They laughed until the DIY retips started to play

[bluesun]

OK, I'm applying for a new membership in the retipper's club.

I salvaged an Ortofon FF15xeMkII with the tip from a Pfansteihl/Shure M75 replacement stylus ($6 from parts express). Used wood glue, bougainvillea thorn and a coating of nail polish on the joined cantilever. I don't even know if it's conical or elliptical. Tracking at 1.75 g.

Now this cartridge sounds better than any of my others (and some of them darn good too--Pickering XSV3000, AKG P8E, Shure ML140HE). Better imaging, depth, detail (almost too much detail!). How is this possible??

Next retip project: the Nagatron 350e.

One conclusion this leads me to, re: poor quality of aftermarket styli, that it's not the diamond that's the problem, it's more than likely the magnet they use--mismatched/generic type magnets that don't mesh electrically with the cartridge coils.

[1200y3]

The thorn isolates the cantilever mass (stylus bar) from the tip. Less restraint on the tip, and decoupling of cantilever resonances (Grado uses its idea).

[Paladin]

Congratlations- join the club! You’ve got a couple of hours on the needle now…how’s it sound? I see you used a different thorn so is it small enough to fit snuggly? I’m sure you had to sand down one end.

I’ve got a Shure M75E stylus holder that had a diamond but it fell out long ago so I’m thinking about options. For one, I was thinking about transferring a conical tip to test questionable records. On the other hand I have a Jico Hyper-Elliptical stylus also ready to go.

I wonder if different thorns make different sound. I don’t think I want to worry about that. I’ve got some orange trees with very mean looking barbs. I’ll have to check out that splint option.

Welcome to the club and I hope you enjoy your newfound friends.

[fantasia]

Now if there was an easy way to wind new coils for a moving coil cart an ENTRE MC-1 which i have with a very low hours micro scanner on it rats!!!!!!!

Fantasia

[1200y3]

An interesting comment about MC. When I was working as a clerk in a cmmunications shop 10 years ago I was at the parts supply house (which could special order anything) a customer at the counter next to me was picking up his order which happened to be a package of (I think 4Pc) crosses that were to be paced on a cantilever. (They had an ancient stock of tubes-mostly transmitter-that they couldn't give away!)

When looking at the types of meters that were often on tape decks and consumer portable tape decks, micro coils are not too rare.

[bluesun]

Thanks for the 'official' invite...
Now after a few days listening, I believe I was a tad hasty in characterizing it as 'better' than the other cartridges. And in true OCD/Audiophilia fashion I just couldn't leave well enough alone--somehow the retip was picking up an awful lot of crackles and pops, putting them forward of the music (annoying after a time.) I decided to exchange tips (had another elliptical from a dead ADC) and ended up pulling the whole cantilever out of the assembly (effectively rendering it useless), so strong was the wood glue after a few days---live and learn. Would I try it again--you bet! I believe this was an elliptical tip, so conical may be the way to go in the future. Bougainvillea thorns are a bit softer (more wood-like) than cactus thorns so this was probably why the glue was so well bonded. Best fun I've had in at least a week or two!

[rito25]

I am highly interrested in retipping my micro acustics 2002e, This would be my first time trying such a thing. What tip would you reccomed to try this with? Where would I make the cut at? and how do i make sure i dont damage anything when cutting it and to make sure it is aligned right?

[Paladin]

I suggest using a cheap tip until you get the hang of it. Got any Audio Technica tips lying around? A Jico replacement for Shure with the “Hyper-Elliptical” tips is quite thin. As you can see the MA beryllium tip is very thin and will fit virtually any hollow stylus. For ease, cutting in the middle would be fine. A sharp razor or Xacto blade works. Be careful when cutting: the tip could fly away! I like a slow setting glue to allow time to eyeball the tip right which is probably more accurate than many tips I’ve seen. I use Carpenter’s glue as it can easily be removed. But for a more permanent fix then Gorilla Glue or even stronger is Elmer’s Ultimate Glue. They expand as they dry and lock in place like epoxy. They take about one-hour to set. Acetone, fingernail polish remover, will, with time, remove the polyurethane glue.

[rito25]

Wait did you use a catcus in your retip or not?
The fact that those may still have life left makes it hard for me to cut them up with. You recommend a JICO tip? Will any of theirs do or go for the one with the closest specs?

[Paladin]

The MA was the easiest as no cactus-thorn transplant was necessary. A new cantilever slipped over the thin MA tip, the stump, and then glue. I just randomly picked a tip that I felt would do the job. They will all make sound. I use what I have around.

[rito25]

I tried and fail horribly.
First my hand slipped breaking off the cantilever at the base on the MA 2002e.
Then I squeeze my broken AT120E/T stylus too hard and the hole was too small to fit over.
I believe I am getting 2 PE M91 stylii in the mail, do you think those will work?
Lets hope my digitrac 200ne comes soon so I can play LP again.

[1200y3]

I repaired a line contact tip by using super glue to fix the tip (almost ONLY the tip) to a generic stylus bar (cantilever) I used the thinnest cactus thorn and glued the thorn to the outside of the generic cantilever and stylus tip. It worked, but I do consider myself lucky, and hope I don't have to be that precice again, but hey, the broken stylus sat for 15 years and I did not expect to get it repaired. It cost $80 in 1986 for the cartridge and it is a nude square shank VDH!

No matter how many times a failed, as long as I did not lose the tip on the floor, I was able to succeed. Precision is not as important as a good compliance. Most of the rebuilds I do are with generics, so they are quite bulky and easy to work with. But once the last 1/3 of the tip is coupled to the stylus bar with a thorn, the decoupling of mass through the thorn reduces the stylus tip mass to that of only the tip. It reduces all other commercial designs to only a compromised product.

Because of the ability to do a DIY stylus, I never am without a stylus.

I have over 50 DIY styli, and I only did it because it was the only way to keep my V15s alive, and to come close to the original sound of it. It only costs $5 to make a stylus! (And from a line of broadcasters, producers, studio owners, amplifier engineers, owners-my ears don't care for too much off the shelf technology.)

[Blue Angel]

I may have found the origin of Sumo II. There were few cartridge makers back then and probably fewer in Japan so I had to scour through little information in their country. Both it and the Goldbug Medusa cartridges share a unique bottom shape. Medusa points to references of them being sold as the short-lived McIntosh MC 1000 & MC 800 cartridges. $1000 back then would be $2,100US today.

With the wood case the Medusa is known as the Goldbug Brier.


From audiotools.com:
Mark Corp.
Mid to high end MC carts made in Japan in the 70's and 80's, the models were Brier, so named because it was fitted into a hand made brier wood enclosure (actually carved by the wife of the company's president), and the Goldbug, Medusa and Clement. All of these had the same coil arrangement but different housing and styli. The Brier was something of a legend and became the inspiration for later Koetsu and Grado models. The company also made the McIntosh cartridges that were available between 80's, those models were broadly similar to the Brier but had plastic housings.
http://audiotools.com/oldcart_l.html

From roger-russel.com:
I became involved with evaluating these cartridges at McIntosh, and even making recommendations for a few changes. In 1984 the Mark Corporation produced two cartridges for McIntosh, the MCC800 and the MCC1000. Unlike many moving coil cartridges, these did not have a peak in the response at the high end that normally emphasized intermodulation products. The brier housing was not used for the McIntosh cartridges in order to reduce mass. The coils were wound directly on the stylus cantilever. Consequently, the styli were not user-replaceable. The cartridge had to be returned to the factory for replacement and correct alignment. At this time CD's were gaining more in sales. The cartridges were available for only a short time and very few were sold. The company, Mark Corporation, has since gone out of business.
http://www.roger-russell.com/phono.htm

I have often read references to the effect that 'coils were wound directly onto the cantilever'.

How is this possible as the coils have to cross?

Obviously, I'm not quoting Paladin. I'm quoting Paladin quoting Roger Russell, quoting someone else. I personally have never seen such an arrangement 'in the flesh' so to speak.

blue angel

[fscl]

OK, I want in, just didn't have any candidates until now:

http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/album ... r_id=14996

It's a Technics EPC-310MC with broken boron tube cantilever. She should be OK channel-wise according to the VOM.

The cantilever diameter is very small and a cactus thorn would not seem to fit in the hole. So I am thinking that I could slip a larger diameter cantilever over the stub, carpenter glue and floor finish?

I'm thinking a nice diamond right off the bat like one off of the Digitrac 200ne as this cartridge is a high performer......

As it is off of a Technics linear, I'm going to have to do some calculations to make sure it conforms to P-mount specs (ie cantilever length matching).

Have any suggestions, practice tips, words of encouragment....

Fred and