About 10 years ago (or more?) I had SS put a ruby shaft on an old Ortofon MC-30. What I got back far exceeded my expectations... for about 6 months. The MC-30 broke internally, and could not be fixed (affordably). It was risky upgrading a 15 yr old cartridge, I guess. Later I bought a SS Zephyr mkII cart (boron shaft). It was "very nice". Too nice in fact.... To me, it was boring. I went back to a less old MC-30-SuperII and rediscovered the MC magic I was looking for. I've just recently got a Cadenza Blue (ruby shaft) and I really love it. Overall my experiences with SS were very positive, but their MI cartridge was just too polite sounding "for me",
Anybody out there re-cantilever their cartridge with a Soundsmith Contact Line diamond ?
The cantilever on my Dynavector 20x2 is damaged. Dynavector
wants X number of dollars to exchange it. Then I read about Soundsmith's
rebuild option, which is intriguing. A feature aspect of their cantilever
rebuild is their Contact Line Diamond stylus as opposed to Dynavector's Micro
Ridge Nude diamond.
"The Soundsmith Contact Line diamond stylus has three times the contact area in the vertical direction of the groove wall compared to an elliptical shaped diamond".
I thought I was in the clear, but now I'm informed that a Contact Line Diamond stylus with three times the contact area, picks up a ton of surface noise off the record. So much so that the surface noise can become forward on all but the most pristine records. So much so that the surface noise becomes intrusive.
Anyone out there had a Soundsmith modification done to their cartridge, if so which option had you had done, and what's been your expience?