New cartridge vs. Re-tipped

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.  

 

@jcarr 

Next, cleanliness is next to saintliness. The dirt that accumulates in the LP groove and gets transferred to the stylus tends to have a high silicon oxide content (sand), and sand's abrasive nature will significantly hasten stylus wear. Keeping the LP scrupulously clean with an ultrasonic or fluid-and-vacuum cleaner, and cleaning the stylus after each LP

Mr. Carr, when you mention cleaning the LP with a cleaning machine, are you saying that this should be done prior to each time that LP is played?

Is it also safe to assume that products like Gruv Glide and Last record preservative should be avoided?

Thanks