What Would You Expect The Value Of An Ikeda 9 Rex(Kawami) To Be?


The Ikeda is currently at Expert Stylus, and it was cleaned and they report 40% of the diamond life is left on the OEM stylus. However, they are not willing to retip as the membrane that the stylus floats on is something they do not feel comfortable working on and have concerns about fracturing it. 

With OEM stylus and cartridge in working order, what would one expect the value to be? i do have the factory case and stylus guard.

At this point my choice is to use it till the diamond is done in and then hope someone comes around who can retip. 

Or perhaps its better in the hands of a collector who would see value in displaying it and playing it from time to time. 

Thoughts?

neonknight

You could see if Ikeda would retip.

Look at hifishark.com to get an idea on the value range.

Ikeda has passed away. The company has no techs who work on this type of cartridge. 

There is also pride of ownership, and continuing with that experience.

A friend had a rare Ortofon MC from a 20 Year Old Vintage, and had it maintained by a Third Party Maintenance/ Rebuild Service until a Year Ago, when they were informed the important parts to continue the maintenance were no longer available to be supplied.

There are Trust Worthy Rebuild Services that can assess the suitability of the MC to be serviced and kept in a fine operational condition, using such a service might not be the choice of all, but not many who do go down this route express regret from using the recommended Services.

I had my eye on a Trans' Proteus for sale in the UK with a Channel Fault.               The Seller was quite at a loss with having to sell on the Dream Cartridge as it was very much enjoyed as pride of ownership and performance.                                      I chose to change tack, and contacted the Seller and informed them of my intention for the Cartridge as being to send it to VAS NY Inc, as I was aware of the service having carried out a successful repair to a Proteus with similar conditions.

The Seller had not ever considered such an approach to having the Cartridge looked at.  After consulting with VAS and paying £650 inclusive of Shipping to and from UK/USA, the seller has reported on a forum, that they are extremely pleased with the returned Cartridge and from recollection, the Cartridge is now performing better than the low hours Cartridge that incurred a Channel Loss.   

 

 

@pindac 

Funny you should mention VAS, as my Proteus is on its way back from them with a new diamond installed. Steve has done an A90 for me in the past, and so I sent him my Proteus and a ZYX 4D as the diamonds needed replacing. 

Steve will not do this type of Ikeda cartridge either. 

Ana Mighty has done them in the  past, but apparently has discontinued that service. 

The only other person I have heard work on them is a fellow named Dmitry. However it sounds like he is on sabbatical, and as of March of this year was not taking on any other work. 

Perhaps I set it aside and use it for a few weeks a year until Dmitry takes on work again. 

I have been in discussions with Dimitry and am aware of his Trip he has taken.

I am waiting patiently for the opportunity to send on my Cartridge when he returns to the Workshop.

He is the person I have chosen to use for my next Cartridge rebuild, as I have couple of requests that I thought were unique, but Dimitry is very familiar with these methods being undertaken as an operation.

There is large coverage of his work on Vinyl Engine - Cartridge Close Ups - and it does not take long to see his skill set is quite special.