Retip for zyx

@chakster, no I do not intend to buy another, I have my Universe back and am very satisfied with it which was the point you must have missed and at this point you are really not adding anything to the conversation for those of us who are looking to keep a good thing going for a reasonable amount of $. 

This is definitely my point of view and everyone is free to do whatever, i just don’t understand why anyone should buy $7000 cartridge to end up with SoundSmith rebuild which is no longer "ZYX sound". But it seems like this is the end of the road for all your cartridges.

One day you should try SoundSmith cartridges if you like his work so much. Peter Ledermann claimed that his MI are better than any MC in his lection at RMAF, 2018

If you think there is no difference and designers like Nakatsuka-San wasting his time to make something unique cantilever which can be replaced by SoundSmith cantilever/stylus then i definitely can’t add anything in conversation.

I enjoyed almost every cartridge until i found a better cartridge, without direct comparison between the carts it would be impossible.

I have no interest in ZYX anymore (owned two of them), but i have a better cartridges now, they are all originals, just because i like to hear what a cartridge designer created.

Recently purchased Miyabi cartridge to fill my MC collection. I think it’s something unique.

Any cartridge dramatically lose its value if it was refurbished by a third-party vendor. I decided not to bother with my broken Zyx Premium 4D and start searching for cheaper and better cartridges instead. I am so happy about my decision.  

But anyway, if you like what you’re hearing then it’s fine (for you).

@chakster, I guess my point is to you sir is, I could really care less if you get it, I do.

I just checked the first page of this thread, i had to re-read it earlier, because no one can explain better than J.Carr who is a cartridge designer himself. An this is what he said: 

To retip a cartridge that was originally equipped with a stylus made by one manufacturer with one made by a different manufacturer is like rebuilding a Porsche engine with Jaguar pistons and crankshaft - the components used for rebuilding may be of high quality, but the design philosophy is rather different from the original.

Still, as one poster wrote above, changing only the stylus will alter the sound less than if the cantilever material is changed. When a cartridge is designed, the designer will consider the moving mass (sum of the stylus, cantilever and coils), the resonant character of the cantilever, and the (sonic) propagation velocity of the cantilever (affected by the cantilever's mass and rigidity), then choose the suspension and dampers accordingly. If you change the cantilever material, you are effectively throwing the original designer's calculations away.

To tooblue,
You are lucky enough to get 2000 hours on your zyx. My airy 3 suspension at less than 1000 hours was destroyed and on my French forum 6 members got reliability problem with zyx, so for my next cartridge I have bought from another company.
I was very pleased with the sound but buying something not very reliable and then giving a big amount of money to get a new one, not for me. I have better buy a model which can easily been retipped for cheap as I listen a lot.