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Benz Ebony L retip

I am looking to get my Benz retipped.  I also wish to keep the original boron cantilever, condition permitting.

I does not appear that Benz offers these services so I am down to van den Hul, Soundsmith, Expert Stylus (UK) and Northwest Analogue (also UK).  Any one have experience with these names and if so:
1) make and model of cart?
2) work done?
3) approximate time taken?
4) level of satisfaction and how close to the original cart sound was the retip.

Thanks
barolobrain
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,368 posts
 
Benz LPS is a wonderful cartridge. mine was long in the tooth, and realized that a retipping would change the cartridge, so I moved on. Too bad
raymonda
855 posts
 
I've had Soundsmith work on many Benz cartridges over the years, all of which were ruby cantilevered. 3 Gliders, 1 Adcom, and 2 ACE’s. All superb and in the case of the ACE it turned it into a killer cartridge.

i also have a Ruby 3 that Andy at Cartridge Clinic retapped and retained the Baron cantilever and it is my prize cartridge.

You will be satisfied nicely with either and expect 2 to 3 months turn around.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

The retip with so called ''cantilever/stylus'' combo seems to be much more easy to do then ''stylus retip only''. The first mentioned method cost twice as much. So many retippers refuse this kind of retip. Even my old friend Axel Schurholz. However I discovered that Expert Stylus does such work with their excelent  ''Paratrace'' stylus. I just retiped my Allaerts MC 2 for 180 GBP.

salectric
747 posts
 
Sound smith did a "retip only" on my Benz LP several years ago.  It took about 8 weeks and cost $475.  I was surprised to find that it needed some break in after I got it back, but afterwards it sounded the same as when brand new as far as I could tell.  I was very pleased with the quality of the work by Soundsmith.  It's like getting a brand new Benz for $475.  In fact, I recently sent my Benz back for a second Retip and I am counting the days until I get it back.
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