I just want to share a very bad experience after trying to get my Clearaudio Concept MC retipped by Sound-smith in NY. The original cart was in a very good but used condition, still sounding very nice but I decided to get it renewed by Soundsmith based on a recommendation. After getting the cart back I noticed a significant channel imbalance but it took me 3 months before actually properly measuring the output of everything in the signal chain. The left channel was clearly 6dB down with both L and R response curves being identical. I asked them to check their work and they accepted that as a warranty claim. At that second inspection the technician (David Moskowitz) said that he found metal debris??, rotated coils and potentially shorted coils in the cart. He initially rendered the cart unfixable, just to come back next day with a message that he cart was fixed and sent back to me. I organised a second cart specialist to inspect the cart and give me his professional opinion. His conclusion was that the original retipping job was not done correctly and that the subsequent fix was just trying to mask the real problem.
I asked Sound-smith for a refund of $450 paid for the service, just to be accused that I caused all the problems with the cart by not using it correctly! Now I do not have the money or the cart that works. I can only advise everyone to be careful next time when you consider them for a retipping job and especially if you end up communicating with their technician David Moskowitz.
I asked Sound-smith for a refund of $450 paid for the service, just to be accused that I caused all the problems with the cart by not using it correctly! Now I do not have the money or the cart that works. I can only advise everyone to be careful next time when you consider them for a retipping job and especially if you end up communicating with their technician David Moskowitz.
After I measured the cartridge directly and got the 6dB difference between the channels, I requested a repair of the original retipping work within the warranty period, They accepted and inspected the cartridge, which at this point had 5 hours of overall sporadic use. The report of the inspection was: metal debris around the coils, coils rotated and a coil short suspected. David said that he cannot fix it, without offering any root-cause or reasons why would cartridge be in that state. He did not offer a refund but said he could give me a store credit. In just 24h he sent another email saying that he fixed the problem, without explaining anything.
This made me suspicious and I organised a local Australian retipper to inspect the cartridge and give me his opinion on what happened and how. He did exactly that, and established that the original retipping went wrong with a misaligned placement of the stylus. They tried to mask that by rotating coils to balance out the signal, but never really achieved that. On top of that, they used too much glue which flowed behind and under the coils. At that point I decided to let Australian retipper attempt to fix the cartridge and asked Sound-smith for a refund for the original work of $450, to at least cover half of the loss. The Australian retipper managed to realign everything but in the process discovered that one of the coil wires was almost snapped. Even after repairing what he could the channels were still 3 dB apart and the cartridge is essentially scrap.
This made me suspicious and I organised a local Australian retipper to inspect the cartridge and give me his opinion on what happened and how. He did exactly that, and established that the original retipping went wrong with a misaligned placement of the stylus. They tried to mask that by rotating coils to balance out the signal, but never really achieved that. On top of that, they used too much glue which flowed behind and under the coils. At that point I decided to let Australian retipper attempt to fix the cartridge and asked Sound-smith for a refund for the original work of $450, to at least cover half of the loss. The Australian retipper managed to realign everything but in the process discovered that one of the coil wires was almost snapped. Even after repairing what he could the channels were still 3 dB apart and the cartridge is essentially scrap.
Last edited:
Why took 3 months to figure out channel imbalance? All you had to do was to plug each channel to the same channel of the phono stage and measure.
Why didn't you do that in the first place and that would have saved you 3 months of agony?
I have used Soundsmith for 8 or 9 cartridges and have been extremely pleased with their workmanship.
I have also used the following guys and can recommend them completely:
Andy Kim - needleclinic@gmail.com
Joseph Long - cartridge-retipping@outlook.
Even though I do my own retipping, I would let SS do a rework of anything I have without
hesitation..
This has to be just a freak one off experience and should not cast a dark shadow over their whole operation which has helped countless audiophiles over the years save big money
Regards
David
hesitation..
This has to be just a freak one off experience and should not cast a dark shadow over their whole operation which has helped countless audiophiles over the years save big money
Regards
David
For comparison purposes, here are some photos of the cantilever area of a lightly used (but not abused) Concept MC.
ClearAudio Concept MC (Moving Coil) Cartridge, Light Use – SkyFi Audio
ClearAudio Concept MC (Moving Coil) Cartridge, Light Use – SkyFi Audio
Easier said than done. I guess Covid affected everyone and I was not spared. At the time when I sent the cartridge for retipping Covid situation was only starting in the US and I was in California at the time. In late March I had to pack my bags in a hurry and go back home to Australia, where I did not have a permanent address for good 10 months. My stuff (turntable included) arrived in July but it was not until September that I could even test the cartridge. It was only in January 2021 that I manage to settle in and actually do some proper listening. I started checking my DIY Pearl 2 - suspecting obviously my error or some electrical fault. Had to get a good signal generator and a scope first, since I did not have them available. Then I went through all cables, and rebuild some of them, where I discovered any suspicions extra resistance. Finally, around April/May time, after admittedly, being too busy with life in general, decided to resolve the turntable conundrum. I got a test record and a Denon 103R spare cart and compared the output of the cartridges with the pre and without anything in the signal path. That is when the 6dB became obvious (see attached).
Last edited:
Sorry for your experience. They did re-tipping services for me three times. I was happy with the jobs they did. One of the cartridges had a sapphire cantilever. I broke it accidentally. Fortunately, I found the broken cantilever and bought it back with the cartridge to Sound Smith. Peter glued it back for me with no charge.
I was thinking to have them done another job since my DL-103r with re-tipped boron cantilever dropped. But after checking their website, they said all their employees were infected by Covid, I decided to hold it for now.
I was thinking to have them done another job since my DL-103r with re-tipped boron cantilever dropped. But after checking their website, they said all their employees were infected by Covid, I decided to hold it for now.
