Off center (not bent!) stylus?

You will not find genuine Pickering replacement for your XSV/5000 cartridge, this cartridge is extremely rare and genuine stylus is very hard to find. Do not buy fake styli, the goal of the original is Stereohedron MKII stylus profile and Samarium Cobalt Magnet!

Regarding position of the cantilever please look at my image of XSV/4000.

Stereohedron stylus was manufactured by Expert Stylus & Cartridge Co in United Kingdom for Stanton/Pickering. Now same company is a re-tipping/refurbishing service. Because Stereohedron was Stanton’s Patent the new stylus from Expert Stylus & Co. called Paratrace. If you want to refurbish Pickering/Stanton then Expert Stylus in UK is what you need! 

Contact info for you: 

Expert Stylus & Cartridge Co
[email protected] 

Last time I contacted them in 2016 and it was Julia Thompson (Client Liaison).
She was very quick with replies by email 

Thanks all - looks like LP Gear does have a replacement at a decent price so that is an option for sure. 

@chakster Thanks for the info on Expert Stylus - I will definitely contact them. 

Also I heard back from Soundsmith and their diagnosis was indeed that this is too far off angle to be innocuous. Most likely it is due to wear in the housing / base of the cantilever. Channel separation and tracking error are potential issues and I have heard both those problems. 

Also the guy I spoke with (Peter Green, not Lederman) said that they can only retip stylus assemblies that are not "user replaceable" and therefore he thought this one would probably not work for retipping. 

Lastly he said (I'm paraphrasing) that in terms of cartridge vs stylus, it is the cartridge that determines all the characteristics of the sound reproduction while the stylus and cantilever are responsible for providing the information to the cartridge.

So it seems to me that as long as a replacement stylus assembly is made with care and with the same materials as the original you can largely replicate the original sound. So sounds like Expert Stylus is where to go for this model!

So it seems to me that as long as a replacement stylus assembly is made with care and with the same materials as the original you can largely replicate the original sound. So sounds like Expert Stylus is where to go for this model!

Exactly, let us know when you will get any info from Expert Stylus & Co. 

So, as previously mentioned, with the multitudes of excellent carts out there, is there a reason you want THAT cart? Seems like the cost to ship it to the UK, fix, time, etc it would be a better solution to get a new cart? 

@chakster Thanks - I just sent a note off to Expert Stylus so we'll see what they say.

@geof3 So I hesitate to say this because I know it's silly on some levels but I am basically trying to reproduce an all-vintage system. All my components are from the same / similar era (I do have all new / modern components for my home theater setup). And beyond the strong recommendation of @chakster I've also read up further on this cart and it seems like a one of a kind - especially for MM carts (I am limiting myself to a MM setup for now). I do have a Grace F8 in really good shape that I am generally happy with too so don't really mind waiting if it comes to that.