2. analog
  3. 150048-106117

Re-tip or Replace?

I have a 40 year old Dynavector Ruby that still sounds great, but I think it will soon require a re-tip.  The question is, should I pay the $350 or so to retip it, or replace the cartridge with a comparably priced Ortofon, Audio-Technica or Nagaoka?  The system consists of a Luxman PD-277 turntable (another 40 year old piece), Schiit Mani phono preamp, Schiit Saga preamp, Rotel RB-980BX amp, and Martin Logan ESL speakers.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
jnorris2005

Showing 2 responses by chakster

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
You can wait for a nice deal on ebay, i bought my rare DV 23RS MR (with Micro Ridge stylus) NOS from USA for about $450-500 one year ago. This is very close to what some people change just for a drop of glue and a new stylus tip. So i think you can buy a whole cartridge, even unused in the box.

Some other cartridges can be found too, but for $350 it will be hard to find anything close to DV23 Ruby, those new MM are not that good.

In my opinion it is much better to pay more for original cartridge than to mess up with retip.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
It may be just me, but I don’t trust ebay. Too many counterfeits/scams/ripoffs.

Well, it’s absolutely impossible to rip you off on ebay when you pay with paypal, buyer always protected and full refund always guaranteed by paypal buyer’s protection.

There are no conterfit of old Dynavector cartridges, but i suppose you know what is Dynavector and you can recognize it, i had 4 different models, two NOS from ebay. I have returned one cartridge for full refund when i realized the cantilever is a bit off-centered, return shipping has been covered by paypal, so no loss at all.

If you prefer to buy cartridges from audiophiles on audiogon it is not a problem, but not as secure as on ebay with paypal.

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