Dimond Cantilevers And Tip Mass

I hate to think about re-tipping a solid diamond stylus/cantilever.

While theoretical discussions of the advantage of each type of cantilever can be interesting, in practical terms, even if cost/price is no object, the choice comes down to the sound, and that is dependent on how the choice of stylus, cantilever and the suspension work together.  Jonathan Carr, the designer of Lyra cartridge has talked about this and how boron, beryllium, diamond and "whiskered aluminum" (solid aluminum rod) cantilevers work well with different suspensions.  His personal preference was the whiskered aluminum with a particular suspension but that turned out to be impractical because the suspension would go out of tune too quickly.  

It becomes a particularly tricky question when it comes to a rebuild by anyone other than the original manufacturer.  What do they replace in a rebuild, and do they touch the suspension and if they do, what choice, if any, do they make for changing the suspension to fit the particular sound of the cartridge they are working on.

The new owner of the London Decca name has told me he hopes to restart production of the Reference and to offer a new version. He had suggested they would be available in August of this year.

It is cheating, in a way, to include Deccas in this discussion, being tip-sensing cartridges with just a couple of millimeters of the end of the armature effectively acting as the cantilever. All the other moving iron designs (eg Grado, SS, Nagaoka) are quite different, though I would be fascinated to learn how the mass of stylus/cantilever/moving iron compares to the stylus/cantilever/magnet or stylus/cantilever/coils of more common MM and MC designs. Is the cantilever assembly of a Hyperion lighter than that of a high end MC cartridge? I don't know, but I'd be interested to find out.