Who's done it besides me ?


The worst thing you could do while playing some vinyl snap off the *&%$# cantilever yes I did it so pissed
So my table is a Clearaudio Performance DC with Clarify arm ,Talismann cartridge ,Outer Limit weight and HRS record weight 
When to flip the record took everything off flip the record then put HRS back on when to put on the Outer Limit on and SNAP caught it with the side of my pinky I guess boron cantilever are really brittle can't find it any where accept a few shards I'm allways so careful I keep the guard and dust cover on when not using it 
So if you have totaled your cartridge how did you do it and did you replace it retip it upgraded it or down graded it like to hear your stories and you can see my rig in virtual systems 
Time to take a deep breath and pour a bourbon and no I didn't have one before LOL

Enjoy your music
Tom
128x128tomstruck

Showing 3 responses by justmetoo

Actually I still quite don't know HOW it really happened, but that very front, squeezed flat part of the alu cantilever, where the stylus is inserted, of my gorgeous sounding SURE V15 III MR... alu cantilever snapped or just fell off during simple foreward cleaning strokes of my stylus brush.
It broke off exactly by the fold/transition line from the tubular to the squeezed flat part. 
I do have a suspicion, that it might have been helped by corrosion of the aluminium, it looked darkish grey, not the usual more silverish colour. 
Has anyone ever experienced such a thing at all?
Michélle 
@mijostyn, funny how experience are often not quite the same... 
Firstly, I did have more than one quality issue with e.g. Ortfon, such like skew cantilever, gaping cartridge body of two different and then top MCs of theirs. So much for that. 

Mostly reasonably good MMs tended to sound more musical, using SUT and straight MC into pre made not the hoped for improvement using MCs for me. 🤪 

Right now I'm using a P77 cart into MM input of Levison pre with 47k standard loading is more musical than e.g. my Cadenza Black with my Fidelity Research X1 medium, and there are some other vintage MMs at least challenging both my Cadenza and Quintet Black. 

With all the MCs I've owned I fiddled for ever with the loading all over the place from 50 through 47k ohm, when using MC 60dB input and NEVER heard that more musical liquid sound of my far older vintage MMs. 

In short, high, higher, highest resolution is NOT quite the answer if it creates a sound more like some middling CD sound. 

And so, as I said, experiences do differ, for better or for worse 😉
Michélle 
@mijostyn,
yeah, kind and true words. 
My Burmester 961 speakers with AMT tweeters are not easily to be called, - 'mellow'. They are very resolving and the all Mundorf caped x-overs make it however never ear-flossing like, thankfully.
Of course there is also my SME V tonearm and SME 10 tt, all Ag wired from cart pins through to phono-pre input.
Yet, the tonality of all me known and heard MCs e.g. Lyras, Peer Windfeld I owned, to Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge, to mention some I recall, ALL top MCs for my humble pocket, sounded different, less 'harmonic'. No fiddling, no loading variation, SUT or not, and even using different phono preamps, however always solid state ones. 
There we go. 
One, Lyra Dorian with a snapped of cantilever I'd also had repaired by Jan Allaerts, it was no good with a top Gyger stylus on boron cantiler, and not much improved at all after a further expensive rework. So much for 'top' re-tipping services.
Not to be repeated for me either. 
Just sharing, one may take from it what ever makes sense 😉
Michélle