Back when I was buying $350 cartridges it was just understood that when the stylus wore out, or as was more often the case, when I broke the dang thing, that I’d just buy a new one. This approach seemed to follow the conventional wisdom that any self respecting audiophile should limit him or herself to new cartridges and avoid used ones or rebuilds.
This view was reinforced by a friend of mine who’s about as serious about this hobby as anyone. When my Benz Ruby 3H fell apart during a routine playback a couple of years ago and I was trying to wrap my head around the idea of spending $3500 to replace it with a new one, I asked my friend what he thought about having the cartridge rebuilt. His response – “I don’t trust rebuilds” echoed a view that I find many audiophiles share.
Recently I damaged a cartridge that retails for even more than that Benz and I had no intention of replacing it with a new one, so I reached out to Andy Kim of The Needle Clinic to have it repaired. Andy did repair it, rather quickly in fact as I had it playing and sounding even BETTER than it had before in less than a week.
That exchange led to some further communication between Andy and I and piqued my interest in understanding more about cartridges and about Andy’s work. So I reached out again and asked if Andy would do an interview. Thankfully he agreed, offering me an opportunity to learn more about an aspect of the the audio world that is generally not that well understood.
TBR: Andy, thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it! You have such a unique and specialized skill. Would you share with me how you got into repairing cartridges?
AK: I’m an audiophile just like you. Since my junior school age, I had hobbies in watches and audio. I remember I had my first wrist watch as I entered junior school, it was 50 some years ago.
At the same time I got into the electronics hobby – like building a kid’s germanium diode radio, etc. Several decades later when I became an adult, (in fact more likely when I was able to afford some expensive hifi audio equipment) I was playing records, and like many other people do, I broke the stylus of an expensive cartridge.
After a couple of cartridge breakages I couldn’t afford to buy a new one anymore, so instead I decided to find out what was in that tiny piece. That’s how I began learning about phono cartridges.
TBR: You recently repaired a Mutech cartridge for me, and during that exchange you explained how elements of the cartridge’s design contributed to the way it sounded. With that new knowledge I was able to hear what the Mutech contributed to the sound of my system in a whole new way. Do you think many audiophiles really know what the cartridges they buy will sound like in their systems before they buy and install them?
AK: No, I don’t think most people understand this.
TBR: There seems to be A LOT of resistance to the idea of rebuilt or repaired cartridges among audiophiles. Do you find that you have to overcome quite a bit of resistance with potential customers to build trust in your work?
AK: I don’t advertise my business like others do intensively. I hired a college kid to make a website (not a great website, I know), that’s about it. Most of my customers already know what I do, otherwise they wouldn’t contact me in the first place. But once in a while, with some customers, I have to explain how and why they want to retip/upgrade the stylus because a good stylus re-tipping sometimes costs even more than the original cartridge (for instance, re-tipping an entry level mc cartridge Denon 103, which you can buy for less than $300).
TBR: Before I originally reached out to you about my Benz, I did some online research and read things like, “well, a cartridge rebuilder won’t be able to get the original components and therefore his work will necessarily change the sound of the cartridge.” This made me feel very uncertain about having the cartridge repaired because I wondered “would it be the same after the repair?” You obviously repair a variety of cartridges, many if not most costing in the thousands of dollars. Is this concern that a cartridge repaired by you or one of your colleagues will result in a significant change in its sound a valid one?
AK: Once a cartridge is retipped, yes, it will make it sound different than the original. But my main job is to improve the sound, not degrade it. Most of cartridges I receive are in bad shape. A majority of them have no stylus, a bent suspension, etc. Sometimes a customer wants to repair the cartridge just enough so that he can sell it in the used market and he doesn’t want to spend a lot on a quality stylus. Instead, he just wants the problems fixed in the least expensive way. In this case my work may not improve the sound. But otherwise my main goal with a repair is always to improve the sound.
TBR: It makes perfect sense, of course, that if a cartridge has no stylus, a bent cantilever or is damaged in some significant way then repairing these issues will improve the sound of the cartridge. But what about a cartridge, say, like the Mutech I sent you? I had broken off the stylus so it needed that, but it originally had a line contact stylus and boron cantilever like the ones you repaired it with. What can you do with a cartridge like my Mutech to improve the sound of the cartridge?
AK: Replacing the old diamond with a finer line contact diamond is the only way to improve the sound. Since the old stylus was broken already, maybe you didn’t remember the way it sounded before I repaired it. There are a number of different line contact styli available, and manufacturers will use the name “line contact” for all of them, but not all line contact styli are the same.
TBR: It seems like in audio, gear comes and goes, but every once in a while a product comes along where the manufacturer seems to just GET IT RIGHT. You mentioned the Denon DL-103, which my contributor Alex Bunardzic wrote an article about a while back. Would you say this is a cartridge that Denon just GOT RIGHT? What are some other cartridges that you feel deserve this distinction?
AK: The Denon 103 is a good cartridge except for its body and stylus. For other cartridges, well .. they are pretty much basically the same except for the stylus.
TBR: I’m glad you brought up cartridge bodies! You’re clearly indicating that the cartridge body makes a difference with the sound quality of the cartridge. What material do you think is the best for a cartridge body? Wood like the McIntosh? Are there other materials that you think make for a superior sounding cartridge?
AK: A cartridge body acts like an equalizer in your audio system. In general, it doesn’t improve the sound but degrades it. The purpose of the body is more for protection of the generator than to tweak the sound. So just as a true audiophile doesn’t use an equalizer in the signal pass as it deforms the original sound, a true audiophile cartridge body is “no body.”
TBR: That’s fascinating! So do you think if damage in shipping or by the customers were NOT an issue, more cartridge manufacturers would be making cartridges with no body or less of a body?
AK: I think so, but in reality, there is no such a cartridge they can make. And if there was one, they wouldn’t like it for business!
TBR: I think another area of confusion with cartridges is that of matching them to the impedance settings on phono preamps, or at least those phono preamps that have variable settings for this. Would you mind explaining this for those of us who don’t understand it very well?
AK: I would say for the impedance setting, and you can explore this, let’s say you are playing a cd, not a record, and you have a preamp and a power amp that are both input volume control equipped. When you want to lower the listening level, instead of lowering the volume on the preamp you try lowering the volume on the power amp while keeping the same volume on the preamp. What do you expect the sound will be like? In the extreme, lower the power amp volume to the minimum, and increase the preamp volume to the maximum. Then what would you expect sound to be like?
The sound will be changed from “normal” to extremely warm/dull/less vivid /etc. This is impedance, and the same applies to the phono cartridge impedance settings. As the impedance setting gets lower and lower, the sound becomes warmer while at the same time less vivid and dynamic.
So when you set the impedance for particular cartridge, you don’t want to go with the manufacturer’s recommended impedance. Your room environment, your audio equipment and especially your speakers and tonearm have great effects on the impedance setting, and these effects will result in variability from system to system.
My recommendation is this – start from 47k. If then you hear the sound as being a bit “too much” in the high end, or if you want the sound a little bit warmer, gradually decrease the impedance setting by adding more resistance. If you want to change the highs only, forget the resistor setting and just add more capacitors so that you hear less highs by passing highs with the capacitor.
If someone insists on a certain value of impedance for specific cartridge, he doesn’t understand the term impedance because there are so many variables in audio.
TBR: I regularly see audiophiles on forums talking about the importance of pairing a cartridge to a tonearm. What’s your opinion on this? Is this pairing crucial for good sound or can most cartridges sound good on most tonearms?
AK: Honestly, this is the one last area for which I still don’t have the final correct answer. There is a myth many audiophile believe in – that a low compliance cartridge sounds better with a high compliance tonearm and a high compliance cartridge matches better with a low compliance tonearm. All I can say is, this theory is absolutely wrong.
To get the signal out of the grooves, the stylus moves left/right & up/down (45 degrees each channel). As the stylus slowly moves toward the center of the record, the tonearm spindle rotates as well. If the tonearm doesn’t follow this path smoothly, the stylus cannot travel freely. If the tonearm is too heavy or too big in volume, that’s another burden which limits stylus movement (like a heavy backpack when hiking). Based on this then, we can conclude that a freely moving, light tonearm is the choice for record play.
However let’s suppose this – say there is almost zero friction in the tonearm spindle. For the music signal to be produced, the stylus itself has to oscillate in the grooves. But no friction at the tonearm spindle means that the tonearm moves per stylus position, and if the stylus doesn’t oscillate itself then there’s no signal being generated.
It’s a contradictory situation – the tonearm has to provide friction and no friction at the same time as the stylus advances toward center. I don’t think we ever will be able to make such a tonearm.
Based on my experience, in general, with a shorter/lighter/thinner tonearm I hear faster, more dynamic and clear sound. The worst sound I’ve heard was with a 12″ or longer tonearm, perhaps because it’s a bit slower in response. The best tonearm in my experience is the Dual ULM Tonearm.
TBR: I LOVE that you’re in effect recommending a vintage tonearm from the early 80’s. I know there is a lot of very good vintage equipment out there in the used market, but lack of knowledge about it and in many cases the absence of any customer service can be a deterrent for a buyer. I know that’s true for me.
I had a Graham tonearm on my last table and it was a very, very good tonearm. It was also custom mounted for the table and whenever I tried to contact Graham Engineering for any help with it I could never get a response. I wanted to keep that tonearm and install it on a different table, but I didn’t want to risk not being able to get it mounted.
I’m not familiar with the Dual ULM Tonearm, and I could be wrong here, but I don’t imagine there are a lot of mounts available for that tonearm for a variety of tables. Given these and other challenges with buying from the used market, what advice can you give to a budding audiophile who is looking to upgrade their front end (turntable, tonearm and cartridge) or part of it with vintage gear?
AK: A tonearm is a mechanical device which ordinary users can not make themselves, for instance, the Dual ULM. We don’t have much choice as it is a built in piece and part of total unified mechanism.
So instead of taking the tonearm off, I suggest just keeping the original table as well. You will need to remove some features such as the auto shut-off and the auto start. To provide these convenient features, unwanted metal devises are attached to the tonearm spindle, causing it to be dragged underneath as the spindle rotates. This is not an ideal situation because it interferes with the tonearm movement. Fortunately all you need to do is to get rid of these pieces.
TBR: I’m curious, what turntable and tonearm do you use in your system?
AK: I’m using the AR turntable. I have several of these with the stock AR tonearm (which I think it was made by Jelco per AR design, the most standard typical gimbal type but with a thinner tube).
I also have the following:
Denon Direct Drive w/ black widow tonearm
Dual 504 – ULM tonearm *My favorite*
Ariston RD80 w/ black widow tonearm
Ariston RD80 + Magnepan Unitrac Tonearm
Among these, the black widow, which uses a half gimbal suspension, is not stable enough but still acceptable, and it’s even thinner and lower mass than the stock AR/Jelco tonearm and is therefore a very fast response tonearm.
A table is a table, it just spins and nothing else. A heavier platter and more accurate speed are a plus, but to the many users who spend money on a power supply for obtaining precise speed, I’d suggest spending the money on a better tonearm. After all, can you really tell the difference if the speed is 0.01 % faster or slower?
For spinning, a direct drive motor is the best except that it is vulnerable to outer impact noise, but you can manage this mostly.
TBR: That’s been my experience as well – that it’s the tonearm that has the biggest impact on sound and is deserving of the biggest investment.
Have you had a chance to hear any turntables and tonearms made since 2000? I’m all for vintage gear if it really performs well, but it seems to me that turntable and tonearm designs have gotten more sophisticated in recent years.
Also, do any of your TT’s have tonearms that allow you to adjust the tonearm height and thus VTA and SRA? If found this adjustment to be extremely important for getting the most out of a cartridge and a given record.
AK: Sure. I have had chances to test some high end tonearms including the graham phantom. Among these, the worst was a tonearm tube made with somehow thicker lighter wooden material. I don’t remember the brand.
In most cases, clients brought me either their tonearm only or their whole turntable with the tonearm for me to repair broken wires/cables etc. That’s how I had chances to audition those. How did they sound? You already know what my verdict is on this so no further comment.
SRA with a slight +/- deviation is less important than lateral balance. Yes, my tonearms are not fancy expensive tonearms, but I’m still able to adjust height. I personally always make the back spindle higher than front stylus.
In the end, listening is believing.
TBR: Absolutely! I totally agree. To wrap things up, I’d like to ask you this – what advice would you give to an audiophile who’s in the market for a new cartridge?
AK: In analogue audio, a phono cartridge is in the upfront position and is the most important audio component, no matter how good the components are that are placed downstream. Unless there’s a clean, perfect and right source feed, good quality sound will not come out from the speakers.
All phono cartridges are the same basically except for the stylus. What makes one cartridge sound better than another is not the price, the brand or the model but mostly its stylus.
My advice to audiophiles is to keep in mind two things. One, a higher price doesn’t necessarily mean a cartridge will sound better than other, less expensive cartridges. And two, always look for a cartridge with a better quality stylus.
I always ask my customers – what can you do with $200 or $300 in audio? Maybe get a good pair of RCA cables? But if you invest the same amount of money in improving a phono cartridge it will effect an improvement in sound equivalent to a $20k or $30k investment in other components, or better.
Many audiophiles look down on the importance of a phono cartridge while spending a lot more on other components, mainly because a cartridge is something of a hidden item which doesn’t provide the visual pleasure of the larger components.