Soundsmith Cartridge Retip- Highly Recommended!

Mr. Lederman just rebuilt my SS Aida. It is wonderful.

 

For My newly Retipped Denon DL-160 i went with the cheapest option, the HE stylus with aluminium cantaliver as I was hoping the cart retains its original sound / tonality.

Have to say they did a great job and it sounds fantastic, sharper and more detailed than I remeber the original 160 sounding, tracking on the inner grooves is really good as well.

They also provided superb customer service.
Highly recommended.

Long May they run!

 

Yes! I purchased a second Denon DL301mk2 when my first one wore out and sent the first one to Soundsmith for a sapphire retip.
Before swapping the Soundsmith/Denon in, i sampled 3 different tracks from 3 different records (also digitize the samples in hi-rez for reference).
The difference was VERY noticeable to me. The sapphire retip had less high frequency resonance thus giving every track a more natural (or as some MC protesters may say, non ‘tipped-up’) high end.
One caveat to note is the sapphire retip needed me to reduce the dampening on my Jelco tonearm a few notches, because of the cantilever’s inherent less resonance compared to the stock cantilever. If you have silicone dampening on your tonearm, the cart will sound a tad dryer, or less lively in comparison before you reduce the dampening.
If your tone arm doesn’t use any dampening, you may be fine and simply notice an overall improvement. Depending on the arm you are paring it with...your results may very.
Regardless, i really enjoyed the stock cart in my setup, but the Soundsmith retip is quite the improvement toward a more natural reproduction. I’m definitely sending my other cart in for a retip as well.

Cheers,
Jake

 

just saw this thread linked and quoted on the SS site .....

https://www.sound-smith.com/services/cartridge-rebuilding-retipping

 

FYI, they're exceptionally backed up right now and taking 5 months or longer to turn around some work, including rebuilds.

 

Good to know, I just sent them an Aida a few weeks ago. Guess I'll see it in the summertime.

 

Yeah, that's the right expectation. They received mine end of October 2020 and I don't expect to get it back before late-March. Based on the last conversation I had with them, April/May is more likely.

 

Soundsmith has had my Paua for ten weeks and can't even give me a timeframe yet for when they will get to it.

While they do good work you may want to use Needle Clinic or VAS if you own a cartridge from other manufacturers until their backlog clears.

 

I just had my ortofon re cantilevered / tipped and it came back in three weeks. if i had known that i might not have bought another cartridge...

 

On that note, Monday this week I sent my Benz LPS to Needle Clinic for a retip. I'm literally playing it now after receiving it earlier today. Andy lives ~80 miles from me in northern CA, but wow, that's amazing turnaround time! The LPS was cleaned, (apparently that were some stray metal wires/debris that got up in there that may have conrtibuted to distortion) and retipped seemingly perfectly. Sounds as good or better than before. I've only used Soundsmith so far on a Benz Wood and Lyra, and they were great (but ~8-10 wks each time), but going forward Needle Clinic will be an option for me.

 

Sounds like a great option for future retipping needs. I went with Sound-smith since I'm getting a full rebuild.

 

Yeah Andy from Needle Clinic just did a Benz for me and turned it around in a day. Sounds great too.

 

What exactly did he do, can you describe in a little more detail? Replaced the stylus, or the cantilever and stylus, or just a service, or ...? What model Benz and how old, if you don't mind. Thanks!

 

Can I ask who did the work ?
3 weeks turnaround with a new cantilever...you must know somebody !

 

yes it was Soundsmith. i would not go to anyone else.

 

Maybe SoundSmith gives service priority for cartridges they made/make.

 

Practice used to be that Peter was the only person that would rebuild the SoundSmith cartridges, other techs rebuild all the other brands.

I'd say there are a lot of S.S. owners taking advantage of the 20% rebuild, making their turnaround longer.

 

ACE S medium. Not sure how old it is. He put a new boron cantilever with micro ridge stylus on it. There was no cantilever on the cart when I got it.

 

Sadly no. They've had a friend's Zephyr since June and can't even tell me when they can examine my Paua after 10 weeks.