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.
Anybody out there re-cantilever their cartridge with a Soundsmith Contact Line diamond ?
The cantilever on my Dynavector 20x2 is damaged. Dynavector
wants X number of dollars to exchange it. Then I read about Soundsmith's
rebuild option, which is intriguing. A feature aspect of their cantilever
rebuild is their Contact Line Diamond stylus as opposed to Dynavector's Micro
Ridge Nude diamond.
"The Soundsmith Contact Line diamond stylus has three times the contact area in the vertical direction of the groove wall compared to an elliptical shaped diamond".
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.
Anyone out there had a Soundsmith modification done to their cartridge, if so which option had you had done, and what's been your expience?