If you had a Benz cartridge would you let someone

I sent my Benz LP to Soundsmith for a retip only, i.e. on the existing cantilever. SS did N excellent job and the Benz sounds like new again. I plan on sending back for another retip when the time comes.

It really is unfortunate that Benz has just abandoned the US market. Very strange business strategy.

'Some Benz' to be retiped by 'someone'? You probably expect that 'someone' among the members will give you the name and address of some repair service. However some Benz carts are not the other.The LP s is about $5000 some other $300. I would not pay retip of, say, $500 for the last mentioned one. But for the Ruby 3(S?) and LP S I would gladly wait for a retip by Benz.

About 14 years ago I had my ruby re-tipped by Van Den Hul. I had this done because I liked the sound of Van Den Hul stylii. The results were as I hoped, and I have never regretted my decision. The cartridge does sound different since the re-tip, but that is what I wanted. At that time Van Den Hul wanted 600 dollars for a re-tip, I think. It was about half of what Benz charged. The turnaround time was not too bad, about 6 weeks, but that was then.

Bill

I did not lightly make my decision to not use the Benz factory to refurb my cartridge. I would have preferred to have done what I always did in the past, simply exchange my cartridge for a current Ruby. The two previous times I did this the cost was $1,000 and a one week turnaround. The exchange program now costs $2,400 and my authorized Benz dealer cannot give me a delivery time. The amount of time stated for a factory retip is absurd. Soundsmith has a very solid reputation. That coupled with their reasonable cost and okay turnaround time convinced me. I also did not just send it to them. I took the time to personally deliver the cartridge to their facility, inspect the place and talk directly to the people involved. I drove away with the impression that my cartridge was in caring and expert hands.

At present Benz uses MR (micro ridge) styli but in the
past the Gyger S. Well Van den Hul designed 3 styli for
Gyger: Gyger 1, II and S. What is called 'Van den Hul'
styli are actually Gyger styli. He probably made such an
agreement with Gyger as he deed with Benz (for parts).
The styli are sold with the cantilever as a combo. So no
wonder Bill was satisfied with Van den Hul retip.