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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?
thehorn

Showing 1 response by williewonka

williewonka
3,072 posts
 
@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
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