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What about diamond cantilever/stylus combo

In the so called 'MM thread' J. Carr explained the differences between cantilever materials.The advantage of aluminum cantilever being that the stylus can be pressure
fitted while by the so called 'exotic cantilevers' the stylus need to be glued in the cantilevers. There are different conditions which the cantilever need to satisfy
in order to ,uh, satisfy the preferences of an designer. J. Carr also explained why he prefers boron cantilevers. Now I own the Sony XL 88 as well as the Sony XL 88 D.
'D' referring to the cantilever and stylus made from one piece of diamond. But here is my confusion. Both carts have the same 'generator' and also the same technical specs. But 'soundwise' they are as different as an Lada and an Ferrari (by way of speaking or by exaggeration). The comparisson between French wines as well between the French chief cooks come to mind.BTW the pudding will also do. Without any technical pretenitons I would think that the only explantion for the mentioned difference should be the diamond cantilever/stylus combo. If it was possible I would gladly retip my chosen MC carts with such cantilever/ stylus combo and pay, say, $1500 for the jewel. Now if there is demand then there should be supply? The question is if there is 'interesting demand' for the possible producer(s)?

Regards,
nandric

Showing 2 responses by trytone

trytone
121 posts
 
Please explain how these photos and the amount of glue translate to inferior performance
trytone
121 posts
 
Perhaps this is an issue more about customer perception than glue. Do you really believe Soundsmith customers are ignorant of what they are buying? For a bit less than 500$, their clients are able to enjoy an experience that to many may be indistinguishable from what they remember before the service. One assumes that this might be hard to measure(what with variability in samples of what is usually a hand built product) and perhaps even harder to distinguish by listening(since a few months have usually passed between the end of the life of the original and the installation of the retipped cart). The service recently allowed me to buy an Air Tight cartridge(the 15000$ Model) on an Audiogon auction for close to 2000$ and have it retipped. This allows me some(hopefully close) version of the airtight for a third of the best price that my industry connection could allow. I do not believe Soundsmith make any claims to install the exact cantilever and diamond but rather to offer some version that owners may enjoy(or that will allow a worn or damaged cartridge to be sold for an attractive price to those that may not be able to afford a new or barely used high dollar item). Whether they are so popular due to how the retips perform or the professionalism of the repair work is up for debate. Anyone that may have dealt with them(and I have been a customer 4 times over last few years) receives an instruction sheet that explicitly warns against using a liquid cleaner that might damage the glue(they prefer a soft brush for dust and something  akin to Blu-Tak to remove the film that builds up. I am still new to this pursuit and respect those who believe they can hear the difference between what they remember and a retip but comments about the service being some how unworthy due to use of glue or not producing an identical performer seem unfounded. As always am eager to be shown the error of my ways. LS (PS The next Austin Record Convention starts about May 18th, will be there selling mostly classical recordings as I have been for over 30 years, hope to meet some of you there).
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