There is no cut and dry answer. It depends on the cartridge, who is doing the service, and what their retipping service includes. It can be done cheaply and/or badly and change the original cartridge for the worse, or it can be done very well at greater cost (e.g. in the case of Lyra or Dynavector factory rebuild service) and result in something the same as the original and possibly even better. There is no one good answer to such a general question. |
Like @dwette said. And try and do some research on your specific case. Who did the re-tip? If you can find out, read reviews of their work. |
To follow on my previous post. I had my Dynavector XV-1s factory rebuilt early last year. It came back better than it ever was before. The distributor (he’s local to me and told me himself) said when they rebuilt it they included improvements to the design they had made since mine was new. Only the body and magnets remained from the original. I essentially got an improved version of my original that’s like new, and it sounds better than I ever remember the original. OTOH: I had someone tell me a 3rd party retip they got back was a butcher job. The re-tip servicer cut off the cantilever and slipped another one over the remaining shaft with a new tip, but it changed the sound and performance for the worse. I suppose you get what you pay for. Do the research if the cartridge has value. I have two Lyra Atlas and a DV XV-1s. I plan to stand pat with official factory rebuilds for them all. It’s costly but factory service preserves the cartridges as they are meant to be. |
