I was expecting a long time for my repairs because I told Mr. Harper that I don´t need quick repair. I would gladly use his services in the future if necessary. I can wait a very long time because I know he will do the job. And if not he will say it right away.
A year and a half would be totally unacceptable to me. I've had positive experiences with two different retippers on four different jobs and never had to wait more than 3 months. Turnaround was inside a month on two of those jobs and one of those included full coil replacement.
18 months is ridiculous IMO-I'd consider that very poor service and, regardless of outcome, not go back. But to each his own.
You need to take into account that a cartridge repair can take a very long time nowadays, even with a professional. A few of years ago I sent my Audio-Technica AT-20SLa + another cartridge to Dominic Harper at NorthWest Analogue in the UK for repair & checking. 1 and 1/2 years later I asked if he had have time to repair my carts. Two weeks later he sent them back in perfect operational condition for a very reasonable price. A few months later I sold them both for a very good price on eBay. I couldn´t be more happy for his services.
@nandric first of all i'm talking about rebuild now as the solution which is works great (new nagaoka cantilever and new tip fitted in the original technics plastic holder) and i have tested at least four 205 mk4 and one 100c mk3 rebuilded by Axel.
You situation with Axel is clear, no need to repead. If he will refuse the cartridge from my customer then we will get the confirmation about it. But at the present time i have no confirmation and Axel asked me to send him the cartridge in May 2016 to check if suspension repair is possible, i wonder why? To chanrge inspection fee and return it? This is strange, because based on your info he could tell us from the start: "suspension repair is impossible, please don't ask, i can not do that etc".
I knew about Andy and what he has done for John Jones, pretty weird, so i will not recommend him to anyone else based on John's experience.
But what about Dominic at NorthWest Analogue or Van Den Hul who has done the job for Raul for his P100c mk4 in the past? When the term"suspension refresh" was born in Raul's thread. It's almost impossible to find technics with perfect suspension, but so many people on this forum are happy about p100c mk4, someone fixed suspensions in their carts, how could it be? This is a very strange story.
@travbrow i have owned several technics cartridges rebuilded by Axel with nagaoka boron cantilever, new suspension and nude elliptical tip for 205c mk4 and 100c mk3 cartridges. I can send you some pictures on macro lens if you want to check. In the summer time i sold my 100c mk3 on ebay to a’gon member, but last winter i have shipped this technics 100c mk3 to Axel for inspection to make sure everything is fine (before the sale). I have an invoice from him, he also repaired suspension on my Glanz 71, it was in december 2015. Recently i’ve recommended him to another ebay buyer, who purchaced from me the original 205c mk4 cartridge in perfect condition, Axel will take a look at the suspension for this buyer. Before the sale i have asked Axel by email about suspension repair for technics cartridges. He never said "no", but he must take a look at the cartridge. I got his last email in May 25th,2016
Right now i have one of the rebuilded Technics 205c mk4, Axel did the job more than 4 year ago and it’s still perfect! This rebuilded cartidge belong to my friend and he would like to sell it, because he has two of them and will keep only one. The difference between original and Axel’s rebuilded versions is the structure of the cantilever: new cantilever is shorter and it has a collar, Axel told me it was made by nagaoka and it’s solid rod (not a hollow pipe as the original), elliptical tip is glued (not pressure fitted with hi-end laser techlonogy as on the original). What i have noticed few month ago, when i compared rebuilded version vs. the original version, is much better bass response on the original technics 205c mk4. The highs on Axel’s rebuilded version of 205c mk4 are amazing and even better than on my rebuilded 100c mk3.
I’m pretty sure he can rebuild your Technics cartridge if you are up to replace the cantilever.
BTW I was so curious about those technics that i have asked Dominic (Northwest Analogue) if he could work on the suspension. In the past Dominic has not been able to resolve this, but he has developed and improved damping material for their own mc cartridges, it might work with the Technics! Dominic can try but there is no guarantee. That’s what they said.
A while back, a year or so I think, Axel said he tried repairing the suspension of the 205C a couple times but wasn't satisfied with the results. I thanked him for his efforts and said you can just send them back if you want and I'll try and find replacement stylus.
I tried contacting him a couple of times since and then just gave up as he seems to not check, have time or care about his emails from customers.
The 100c was to get a new cantilever and stylus but maybe he can't do it. He should at least let me know what's up and send them back if he can't repair, that's all I ask.
Thanks for that info. I knew the stylus replacement train jumped the tracks at some point. But at least with the Denon DL103R performance is high and cost to replace is not horrible.
I guess being an older guy who remembers how things were back in the day does not help. I helped hundreds of customers replace their styli back then for very nominal cost. MC carts were still quite rare back then. Times change.
Are there any companies these days that feature great sounding carts with reasonable cost for user to replace the stylus easily themselves? That’s something that would appeal to me next time I am in the market for a phono cart.
Sorry to hear that. I have not attempted to replace a stylus for many years so I am not up on those things. But its a disappointment to me that things are they way they are in regards to keeping phono carts running well especially since stylus wear is normal and nothing new. That’s why things used to be the way they were.
I guess its like owning a luxury car. TCO is much higher, not just the selling price. Except timely good service is part of the deal.
I guess high end phono carts are a very niche thing in comparison these days so it is what it is.
But people should know these things before drinking the high end vinyl kool aid these days to avoid regret perhaps later with certain more esoteric carts that will be hard to replace or get serviced when inevitably needed.
When my Denon DL103R goes up finally one day, I will simply just replace it with another.
@mapman don’t be so naive, replacement stily for rare vintage (discontinued) cartridges cost nearly the same as the whole cartridge+stylus, some of them are impossible to find, maybe you can find cheap styli, but it’s not easy to find NOS ruby, boron, sapphire styli for the best vintage MM cartridges. Even is you will find them you have to make sure the suspension is still alive. The subject of this topic is about Technics EPC-100C, i’ve been looking for replacement stylus for mk3 version of this cartridge for at least 3 years and NEVER seen it for sale anywhere in the world! In this case ONLY re-tippers can help. Another reason is upgrade from simple elliptical stylus to something else (of the new generation like FG stylus profile).
Finding (replaceable) stylus is , in my opinion, better
option.
Yes, that was the point I was trying to make. I think we agree. It used to be pretty much all cartridges of all types had replaceable styli years ago during the "golden age".
Northwest Analogue - this is what Raul called "premium re-tipper": ------------------------------------ FG tip £325.00 to £375.00 DHC Cantilever and FG Tip £750.00 Ruby Cantilever and FG S Tip £700.00 Coil and suspension repair/adjustment start from £150.00 Coil rewind start from £300.00 EMT Based cartridges, new dampers £300.00 Cantilever straightening if possible starts from £150.00 Complete Rebuilds start from £1500.00.
** £60.00 inspection fee per cartridge but this amount is included on the overall price if further work is carried out.
P.S. According to the pricelist each of us can decide is that worth to re-tip, repair or rebuild or just buy new or used cartridge. Sometimes it’s better to buy another cartridge, especially when it comes to MM/MI and even for some MC if they are not mega rare.
Unfortunately the demand seems to far exceed the capacity of those who do it. Seems par for the course as best I can tell.
Myself, I’ve never had a cartridge repaired. If one goes or I don’t like it anymore I just replace it. I will not go into 4 digits for any cartridge for this reason. Its just one of those things those who do may have to deal with along with all the rest that goes with high end phono rigs.
It’s usually the stylus that goes first with cartridges. One used to be able to easily buy replacement styli for most any popular cartridge. There are still places to do this on the Internet but I am guessing many popular high end carts are not designed to be able to easily replace the stylus when it wears? If so what’s up with that? You pay top dollar for a cart that will have a limited life (they all do) and no easy way to repair it when needed? Does not sound very high end in terms of usability and customer satisfaction if so.
Another high end audio consumer trap? Please correct me if I am wrong about this.
@wntrmute2 if you know who is Peter at SoundSmith in USA, Van Den Hul in Netherlands, Dominic at Northwest Analog in UK then you should know that Axel Schürholz offering nearly the same service, but faster and cheaper in Germany.
@travbrow I got my Glanz 71 back from Axel in december 2015, it took a few month to repair suspension. Two years is too much, you'd better call him. I don't think Axel ignoring emails, but sometimes you have to email him 3 times to get one reply, i use only email to contact him.
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