In my early experience with MC cart re-tipping it was most often a matter of sending a cart in to the manufacturer and having it rebuilt as per original. There now seem to be many alternatives when it comes to re-tipping and the choices have multiplied as a result. From discussions with friends it seems like some combination of motor/body and cantilever/stylus work rather better than others.I thought it might be interesting to assemble a list of such pairings and impressions of the results.

I'll start off the list. I have a Benz Gold which met with an unfortunate accident. As originally built it came with an aluminium cantilever and elliptical diamond and was nice if nothing astounding. I decided to see what potential was lurking in there and had it rebuilt with a boron cantilever and a micro-ridge diamond. The improvement was great enough it is hard to believe it is the same cart. Tracking is terrific, very quiet in the groove, detail is excellent and the tonal balance is spot on in my system and according to my ears. An adequate cart was turned into a star.

Your turn!