VAS (Steven Leung) cartridge repair/retipping service?

I have been sending my Koetsus to Van den Hul for decades.

I lived in NYC for 45 years, and have been living in the Hudson Valley for 3, and though I am now minutes from Soundsmith, he is not cheap, in fact he is far more expensive than sending it overseas including shipping. And I find him difficult to work with.

Is anybody in a position to compare the quality of Steve's work to Van den Hul's?

Has anybody sent a Koetsu to Steve, and is able to describe the change in the sound characteristics, if any, before and after repair?

Thank you all in advance.

this thread has been very helpful. how close to "new" or "original" can a rebuild get? have some of you found your carts to sound better than original versions? thank you. 

Don't do it. Never allow a 3rd party re-tipper to touch any cartridge lest you become the laughing stock of your peers here and on all forums where these grand poobahs of phono cartridge wisdom reside.

Those proclaiming 100% positive experiences with re-tippers are nothing but shills and never buy anything new anyways, this hobby can do without them.

If you think your newly re-tipped cartridge will sound better than new then you are sorely mistaken. skilled practitioners employing modern methods, materials and potentially better styli profiles never advanced the art and whose efforts will never be accepted as an "improvement."

Phono cartridge design is a PRECISE science with protocols fierily adhered to. Such information re exact specifications of processes and materials are cloaked in extreme secrecy and guarded with the same doggedness as the recipe for Coca-Cola and WD-40 but to name but a few.

Yes, a 3rd party re-tipper should NEVER be considered other than by those who can care less about vinyl replay and music in general. Don't be a douchebag by pretending you got a deal or 'saved money' because you didn't.

WHEW! now that I got that off my chest I feel SOOO much better. Steve at VAS has done an awesome job for me repairing a half dozen high-end carts and counting. everything from a re-tip to cantilever/styli replacement, re-tensioning suspensions and fixing dead shorts. He's a miracle worker and my go-to guy. I heartedly recommend his services!

Steve at VAS has done an awesome job for me repairing a half dozen high-end carts and counting. everything from a re-tip to cantilever/styli replacement, re-tensioning suspensions and fixing dead shorts.

Wow, that’s amazing, you don’t want to deal with original cartridge manufacturers/designers for a proper rebuild, you have someome else, right?

I assume you like new cartridges but you don’t want to buy a new cartridges from the dealers even if nearly all manufacturers simply change worn cartridge for a brand new one via their dealer (instead of re-tip/rebuild) for a special price. Because you have someone else who can fix broken cartridges cheaper with different materials it’s OK for you.

One question:
why all your cartridges required re-tip, cantilever/stylus replacement, re-tensionin? Are we talking about quality high-end cartridges here or something else? Do you use them so hard? @saburo

this thread has been very helpful. how close to "new" or "original" can a rebuild get? have some of you found your carts to sound better than original versions? thank you.

@c_cocobean Do you know any cartridge designer who will post on audiogon? Below is audiogon post from Jonathan Carr who is internationally renowned cartridge designer (maybe you know Lyra cartridges?). In my opinion his thoughts about cartridge re-tipping process is much more valuable than all the post in this thread. Do yourself a favor (read his post on audiogon from 2013 below):

*** "Changing only the stylus will alter the sound less than if the cantilever material is changed. When a cartridge is designed, the designer will consider the moving mass (sum of the stylus, cantilever and coils), the resonant character of the cantilever, and the (sonic) propagation velocity of the cantilever (affected by the cantilever’s mass and rigidity), then choose the suspension and dampers accordingly. If you change the cantilever material, you are effectively throwing the original designer’s calculations away. There is much more (far more than what I have written above) to rebuilding a cartridge than affixing a new stylus or altering the cantilever. In over 30 years of involvement in the phono cartridge industry, I have not seen one retipper who has presented the entire story, who has effectively said "Here are the all of the considerations. Here are the cons as well as the pros. Make a wise choice that is best for you" ... " (J.Carr, 2013) ***

I'm waiting on my ZYX Bloom 3 to get a boron/micro-ridge mounted by Steve at VAS. I Will let you all know how I like it when it's done.