Koetsu Rosewood retip or replace

A friend of mine had his elderly Koetsu Rosewood retipped by Soundsmith and the cartridge sounds awfully good. This was Soundsmith's top-of-the-line retip, their Optimum Contour (OC) line contact stylus with ruby cantilever. It cost $350 plus shipping. I've personally had Soundsmith retip a Grado Reference and a Denon DL-103 and have been totally pleased both times. Good luck, Dave.

I as well have used Soundsmith with great results on a Lyra cartridge. My process to get the Lyra back up to spec was in the $450.00 range as it was a retip as opposed to replacing a cantilever. Very nice work, a wee bit pricey, but very happy with the results.

Dear Frogsglassass: +++++ " My question, how do u tell and is there anyway to check wear? " +++++

IMHO you a very prety decent TT/tonearm for your Koetsu cartridge, do you have any trouble when you play records? do you have any kind of distortions? why do you ask about?. With good care your Koetsu can/could play for at least 1,000 hours.
You can check it through a microscope or similar device but hearing it can be conclusive about. I think that before you put your money on it is good to be sure if it needs, maybe you can do it better putting your money in a better phono stage.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, no offense, but you can pretty much tell when this cartridge (at least my friend's) is in need of a retip. The diamond and cantilever looked okay but it was many years old, had at least three owners and thousands of hours on it. Honestly, it sounded pretty woeful -- closed-in, two-dimensional, lacking in dynamics. Certainly the Soundsmith retip proved the point. Dave

Dear Dave: Those " old " Koetsus " suffer " between other things with suspension problems even if does not have many hours, here the culprit is all those years pass.

Now, I ask Frogs if he had trouble about but he don't give any direct answer but sending to re-tip.

Now, a " modern " re-tip like the Soundsmith works very fine. I have at least two cartridges re-tipped by them, that's always an alternative but for some other cartridges say XV-1s, Colibri, Orpheus and the like certainly I want it back in original brand condition that a re-tipper maybe could not do it at the same level than the original builder/designer.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, i appreciate your imput and u have a valid point. however,i have used this cartridge for about 6 mos and frankly as Dopogue stated it does sound pretty woeful, with lots of pops and clicks being the most alarming.i bought this cartridge as part of a package deal. i sent the turntable into sota for refurbishing and was told by the tech who set up my t/t that the cartridge had seen many hrs and suggested a retip i have bought a zxy cart to use as a fill in and before i send the koetsu in i will have it checked by a reputable source. i trutfully dont have the knowledge or equipment to make that call. i believe this cartridge was bought new with the t.t which is 84 vintage and it has been retipped by van den hull at some point ( dont know if that affects future retips or not)> if any one has information i would appreciate imput.
basically I fear i may be damaging my lps and dont want to risk it.my old t/t a rega p25 with an entry level cartridge sounded better and frankly i havent had the money, nor do i now actually but..... i know the capability of this set up and wish to experience it Thanks