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The nightmare of the cartridge buyer...

I recently completed a several year quest to acquire a new cartridge. This quest was basically a major PITA and a nightmare!

Why? Well let’s take a look at what will be in store for all cartridge buyers’ in the US...and possibly other countries as well..IF they are seeking a top flite cartridge , like I was.

Firstly, and here’s where a big part of the problem lies: You will typically be unable to audition any cartridge under consideration...certainly not in your own home and more often than not, at your dealers either.

Then we have the fact that these products are closely monitored for who and whom can act as a dealer...which is then severally restricted by territory and distribution. We then add that the pricing is very well controlled...CAN WE SAY PRICE FIXING...which in most states is an illegal practice...but seems to be the rule here.


Let’s begin with my story...and then I am hoping that members will chime in here with their thoughts and probably also their own ’horror stories’....

About three years ago, I decided to acquire a cartridge that would replace my aging but still ok Benz Ruby 2...
I wanted a cartridge that would surpass that Benz in most areas...and one that would be priced at about $3-$5K. A lot of money to be spending on this piece of gear...or so I believed.

At the time, I was considering the following models....Benz LPS MR, Koetsu Urushi and Rosewood Platinum and the Lyra Kleos, Delos, a EMT, the Kiseki Purpleheart, Air Tight ( entry level model at the time..cannot remember what it was called) an Ortofon A90--and a Transfiguration Proteus--lastly one of the ZYX models. After some research, i discovered that the Ortofon’s, the Zyx’s and the Transfigurations wouldn’t work with my set up --due to too low an output by the respective cartridges for my all tube phono stage. So this left the Kiseki, the Koetsu’s, the Lyra’s and the Benz’s...and possibly the Air Tight model.

Circumstances changed and my cartridge buying escapade was put on hold...until a few months back. In the few years since my last foray, I find out that Benz have basically gone out of business ( again!!) and so has Transfiguration. Meanwhile, the Van Den Hul line has come into the US again...this time with a new distributor.
The Zyx line has totally been updated and the Lyra line is now more available than before...at least in theory. The Koetsu are now handled by Music Direct...who have essentially doubled the pricing across the board! Oh, i forgot, the Lyra line has increased by about 25% across the board ( i don’t think inflation can account for this!!)
So where to start auditioning --the answer...nowhere!
Instead I am supposed to rely on various dealers enthusiastic recommendation for these products...except for the fact that one dealer tells me that Koetsu’s are the best thing since mothers milk- and the other tells me that Koetsu’s are horrible with all the faults under the sun...( at least the ones that are in my budget..see above!) Can I hear any of these for myself...either in my system, or at the respective dealers...heck NO! ( and don’t think this type of scenario/ behavior isn’t consistent for other brands as well!--irrespective of whether the dealer(s) carries said brand or not!).

Here I am left with the choice of dropping several thousand dollars on a product that a) has no ability to be heard in my own system..therefore having no clue as to the results that I will get, b) has absolutely no return policy c) can be easily damaged by myself or others in the case of incorrect mounting to the tonearm...and lastly...and this is the one that really annoys me the most: I must shop for these products at a very limited amount of vendors who all are naysaying their competitors and acting extremely unprofessionally in the process. ( Do i really have to talk to the prospective rep for the line in order to determine the compatibility of the cartridge under question with my arm, the reasoning behind the asked price, where the dealer is that should be selling me the piece in question ( so as not to cross territorial lines) and on and on!!)

Then we have this little bonbon...The damn Japanese sourced cartridge(s) is available on several Japanese web sites at a price that is usually 50 -60% of the retail price here in the USA!! And that price in Japan is still at FULL RETAIL! ( Yes, I know it cost a ton of money to ship these things from Japan to here ( since they weigh a ton), LOL).

Where does this leave the US consumer in regards to the acquisition of a top flite cartridge...IMO the answer is between a hard place and a rock..You either pay through the nose and get totally ripped off by the likes of Music Direct and the various small independent reps in the US for these cartridges, or you takes your choice and risk buying from a grey market vendor abroad...but at a fraction of the price! BTW, mysteriously most of the top flite Benz cartridges continue to be very available from a vendor in China who seems to have cornered the market?? What’s up with this??

I can go on and about this journey, as I have just began to scratch the top of the heap in this story, but let’s hear from you guys as to your experiences and thoughts.... Was your top flite  cartridge acquisition an equal nightmare, or was it something else?






128x128daveyf

Showing 10 responses by analogluvr

analogluvr
859 posts
 
@cleeds  in my experience that is simply not true. I have a few friends who are dealers and The Profit is usually around closer to 40% 
 And often times all they do is put in an order and give you the merchandise when it comes in. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
OP what did you end up getting  and where did you get it? 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 I could somewhat agree with this kind of markup if The Store would have a demo on hand for you to hear. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Like you  I needed to replace a Lyra Delo‘s a while back. Like you I was totally fed up with the scenario and refused to pay those crazy crazy prices. I ended up buying a van den hul colibri from a gentleman in the Netherlands brand new at less than 50% of retail.   At first I thought I had made a mistake because it was very ruthless and took a while to break in but then it was a very fine cartridge. Then I bought a NOS Fidelity research MC201 for 500 bucks Canadian that I felt was every bit as good so I sold the van den hul.  As always there was very minor differences with the VDH doing somethings a tiny bit better but the Fidelity research seem to excel at presenting the music as a cohesive whole and just being very very enjoyable. 
Back when I still had the lira I inquired about having it rebuilt by Lyra and was told I had to go through the American distributor and it would end up being almost 2K.   Essentially it was a few hundred less than a new cartridge. I was fed some nonsense about them going the extra mile blah blah blah.   But I had a friend who had an older cartridge that was built by lira but not Lyra branded and he went straight to the source and got rebuilt for about 1K.   So essentially the distributor is making $1000 for forwarding my mail.    Not cool for me. Don’t understand why anybody would do business that way in this day and age of everything being accessible on the Internet.  So I will no longer purchase any Lyra products. Even though I do love them!
 Lately I have been buying high-end cartridges used trying them out for a while and then reselling them. Not too much risk if you buy smart from sellers with lots of positive feedback. 
 But I agree with an earlier poster who mentioned that we should just not bother with this nonsense. There are values to be had such as the audio Teknika ART seven and nine. I currently have one that I may resell, but is the real deal.  I will probably sell it though due to the fact that it has fairly high output so does not really work well with my system as all the other cartridges have less than .2 or around . Three tops  
analogluvr
859 posts
 
@dgarretson + 100!
@daveyf  sure look brand new to me! Also the guy i sold it to destroyed it while installing it and even though it wasn’t warranty covered the guy I bought it from treated him very well.  When I purchased it he told me I had a full warranty. I also had the option to send it back at 100 hours for a tuneup at no charge.  Basically  all the same service I would’ve received had I paid three times the amount from an American dealer. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
I don’t  Think it’s fair at all to call the OP a troll. I don’t like getting ripped off and I don’t like the direction that the high end industry is going in in the last 15 years I’ve been involved.  
analogluvr
859 posts
 
@daveyf  no I don’t remember what the serial number was. But if it were not legit I can’t see that guy standing behind it like he did. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Actually regarding output, I have found that I tend to enjoy cartridges with lower outputs. If there is a model with both generally the one with the lower output is more well regarded. This is because there are less turns on the coil so you get a more pure sound. 
 You do need a good phono stage however. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Pretty hard to recommend cartridges for someone. Folks can recommend something that will work compliance wise on the arm but as far as this sounds signature it’s very personal. I find cartridges either fall into the warm and syrupy sounds or into the lean and analytical with everything in between.   What you liked will depend on how the rest of your system as voiced. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 I think for the folks who don’t agree with the current pricing, the answer lies in older use the cartridges. As I said in a previous post I felt my NOS fidelity research bested my Topflite VDH  in someways and was not quite as good in others. But as a whole I felt it was slightly more enjoyable and definitely offered far far far better value. 
 That folks to think more expensive equals better run out and buy the current top-of-the-line stuff. In five years we will pick it up for pennies on the dollar but it probably won’t be any better than the Fidelity research I’m currently using. 
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