New cartridge vs. Re-tipped

 

I never had an OEM tip disappear or fall off, anybody ___?.

Yes, I had a stylus unexpectedly come off my DV XV-1s. Dynavector took care of it under warranty.

Steven Leung of VAS delivered my repaired Dynavector 17D3 to me at AXPONA. Excellent work and a very easy guy to deak with. I appreciate his work.

Great discussion!

I retip beryllium all the time.  Most common retip for me is the Micro Acoustics MA 2002e.  Utterly fantastic cartridge.  I’m a bit obsessed with them.  Original diamond was a round shank .2 x .7 mil elliptical.  I have square shank .2 x .7 mil elliptical that will fit inside the round shank.  I can also surface mount diamonds to it when necessary, say if you want a low profile half height Fritz Gyger FG 2 on it because I can’t get a full size one to fit in the original hole.  I can’t drill beryllium because its dust is highly toxic.  
https://www.instagram.com/p/DCcAqKVO9pr/?igsh=enJ2OGcyamgzNGw2

Other brands of cartridge that used beryllium back in the day that so I have retipped are Audio-Technica and Yamaha.  I really can’t think of other manufacturers that used beryllium except for maybe some very early Dynavector.

I also retip sapphire and ruby and hollow sapphire and hollow ruby, though the hollow ones are very very rare.