Soundsmith's turnaround time?

I've got an older wood bodied Benz called the MO.9 It has a boron cantiliever and a nude elliptical stylus. I'd like to send it to Soundsmith to be refurbished but not sure of which service to use.

Do you think I should stay with the elliptical or go with one of the line contacts? I don't mind paying either the $250 or $350 fee if it means it will be substantially better.

Any recommendations?

This will be mounted on a Naim ARO tone arm, in case that matters at all.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

Dear No_regrets: That depend of what you want. Do you like the MO.9 stock signature sound?, if yes then ask Soundsmith for a re-tipping the nearest to original cartridge status.

A change in cantilever build material and/or stylus shape means a different cartridge than the original/stock one.

When for any reason I don't send the cartridge to be fix it by the original manufacturer/designer and make/made it through Soundsmith or through VdH I ask always to be as near is possible to stock/original cartridge status. Other people likes to change that cartridge status.

So, what do you want?, your call.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Hello Raul,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I do like how the Benz MO.9 sounded when it was new very much. However, I notice that the newer wood bodied Benz's have switched to the line contact stylus instead of the eliptical stylus. I'm sure that this has changed the sound, but does that really mean it's better? I don't know.

I understand that switching to the Ruby cantiliever and line contact stylus would change the sound from how it originally was, but I do not know how it would change. Do you have any idea of how the character of the sound would change? What it's sonic attributes may be?

In stock form, I felt that the cartridge sounded very balanced from top to bottom, not highlighting any one area of the frequency. It had detail, but not "hyper-detail". It had warmth, but not bloated. It's dynamics sounded natural to me, not exagerated. I wonder how this all would change if the cantiliever was changed from boron to ruby, and the stylus from eliptical to line contact?

I guess if there is no way of knowing, then to be safe I should ask Soundsmith to retip as close to the original as possible, as you have suggested.

Thank you for your comments.
No Regrets

No_regrets, you will have no regret going with a line contact. It is a superior way to read the groove so it just is over an eliptical is the point(literally), that has nothing to do with the original cartridge design or tone. Cheaper stylus, less efficient is still a cheaper stylus and less efficient in your original, it will just make the details of your cartridge and its true potential come that much closer putting the better stylus on it, change the sound, almost likely no matter what to the up side if anything.

Don't worry about it trust me, go with the better line contact, the 250 version is fine and will NOT be a negative effect over the original that much is for sure in most cartridges, but making a miracle or sounding a whole lot better is not guaranteed either.

Don't worry about the downside is the point, there will not be one from everybody that has had the soundsmith treatment I am sure will tell you over and over. If this risk was built into a 2500 dollar investment getting a retip vs. a 250 then you might want to second guess, and the original at a cheaper price would be fine, but get the better stylus no doubt in this case.

FWIW, Peter put his best "optimized line-contact diamond" on the stock boron cantilever of my Lyra Helikon. To the best of my recollection the cartridge sounds better than new. It looks quite different from the stock Lyra LC tip. However with this one you do need to take special care with azimuth.