2. analog
  3. 161029-13747

Teach me about cartridge 'retipping'

Thought I would throw this out there for comment by long time vinyl aficionados...

We all have cartridges we love, some are pricey treasures... but they wear out eventually even with much care and diligence in use.

There are still some good folks with excellent reputations doing retip services of various makes - Peter at SS, Andy Kim in WA, Steve Leung in NJ etc etc... not to mention some of the manufacturers of course, who still do them. It would seem to me these old craftsmen may or may not be passing along these valuable skills to younger apprentices.

I have bought a couple Grace F9 retips from Peter Ledermann - they work wonderfully. No longer having a fresh factory F9L I will never know whether they sound different.  But they sound great.

Curious to hear comments about how these retips are done, and whether they can reliably reproduce the original sound signature of the cartridge. I wonder, for instance, about how the cantilever is removed and reinstalled, relative to the suspension of the original cartridge, etc etc.  Is the suspension replaced?  What is a suspension comprised of, for example, in a typical higher end MC cart like a Dynavector a Lyra a VDH...

Of course, as time passes, the original cartridges age and I can imagine suspensions in them eventually get compromised as well...
jjss49

Showing 2 responses by cleeds

cleeds
6,144 posts
 
chakster
People often know nothing about cartridges, turntables, tonearms ... etc. Most comments are irrelevant and can’t be used as evidence ... People suffering when their only cartridge is broken and they want to get it back to life quickly ... Most of them are even more happy when they can pay less than retail price of a brand new cartridge. But they are not an experts, they are average users of analog systems ... it might be their 5th cartridge in entire life (or probably first MC). Those comments are useless for those who really understand what is a good cartridge and why certain original cartridge is so special.
There is so much speculation here in one post that it boggles the mind. I am simply confounded that retipping of MC cartridges is so derided by some.
cleeds
6,144 posts
 
I’ve never understood the reasons for objecting so strongly to a cartridge re-tip.

My experience is limited. I had an old Monster Cable Sigma Genesis 2000 LOMC that was my favorite cartridge of all time. It is also the only cartridge in all my years as an audiophile that I damaged - my fuzzy sweater sleeve caught the stylus and ripped it clear off. That was before I realized that a cartridge could be retipped, but long after MC got out of the cartridge biz. (I think the MC cartridges were made for them by Zyx.)

For some reason, I put the cartridge away in a drawer and by the time I found it again years later I’d learned about Soundsmith’s retipping service. Figuring I had little to lose, I shipped it off to Peter & Co.

Memory being what it is, it’s difficult to say whether it’s identical to the original. No matter - it sounds fantastic and is easily worth the few hundred it cost me to have it refurbished.

When it wears out, Ill send it to be retipped again.
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