2. analog
  3. 160928-139282

Family Problems...

My last post here was about how to keep my baby away from my Magnepans, but it seems I had my eye on the wrong person in my home! I stupidly let my wife take over turntable duties for an evening while I was busy in my office only to come home to a broken cartridge. I believe she literally dropped the needle on the record and part of it broke. So now I seek the wise advice of the internets on what to do. But first more details...

It's a 6-month old Denon DL301-mk2 and I was quite happy with it prior to it breaking. I know there are re-tipping services that might be able to fix it. It looks like material at the pivot of the cantilever that fixes it in place has separated from the rest of the cartridge. Think it's worth repairing or would scrapping it be the route you'd go? Again, I was quite happy with it before and I'm not particularly interested in experimenting with similarly priced cartridges at this point. 
hapafoto
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,156 posts
 
Hapafoto, the least expensive way to get a working cartridge is to send it to Soundsmith who can repair and re tip it. You can't be 100% sure of what it will sound like after. The problem is that the cartridge has a conical shaped cantilever which I think only Denon can supply. The best thing to do is send it back to Denon for a factory rebuild. That will take some time especially with the pandemic. Accidents happen. Many of us keep two or more cartridges just in case. If it were me I would send the Denon back to the factory and buy a second cartridge so you always have a backup.
lancelock
1,083 posts
 
Divorce is the only solution

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Sounds like you just need to get another one then. Because fixing this one, you could call someone like the Soundsmith but how much can you possibly save, compared to the turnaround time? You were happy with it before and don't want to experiment, which is perfectly understandable. Time for a new one.  


isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Records do require unforeseen investment. I agree with what has been suggested, except for the divorce route. You've already invested in your family, keep that. Look into Denon repair cost, where service. Now you have an opportunity to also try another, while Denon is out. That will be another investigation as what to get!! Of course, when you find yourself really liking the new one, it would be nice to have the choice of both available at a time, hence a second tonearm ..... and so it goes. Good luck.
More to discover