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Akiva off for a rebuild...

That rather depends on your viewpoint

There are those who would say that the purchaser has purchased a collection of third party cartridge elements "McGuivered" into an Akiva body which from the original owners comments must have been rather less acceptable to him than the original.

Sales clearly isn't the OP's business!

Diplomacy clearly isn’t yours!
 
Who are you referring to?

I’ve had Expert Stylus rebuild my Linn Klyde several times and they’ve always removed the old stylus and replaced it with a new one. The original cantilever remained.

Trouble is though, that if you have a broken cantilever, then you end up with a cut and shunt, i.e. they cut the end straight and fit a new bit on the end, rather than replace the entire cantilever.
 
I suspect that goldring buy in the ogura tips and aluminium cantilever pre assembled so if you need a new tip you have to have the cantilever.

The akiva has a boron rod cantilever with a slot in the end to glue the tip into and a boron rectangular plate with a rectangular hole in it is placed

around the the tip and glued also.

For someone such as the expert stylus co removing the plate and stylus tip from the cantilever without damaging any thing else would be half the job.

I have an Akiva, dv xv 1s and a lyra Titan i all retipped by ESCO and they all sound great.
 
Has the stylus got an additional mounting plate? If so it’s not ‘nude mounted’ and quite ‘old school’ - I would expect the stylus to be directly mounted to the cantilever with no additional mounting plate.
 
The Akiva and Dynavector definately have the reinforcing plate,not sure about the lyra as it has a tapered diamond coated boron rod

cantilever and I didnt inspect it before it was retipped but I recon its the same, its a japanese thing by the looks of it .
 
And probably all done by Ogura who maybe supply the tip and cantilever to the cartridge builder to the builders spec ie tip profile ,angle ,cantilever type and length etc..
 
Well, regardless of my perceived sales ability, <<rolls eyes>> the rebuilt Akiva has gone and my low mileage purchase has replaced it.

Summary: the rebuild is nothing like as good as the low mileage one. Its fuzzier, less crisp and has a lower output. Nothing like as enjoyable as the one now singing in my LP12.

Sure its a lot cheaper, but buy cheap; buy twice...
 
Perhaps the rebuilt Linn Akiva needed more time to achieve a level of settling in whereas the "low mileage one" has had the time for the suspension, tie wire etc to settle in.

From my experience I have had many good to top end cartridges re-built and often they require approximately 30 hours to settle in etc and Van Den Hul are known to reset or tweak the suspension etc (for free) after 100 hours on some of their MC cartridges like the Frog Gold etc. My Miyabi 47 Labs cartridge was okay after a rebuild but approximately 25 hours of playing LP's it really sounded great but improved further after 50 hours.

Goldring were the people who completed the rebuild and every cartridge they service for me is very good sounding and I am more than happy with their level of service plus they can deal with making new coils etc and not all re-builders offer that option. I do have a re-built Linn Akiva in my collection but not had a chance to test it yet because I have a good number of cartridges along with tonearms, turntables etc so maybe in the new year.
 
I have heard/read that Goldring do a good job with Koetsus as well, and if so, that is indeed tempting looking at the Koetsu replacement costs (and postage etc. hassles).
 
The trick with retipping is to have as little work as possible done so as retain as much of the original design as possible.

If the cartridge rides low, the cantilever is off to one side or the generator shagged I wouldnt bother.
 
I once had a Klyde rebuilt the same way by Goldring/Armour Home - better than new :)
My understanding is that Klyde and Krystal are much better suited to their rebuild service.

I don't think Goldring are able to fully reproduce what Lyra do (generator section?) which I'm told is highly skilled and time consuming - and presumably reflected in the cost of Arkiv/Akiva/Kandid cartridges over the years. I also assume this is why the output of the rebuilt Akiva is so much lower.

I wonder how suitable a Troika would be. Anyone recall who made it?
 
The trick with retipping is to have as little work as possible done so as retain as much of the original design as possible.

Retipping is just that; putting a new diamond stylus onto existing cantilever. Ergo, it's the profile the retippers use, the skill in so doing and whether/how the tip is glued (ESCo) or crimped etc. Replacing cantilever, re-winding coils or whatever is a different matter.

I also assume this is why the output of the rebuilt Akiva is so much lower.

Generally, I believe, the lower output cart's have fewer windings and usually a lower internal impedance. As major refurbishment should leave the cart. as close to original condition as poss., I can't see where that affects the output.
 
My understanding is that Klyde and Krystal are much better suited to their rebuild service.

I don't think Goldring are able to fully reproduce what Lyra do (generator section?) which I'm told is highly skilled and time consuming - and presumably reflected in the cost of Arkiv/Akiva/Kandid cartridges over the years. I also assume this is why the output of the rebuilt Akiva is so much lower.

I wonder how suitable a Troika would be. Anyone recall who made it?

iirc when I had my Kyde rebuilt Goldring/AH still had some NOS parts from the time when they when they provided the official Linn rebuild service for the Klyde.
 
I must admit, I've been really pleased with my Goldriring rebuilt Troika; I just went for the straight rebuild, with no tricks. I think I might get my spare Troika done too, to give my rather elderly XX2MkII a rest. To my ears, the rebuild sounds much fresher than a re-tip and the ride height is better too.
 
My understanding is that Klyde and Krystal are much better suited to their rebuild service.

I don't think Goldring are able to fully reproduce what Lyra do (generator section?) which I'm told is highly skilled and time consuming - and presumably reflected in the cost of Arkiv/Akiva/Kandid cartridges over the years. I also assume this is why the output of the rebuilt Akiva is so much lower.

I wonder how suitable a Troika would be. Anyone recall who made it?

I'm afraid that reading the above just reminds me how much disinformation there is about regarding cartridge refurbishment (most of it spread by dealers).
 
I'm afraid that reading the above just reminds me how much disinformation there is about regarding cartridge refurbishment (most of it spread by dealers).

You got that right; after all, for evey rebuild, they lose a sale.
 


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