatically be a bad thing, it can be a good thing, the cartridge may sound better than original - especially if you have an older cartridge with a simple cantilever and stylus. This way the service offering by Soundsmith etc can be less expensive than buying a new cartridge. 
But if you have a more exotic cartridge, like the Lyra etc or an exclusive Zyx, then this may not be such a good idea because Soundsmith etc. can't rebuild it to original status. You may or may not like the result. It can be a disaster. 
But for simpler and less exotic cartridges, common ones like Denon DL-103, 110/160, Dynavector 10x5 or 10x20, Sumiko BPS etc, a rebuild by SoundSmith may be a great solution and can also be an upgrade. 

chakster,  I just sent and old Lyra to Soundsmith for a retip. Are you saying I can get a better sounding cartridge for $450 than I will get back from Soundsmith? I understand it will not sound identical the original, but I expect it will sound great. Why wouldn't I do this?

@jsbail

Are you saying I can get a better sounding cartridge for $450 than I will get back from Soundsmith? I understand it will not sound identical the original, but I expect it will sound great. Why wouldn’t I do this?

This is the reason why i don’t understand people who buy LOMC cartridges from one manufacturer to rebuild them with a third party vendor. The logic behind this process is what i don’t understand. Lyra cartridge designer himself explained everything about it right on this forum.

The question is why do you need Lyra cartridge if you ended up with SoundSmith / Lyra hybrid ?

Why not just buy a SoundSmith cartridge instead ?
or another original Lyra cartridge if they can’t help you with your Lyra ?

Or why do you think a Lyra refurbished by SoundSmith is any better than original Lyra ?

If you think so why do you think you can’t find another cartridge that can be better than Lyra or Soundsmith ?

And yes, you can find a great NOS cartridges for $450-700, it can be very nice MM/MI or even LOMC

If you like LOMC i clearly remember what i paid for my NOS Dynavector Karat 23RS MR Ruby (Micro Ridge) sealed in the box, it was no more than $450 and it is a very nice LOMC in my opinion.

Dear @jsbail  : Normally when we have not the kind of money that the manufacturer ask for a replacement damaged  cartridge then the best option is to look for a re-tipper and Soundsmith is very well regarded and you will preserve the more important part: the cartridge motor that no rettiper can modified.

Yes, you re-tipped cartridge will not sound exactly the same as the original but will performs just great. Don't worry about that post that came from a seller.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

When I posted my sample to Axel he installed an new boron
cantilever and his ''nude Shibata'' instead of this ''remarkable''
ZYX cantilever. Why do you think that this way of installing the
stylus is better than usual? Or, to put this otherwise, why is one
extra tube necessary?

@nandric

I don't know why Nakatsuka-San designed this cantilever instead of using conventional cantilevers from suppliers. Maybe because he designed all the best MC cartridges in the past for brands like Monster Cable etc with conventional Boron cantilevers and after so many years he has found something better ? So many innovations in ZYX cartridges. 

When this stylus is wear off the new stylus can't be glued instead. So the whole new cantilever/stylus combo will be needed which is much more expensive than stylus only exchange. Or so I think because of my own experience.

So do you think he made it like that to serve his customers with a new cartridge instead ? The reason is to make in more difficult for re-tippers ? Maybe, i must say his cartridges are very expensive and he's free to choose a business model for him and his brand. 

BTW what I admire in Axel's work is his persistence to do his
job. As I wrote in my ''irreparable carts'' thread those glued
together plastic bodies have no ''entrance'' possibility to their
inside parts. How then should an ''retipper'' fix, say, the damping
 or the coils of such cart? Axel cut and drilled the body to get
inside. I don't believe other retipper will even try to do this.
BTW he was not able to fix this way my Sony XL 88 D.
This Sony was of the same ''plastic glued together body''.

It is because your personal relations with Axel, hope he's ok ? I think when re-tipper will accept a cartridge like that it will make his job even more expensive, still not guaranteed. 

When i read all these i think that taking in count all the risk and expenses on such exotic cartridges it is better to stay away from re-tippers, instead it is more logical to invest in original cartridge (same, next model or different one from another manufacturer). 

But i want to ask everybody:

If one must decide between ORIGINAL from the manufacturer and RE-TIPPED/re-furbished cartridge from someone else, which one would you get ? 

I think this is the answer for each of us. 

Some people just like to mess around with broken stuff. 

Regarding cartridges I've learned that many people on audiogon are happy to stick to one cartridge and even when it's broken they would like to invest even more in the dead horse. Some of them paid crazy amount of money to VdH to refurbish MM cartridges!

This is clearly not my philosophy. New or NOS original cartridge, even used original cartridge, is better than refurbished cartridge if this original cartridge is a good one. If it was a bad cartridge then maybe it is possible to upgrade it. This is what i think. 

And BTW Peter Ledermann keep telling us in every lecture than MI is better than all those LOMC... and he's the one who refurbished millions of cartridges. Having such unique experience do you believe he's able to design his own perfect cartridge? I think so ... But why then people sending him those broken cartridges from different manufacturers, it is some sort of sect? Stick to one cartridge forever because of what?  And when it's Lyra why not just listen to J.Carr's opinion about re-tipping process and the result ? No, they don't want to listen to J.Carr, they want SoundSmith, then why not just buy SoundSmith cartridge if Peter Ledermann always promote MI instead of LOMC ? 

And more important: Why people are buying very expensive cartridges if they can't afford manufacturer's service or exchange program? Why ? 

 

I tried retipping a Grado Reference Reference 1 and it was not even close to what it sounded like new.  I probably will not ever try it again and only buy carts I can afford to replace as a result.  I have an AirTight PC-7 with a broken off stylus just sitting around and when I get the bread I'll send it back.  But thankfully no one bought my back up, a Grado Statement Reference v2, which I am loving and sounds better than I remembered.

Fourwnds.

I think you just made Chakster,s day!

Dear  @fourwnds  : the Reference one stylus shape is a special elipthical Grado design, so  you can expect that its sound could be the same.
In the other side it depends who made the re-tipping and with which kind of cantilever and stylus. It's a little weird what you said and probably the re-tipper made not a good job because if it's true that the re-tipped cartridge does not sounds as the originaal normally sounds pretty good but different when your ears are accustom to what you listen through in the past.

Anyway, that Air Tigth cartridge is a different matters and for it the best is to go directly with Air Tigth.

My advise is that with top LOMC cartridges we have to go direct with the manufacturer and not a re-tipper.

R.

Just reinstalled my ZYX Universe back into my system. Cart was rebuilt by Soundsmith with his Boron cantilevered Contact Line diamond 6 months ago and after 400 hours I pulled it to run my stock Dynavector DRT XV1s. Darn have I missed this cart, gorgeous from top to bottom and easily outperforming the Dynavector which is no slouch. I have probably 500 hours life left on the DRT XV1s at such time I will send it to Soundsmith for their Boron cantilevered rebuild and will laugh all the way to the music bank. I am keeping my eyes peeled for a used ZYX Universe 2 to have the same rebuild on as it wears down. Enjoy the music

About 10 years ago (or more?) I had SS put a ruby shaft on an old Ortofon MC-30. What I got back far exceeded my expectations... for about 6 months.  The MC-30 broke internally, and could not be fixed (affordably).  It was risky upgrading a 15 yr old cartridge, I guess.  Later I bought a SS Zephyr mkII cart (boron shaft).  It was "very nice".  Too nice in fact.... To me, it was boring.  I went back to a less old MC-30-SuperII and rediscovered the MC magic I was looking for.  I've just recently got a Cadenza Blue (ruby shaft) and I really love it.   Overall my experiences with SS were very positive, but their MI cartridge was just too polite sounding "for me", 

 I have a DV-20X2 HO that also had the stylus come off the cantilever. I had VAS in NewJersey repair it with a new boron cantilever and microridge stylus for $450. I was absolutely blown away by the improvement to my systems sound. The transient response was faster with better defined edges. A richer, fuller tone. It reminded me greatly of the change that occurred when I replaced my resistive volume control with an autoformer. Like I lifted 2 bed sheets off my speakers. I never would have thought it could have impacted the sound that much.

Peter and Soundsmith are terrific.

I have an old Grado Reference that Peter retipped twice. I finally decided to buy a Soundsmith cartridge and started with the Voice. It was much better than the Grado and with the same stylus/cantilever I was using. I eventually got that retipped during the pandemic and it took awhile. I bought their lowest priced Othello as a temp and was amazed at how close it got to the Voice in terms of resolution and dynamics. I finally upgraded my phono stage to one that could handle low output cartridges and purchased the Sussurro. This is the best cartridge I’ve heard although I haven’t heard any cartridge north of $10K. Check out Peter’s videos on the Soundsmith web site. They’re very educational.

Hello

chakster

- Thx for your suggestions, I will take them under consideration.

As for your suggestion (Skip the Dyna 20XHO2 refurbishing, & go SS MI). Don’t think didn’t think about it.

My previous set-up was Grado Sonata 1, a MI cart, right? And it hummed. Checked the grounds - OK.

One reason for picking the Dyna 20X2 (with-in my budget) was to check if the hum was coming from the MI cart. As it turns out the HOMC doesn’t hum. But the re-tipping thing goes a bit deeper in my case. I never got use the Dyna 20X2 when I bought it, the cantilever was bent by the installer. I didn’t want to throw in the towel. So if you are going to fix something why not use superior parts?

Look at it this way, the designer has to engineer a product, with cost restraints. It sells for a price, the materials used have to fit with-in those restraints in-order to turn a profit. If they could use better materials in a product with a $1000 dollar price point, why wouldn’t they? So it only stands to reason if one is going to repair something why not take a said song & make it better? - - - Will it sound identical .... perhaps not, but at least the hum is gone.

Anyway chakster the set-up sounds pretty damn good. As for your Audio-Technica AT-ML150 suggestion, I had a Grace F9 MM and loved it. If the Audio-Technica is as sweet I’ll thank you latter.

As for moving up to a LOMC, my preamp is designed for MM cartridges an (Audion Premier 2box) which I love, so I’m not going to go on another audio quest to accommodate a MC set-up. Besides, with the limitations of my listening room, I couldn’t justify the expense of a ZYX cartridge with the sonic gains it would render. In an acoustically ideal room .... yes.

@thehorn alas… Chackster has left the building…. several years on now…

Enjoy the music ;-) BTW had it roll both ways w Soundsmith retips…. But in general +