Anyone else having trouble getting cartridges back they sent for repair?

To reduce the amount of work he sold the B&O part of his company

to his assistent. For the next two months he will not acept any

order. This way he hopes to reduce the weighting time for his repairs.

The waiting time also depends from the complexity of repair.

My Sony XL 88 D is regarded as irreparable but he deed try for

more than two years.  As far as I know he never ''ripped off'' any

of his customers. Besides he does not ask any payment in advance

while there is no sensible reason to assume that he wants to keep

your Technics carts with (probably) defective suspension. If this

was the case he obviously has much better choices (grin).

Dear chakster, As a much older member I am more familiar

with all of them. So I disagree with Axel being ''faster and

cheaper'' than the rest. BTW strange comment in this thread.

Dear chakster, I already mentioned in the other thread (?) that

you learn very fast. So  you grasped at once that Axel ''being

fast'' was , say, an wrong expression. I am now curious about

wntrmute 2 reaction about my suggestion that he as an active

membr does not read our forum contributions (grin).

Dear Mapman, ''Please correct me if I am wrong''. This is your

own request. However you ''confessed'' to have never done

any re-tip. This means that your opinion is based on pure

speculation. The usual re-tip consist of glueing  the  already

made cantilever/stylus combo by the producer into the so called

''joint pipe'' on which also the coils and suspension are fastened.

For an aluminum cantilever with elliptical stylus one need to

pay about 100 euro. The more exotic cantilevers and styli cost

more . By the MM carts the mentioned combo is glued on the

remains of the original cantilever. This kind of retip I have done

just once. Finding (replaceable) stylus is , in my opinion, better

option. My MC carts I have done more than 20. Our former member

Dertonarm retipped his FR-7fz  cart 4 times in Japan. Depending

on the price which one has paid for the cart one will decide if'

and what kind of retip one should chose. BTW those ''re-tippers''

are much more cheaper than the manufacturer. I own one Koetsu

Rosewood  which is ''refurbished'' by Koetsu for 2200 euro by the

former owner . My most expensive retip (by Axel) was 500 euro.

The list of the re-tippers provided by chakster can be extended

with Peter Ledermann and Andy. What our members need to know

is the following. The choice is not only between the re-tippers but

also about what kind of cantilever and stylus one prefers. The

supplier of styli and cantilevers are not willing to supply every

retipper with their products. Axel, for example, can't deliver Saphire

or Ruby cantilevers nor the micro ridge styli. The other can't deliver

Gyger (aka Van den Hul) styli, etc. Nobody is willing to provide

Axel with coils so he is not able to repair coils or he need to buy

the relevant cart to get the coils needed. The assumption is that

manufacturer try to prevent styli/cantilever producers to supply

re-tippers with parts. Considering the difference of prices involved

by the manufacturer and retippers not suprising. So if one wants

specific cantilever/stylus combo one need to know by which

retipper one can get those. So the question is not only ''which

retipper?'' but also what kind of stylus/cantilever one wants and

where one can get those.

Dear chakster, We both try to inform our co-members the best we

can. However by contradicting each other our mentioned goal

can hardly be acheved. Causing the confusion is not the best

way to inform our ''comrades''. I posted 3 contributions which

point was that the suspension by the Technics 205 series can't

be fixed. I also try to eaxplain why. Namely the ''tension wire''

construction as well the fact that the ''rubber ring'' (aka suspension)

is bihind the magnet such that changing this rubber ring is only

possible by removing the tension wire because the cantilever

+ magnet need to removed at the front side first.

You have read all my contributions about this issue but still

suggest that this repair is not only possible but also actually

done by Axel. Well Axel is my friend whom I speak regular by

phone. Why then should he fix your suspension and not my?

As I wrote neither Axel nor Andy were able to fix my 205,

mk3 suspesion. But Axel deed not charge me for this ''repair''

knowing that he was not able to fix my (two) samples. Andy

 deed so I paid him via my brother Don who lives in Andy's

neighbourhood.

Dear chakster, The probably implicite assumption is that Axel

inspect the received carts direct. But more logical seems to be

that he stores the received carts according to the receiving date.

Otherwise he would need to remember all the details, say,

12 months later when the cart get its ''turn''.  This can explain why

 he does not return direct those carts which he can't repair. He

obviously need to first inspect a cart before he can decide one way

or the other. But if the waiting time is , say, more than one year he

can't answer this question before his inspection.

There is a big difference between repair of an MC and MM cart.

This is because their different construction. An MC cart can be

repaired in principle from all possible defects while this does not

apply for the MM carts. The MM carts with styli with tension wire

can't be repaired. The usual retip by MM carts consist of gluing

an new cantilever/stylus combo on the restant of the old cantilever.

By MC carts a new cantilever/stylus combo can be glued in the

 ''joint pipe'' on which (joint pipe) also the coils and suspension

( the ''rubber ring'') are fastend. For the MM carts the best

strategy is to try to find the original stylus. This is, alas, not

possible for the MC kinds. So for the MC kinds one need to

 learn what the possibilities are and then make the choice.