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

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