Re-tipped cartridges

Nandric,

As I understand it based on my experience with Soundsmith, a retip is the replacement of the stylus alone. When the cantilever is replaced (due to a damaged cantilever or to upgrade the sound), this is usually referred to as a rebuild.

I had Soundsmith rebuild a Dynavector XX-2 MkII that I bought with the cantilever broken off (seller was nice to sell it on the condition that Soundsmith confirmed that the cart was repairable). So no chance to A/B before and after. The rebuilt cart ($250 ruby cantilever with line contact stylus) was fabulous sounding. But it was my first high end cart and had nothing else comparable. Moved up from MMs like Shure M91ED with a JICO SAS (a great budget MM).