Broken cantilever Need options...


Hello All,

I am a recently entrant to the dark side, I had suspected that I would be initiated at some point. Well, that point in time came last night. As I attempted to put the stylus guard on my Clearaudio Concerto, I heard a tiny snap. Yep, you guessed it, cantilever broke clean off. Can't find it anywhere in my berber carpeting.:tears:

Well, I chose to sleep it off rather than stew in it, and when I woke up this morning to research my options, I quickly learned that I just became a member of a very large and anything-but-exclusive club. I bought the cart used as part of a bundled package. So far, I understand my options to be as such:

1) Buy a new one ($2,750 MSRP);

2) Send to retailer for re-tipping. $1,500 option for online retailers that I've checked;

3) Send to retailer for trade-in. Haven't gotten a price yet, but I'm guessing that will be more than the re-tipping will cost;

4) Send to Soundsmith for re-tipping. Probably between $300-$450, but obviously not OEM;

5) Sell cartridge as is.

I'm open to any other suggestions. Dark side, indeed!
asindc

Showing 1 response by bifwynne

Asindc, sorry about your carty mishap. Your tale is exactly what I talked about in another OP about super high end carties. It's a heart-break when a carty breaks; but from what I've read, and based on my own experience, the stylus in most carties have a top life span of 2000 hours. If you use your vinyl gear as much as I do, that might be 12-18 months and then it's retip time. So one way or the other, sooner or later, you'll be laying out big bucks.

Btw, there's a couple of folks on the Gon who own and swear by the Benz LPS. That carty costs $5K new. Think about the heart-ache if that carty breaks or just wears out.

I recently started an OP about Peter Ledermann at Soundsmith. I just had my trusty "mid-fi" SS Zephyr retipped for a song, more a tune. And I'm back in business.

My suggestion is that us LP spinners be more practical about the cost of breakage and normal wear. I believe that some of the Soundsmith higher end carties come with either life-time free or reduced price retip charges. That makes a lot of sense to me. Perhaps there are other high-end carties that come with similar retip/repair arrangements??

Hope you work something out that doesn't break the bank.