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Troika Rebuild

gidders

hifi enthusiast, golfer & photographer
Rebuilds - Expert Stylus Co or Goldring? What are your personal experiences?

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Goldring.

They rebuild and don’t do cut n shut.

My ASAKA sounds sublime and it’s as close to new as Goldring could get it.
Your Troika will be better, IMHO, than any cart you could buy for 2k at a cost of £400 full rebuild.

ESCO are good, Goldring are superb.
 
ESCO are good, Goldring are superb.
To be fair to ESCO they are world class at what they do. “Cut ‘n shut” works fine in context. Eg I have a DL103 which is definitely in the same league as the Asaka (context is everything) owing to an ESCO Retip. This was done when the cart was new and is one of the ways to turn the lowly 103 into something special.

That said, there are several reasons to use Goldring, not least of which is that their Dave Giffin did the same job for Linn when they offered a refurb service in the day. Therefore what you get is the same as an ‘authentic’ Linn rebuild. Plus, the rebuild is very much more substantial that a pure retip, leaving you, as Andrew said with essentially a new cart. This is why I used Goldring for my Karma and it is some of the best hifi money I’ve spent.
 
I have had Troikas rebuilt by both ESCo and Goldring. The ESCo was with their Paratrace tip and the rebuild was very good. However, I found the Paratrace seemed to highlight surface noise and imperfections, it also wore out more quickly than I had expected. The Goldring rebuild was enormously faster done than ESCo managed - the Goldring took less than two weeks and ESCo took over four months! The rebuild was also flawless and the Gyger stylus is much kinder to surface noise and has already outlasted the Paratrace and with no audible signs of wear yet.
 
Goldring were the linn service agent when this was a new cart. They know these inside out and back to front and can service any part of it.
 
I the past I've had them done by both firms, but the Goldring rebuild was a very long time ago now (around 2000 so 19 years).

IMHO the ESCo job was much better. The cart sounded way better straight out of the box and it lasted a lot longer. The stylus attached by Goldring just fell off after about 3 years and the job never really made the eyes light up even when freshly done.

I don't think its still the same guy at Goldring so past experience may not reflect present.

Also they were making the current Linn range at that time so politically it wouldn't do to make the old ones sound "too good" by comparison. ESCo have no such agenda of course.
 
I can only go off what I've heard, and I've spent a long time with three carts from each company. The Troikas ive heard from goldring were better than new. David can do you a full moving parts replacement and rewind with gemstone canti and your choice of gyger finelines.
 
I’ve had three retips from ESCO; one Klyde & two Troikas. The Klyde had a broken cantilever, a low price eBay buy. ESCO just inserted a new section onto the end with a new tip & I was a bit disappointed with that TBH. The two Troikas were straight retips, but they sounded tiered to me, though I tried to convince myself otherwise. One ended up being a low rider too. So, I sent one of them to Goldring for a rebuild and I’ve been very pleased with it, because it sounds really fresh. I note though, on Goldring’s site, they do warn that your cartridge may come back sounding different, because of the new parts fitted, but I have no complaints & will eventually get other carts to them, such as the other Troika & my XX2mkII.
 
Are there any other carts Goldring are especially good with? I like the idea of finding a knackered super cart and having it re-built well, but AIUI the Troika really needs a Linn arm.
 
David did my Koetsu Rosewood sig, I had a boron cantilever fitted in keeping with the original (missing) one. Can't comment vs an original, but I'm happy it works and is a very nice cart.

I've a Dv XX1 in need of a tip, and a Linn Karma that needs work when I get rountuit :D
 
Are there any other carts Goldring are especially good with? I like the idea of finding a knackered super cart and having it re-built well, but AIUI the Troika really needs a Linn arm.

Is that true? I’ve run an Asaka on both 774 & RB250 successfully, is the Troika different?
 
I imagine hed do a right job on any old supex or scantech derived cartridge. Hopefully he can do my Benz lp at some point.
 
All the Naim factory LP12s had AROs (obvs) and Troikas to my memory ... not sure the ARO was explicitly designed for Troika but it was the obvious pairing back in the day.
 


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