I have two cartridges I plan on having re tipped by Soundsmith. One is a Shelter 501 II, and the other is a Lyra Lydian B. Both of these came originally with boron cantilevers. Is it worth the $450 each for the boron or should I go for the $350 ruby?
I can't swear to this, but I do believe the Mk3 was at most only a few hundred bucks more than the Mk2 (not double the price of a Mk2), last spring when I was in Tokyo. It may even have been the same price. I eventually bought a Mk2 Mono.
By the way, I am only quoting the advice of Jonathan Carr, who designs Lyra cartridges for a living. He also pointed out that there is a significant difference in mass between boron and sapphire, which would have led the original designer to choose different materials for suspension and damping of boron vs sapphire, etc.
The best philosophy is to stay with the original cantilever material because the cartridge was designed and built with that choice in mind. So your answer is “boron”. This has nothing to do with one being “better” than the other.
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