Refurbished / Re-tipped Cartridges - Are they worth Buying?

Mijo, I was under the impression that these re-tippers buy their cantilevers with various styli pre-mounted, for installation on our various cartridges. In other words, I would not have thought the amount of fastener and its placement are choices made at SS. Now, if you ask them to replace only the stylus while preserving the original cantilever (my preference when possible), then yes, SS (or any other retipper)  must orient the stylus and apply the fastener. In the case of my Grace Ruby, I had both the cantilever and stylus replaced, because I bought the cartridge sans any cantilever at all (which made it very cheap, of course). Like I think I said, although the amount of "glue" is disconcerting to look at under my ’scope, the resulting cartridge handily outperforms my other Grace Ruby, which still bears its original cantilever and (elliptical) stylus. What I am probably hearing is the difference between a new OCL stylus and a used elliptical stylus.

Lalitk, Thank you for your kind words. I do nothing now, except occasionally I consult; I am retired.  Why I can spend so much time on this forum. Too much.  Although I trained clinically in internal medicine and infectious disease, my career was at the lab bench trying to figure stuff out. Did some vaccine development en passant, which I hope some day will bear fruit.

Inagroove, if you saw glue covering the stylus tip, then there’s no doubt you’re correct, and you were justified if you sent the cartridge back for a re-retip. My Grace Ruby was retipped with sapphire/OCL by SS, and it has a disconcertingly large gob of epoxy holding stylus to cantilever. However it sounds great. (MD here with 40 years as a virologist at NIH. I’ve got an Olympus scope to look at styli.)

Inagroove, you have some expertise that allows you to judge the proper amount of glue used to fasten a stylus to a cantilever? Did you also look at zenith angle, when you examined that cartridge under magnification? You might be right about the glue, but it also could be something else.

Jonathan Carr (Lyra) who is regarded here as a major guru, wrote on this forum that it is wise to replace like with like, when it comes to cantilever and stylus, if you want to preserve the SQ of a cartridge. Because the other structural and functional elements of the cartridge were chosen with the OEM cantilever and stylus in mind. Thus, an “upgrade” may not necessarily be in the up direction. 

lalitk, You don't need the original designer to replace the cantilever/stylus assembly with parts identical in physical characteristics to those of the original.  The question is whether such parts are still available, if the cartridge is very old.  For one example, one of my favorite cartridges, the B&O MMC1, came with what appeared to be under my microscope a hollow tubular sapphire cantilever, and if memory serves, the stylus was inserted across the hollow tube without glue. (I am relying on memory, because I accidentally tore the cantilever out of my MMC1 while trying to engage the built on stylus guard.)  The replacement, done by Soundsmith because of Peter Ledermann's expertise in B&O, is a solid sapphire rod and a glued stylus, with a very visible gob of glue holding the stylus in place.  Not at all "like new". And yet, not cheap.

“Listening” is a worthless measure of whether a retipped cartridge resembles its original self in the first place. One can at best ascertain that the retip is pleasing in the here and now. Aural memory simply isn’t that good. At best one can hope that a formerly great cartridge retains some of its characteristics in its new guise. If the retipper replaced like with like, there’s a best chance of that being true, e.g., same cantilever material and same stylus shape as original. Maybe that’s why factory retips are best.