VAS (Steven Leung) cartridge repair/retipping service?

I had Steve do work on 2 cartridges late last year for me. I sent him two Namiki boron cantilevers with MR styli that I had myself and had him install those on an AT 33 Mono and an SAEC C1. 

Extremely happy with the work-turnaround time could possibly have been a bit better but as mentioned above, Covid has wreaked havoc with a lot of our schedules lately and I believe Steve finished one fairly quickly but the other might have sat around for a bit. In any event, a couple of months was still ok in my book. 

I'm set for cartridges now for a few years. They're both endgame cartridges for me (fully realizing that they might be considered entry level by others LOL!) and sound really, really good IMO. 

I would not hesitate to use Steve again or recommend him.  

I like him. very easy communicate, prompt with response and did a good job with collapsed suspension. which is not easy as you need do some recoiling from what I understand 

will send u a video clip to verify everything is fine

how is axel of Germany btw? 

 

Axel is retired.

Anybody interested in a review of my VAS rebuild of my ZYX Airy 3 ?
Back story:
I bought it used and used it for about 2 years.
Sounded really nice IMO but, I really didn`t know the true condition being that I did buy it used with untold hours.

Anyway ...I decided to send it off to Steve who on inspection said it looked like it had a Paratrace stylus put on it previously but that it  still looked pretty good
I asked him to go ahead and just put a  whole new Namiki boron/MR assembly on it and that way I`d be good to go just like brand new.

It should be here any time soon !

This is Namiki Boron Rob cantilever/stylus structure @scm

If you want to know the truth I'll tell you that genuine ZYX cantilever structure is not what anyone can get from Namiki or Ogura, at that time (Airy is an old model) it was made for ZYX exclusively, see on my image why it's different. I owned Zyx Airy III.

Now you can look at Namiki Boron in the real world, an actual image provided by Namiki. What you will see is a Boron Rod with an angle cut end and glue.  

When you buy something used you must ask for an image of the cantilever and stylus, otherwise people can cheat you selling refurbished cartridges without even mentioning this fact. You could buy a macro lens for your smartphone to check it yourself. 

Zyx cantilevever is completely different in comparison to others.

Nakatsuka-San used press-fit method (not glue like all re-tippers or modern Namiki). As you can see on my image (it's genuine boron cantilever on my Airy III) the diamond goes all the way through the hollow pipe. 

Actually in a present time this image uploaded on Namiki site, but when you scroll down you can't find this cantilever in their list of available cantilevers. There are only two type of cantilevers with press-fit stylus mounting method (aluminum and zirconia).