@chakster
could you please show us links to cartridges you sell, or to your shop?
could you please show us links to cartridges you sell, or to your shop?
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...
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...
Showing 8 responses by jjss49
@needlestein To criticize a Koetsu owner who doesn’t have the money, or maybe who does have the money but who doesn’t believe their cartridge needs to be completely stripped out and replaced as demonstrating “strange behavior,” is just snobbery. there has been an ongoing pandemic of snobbery on this forum for the last 20-30 years... :) many longtime posters are infected... i myself not immune... see threads of cables, amplifiers, speakers, not to mention things analog to quote the orange man, it is what it is |
joe, i also add my thanks to you for chiming in always good to hear highly informed/involved parties sharing their experiences and perspectives, divergent as they may be this forum is at its best when these views are shared and debated, then readers interested in the debate can decide and vote with their feet and wallets |
it would seem to me that if a retipper/rebuilder has a good idea of the exact specs of the old cartridge cantilever and tip and suspension, to the extent materials are available, he can basically try to mimic the original spec, correct? of course never ever perfect, but i should think they can get fairly close unless unobtanium exotic materials are called for... just common sense reasoning... |
@lewm sorry to have you repeat old hat, i should probably have done a search through a-gon archives before posting it was this listing that made me wonder... i have loved the sound of my dyna's... saw this... thus the query https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649667301-dynavector-xv-1s-retipped-w-0-hours-free-ship-no-fees/ much appreciate the replies @millercarbon i will look at all the good stuff from peter ledermann you highlighted, thank you |
fair points and perspectives so far - thank you i should have been more precise to distinguish a retip from a rebuild... the difference is of course meaningful, thanks for pointing that out chak... appreciate other comments that more experienced folks than me may have - am sure lewm, raul, mc and many others will chime in before long |