does a stylus retip makea cartridge as good as new


I notice quite a few cartridges being offered on Agon with stylus retips and claims that the cartridge is as good as new- or better! I thought cartridges deteriorated with age due to oxidation regardless of tip wear. I seem to remember Michael Fremer in Stereophile giving a life of about 5 years. Am I wrong?
rrm

Showing 4 responses by nandric

Buconero117, Your answer is not very clear to me. May I assume that your advice is to replace the whole cantilever/stylus in case of aluminum catilever? If so then we obviously agree. Why then 'no',etc?

Regards,
Tbromgard, You are obviously talking about MM carts. In this case you buy a new stylus. With an MC cart of,say, $2500 this relationship is $250 for the retip or $2500 for the new one.
Regards,
Well 'necessarily so' because the styli wear out and nobody want to ruin his LP's. But it is also necessary to be very careful with the choice of the retip service. According to my information they buy the complete cantilever/stylus combos from their supplier and those are much easier to install than the stylus solo. By aluminum
cantilevers the styli are usualy 'pressure fitted' (see J.Carr ;MM thread 09-14-11) but it is questionable if this can be done by the retip of the stylus solo. In this case
one should probable do better to replace both. Assuming of
course that the new cantilever/stylus are so fitted. Ie this way of fitting is the primary advantage of aluminum. Or so I thought after reading J.Carr's contribution.

Regards,
Dopoque, This is the the same information I got from an
Dutch retip service. Already imply in my first post. But
there is no condition to my knowledge like 'under certain
circumstances'. There are persons who insist on replacemt
of the stylus only. So one should be good informed in advance.

Regards,