KISEKI PURPLE NS your reviews....

andychris, ''Assumptions and conclusions''. Everyone start from
some assumption considered to be true and deduce form this
assumption his conclusions. However logic state: if the assumption
is not true, then also conclusions can't be true.
The MC kinds have the so called ''joint pipe'' in which cantilever/stylus 
combo is glued. This is part is also called ''moving
part'' connected with the generator with tension wire. 
You obviously confused MM kinds with MC kinds. By MM kinds one
need to ''cut'' original cantilever and glue the new one in the old
cantilever. That is not the case by MC kinds. One need to remove
the old cantilever from the joint pipe and glue the new one instead.
Those cantilever/styli combos are produced by suppliers not by
cart manufacturers. So one can see the same cantilever/stylus
combo by Benz LP-s as well by Lyra's Atlas. 
''The same'' does not always mean ''identical'' but in this case
one can state ''the same cantilevers/styli combos'' are produced
by two ''big jewel companies'' in Japan who supply all cart
manufacturers. This ''may'' lead to other conclusions then yours.

Dear Nandric, I won’t skimp on a retip. The Lapis is a gorgeous sounding cartridge, even with the non-original boron cantilever and vdH stylus. It’s still a long way from needing one, but when that time comes I will definitely go for a diamond cantilever. Namiki produces these (again) combined with their best refined contact stylus. I have asked around and this retip should cost around €1000. Serious money, but probably worth it.

BTW: the Namiki assembly is not of the ’one piece’ variety (like Sony XL-88D), but neither was the original diamond cantilever/stylus of the Lapis, so this option should bring it very close to its original specs.

I owned the Purpleheart NS, and two of my friends had also purchased ones for themselves. One had their stylus fall out. Another had the suspension fail in less than a year. Mine had a frequency response curve that looked like a curved cross - the right and left channels literally "crossed" each other at about 11 KHz, which was the only point where the two channels were ever close to each other. I asked AJ Van den Hul to look it over and he said there was a problem with the suspension. As I was able to get my money back, I did. Three bum carts in my immediate circle was too much for me to risk it again. I'm envious of those who got good ones.

I have owned the KPH NS for over fours years and it has worked beautifully with a Well Tempered Versalex! Never any issues for me.

Nandric... my conclusions come from my experience, my cartridges didn't sing after partial retip, but poeple need to get top hifi to hear the difference. I had to retip a benz LPS a few month ago, ALL retipping services answer me the same thing " we don't have microridge diamond + boron cantilever but ours diamond cut is much better, you will not hear the difference" that makes me laught. And some of them didn't even told me that they will mount a different cut, it's not serious at all. One time I had a used ZYX univers with a VDH diamond or zyx with shibata, but who cares, it's a diamond after all !!
How do you remove the original glue from the joint pipe ? because each time I have to retip a cartridge, the joint pipe has been changed by the retipper... so different material, different glue...