Do you know the DL103-M by the Expert Stylus Company?

[Tonepub]

Jerome, this is why you shouldn't TRADE IN your turntable if you get something else later this year. Use that 2nd input on the REF 2 to your advantage. It's great to have the luxury of a "second sound." Get one cart that is either more romantic or more analytical than what you have now, to make the best of records with different masterings...

We'll discuss in Sept!

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by tonepub

Jerome, this is why you shouldn't TRADE IN your turntable if you get something else later this year. Use that 2nd input on the REF 2 to your advantage. It's great to have the luxury of a "second sound." Get one cart that is either more romantic or more analytical than what you have now, to make the best of records with different masterings...

We'll discuss in Sept!

Not a bad idea Jeff ! My wife will love this one !
BTW, I did not find this in the manual but I probably read it too fast : when you connect 2 inputs, you put both grounds on the single ground plug of the Ref 2 ?

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by turntable

I got ESC in the UK to re-tip my Uwe Ebony denon 103R. Its their ruby paratracer stylus from memory. Not sure if that is the same asd the Ruby, I think it is. It was only a couple of hundred pounds from memory.

For the first 6 or so hours I thought WTF. agressive, thin and bright. Where was the luvely 103r tone.

Anyway, after 10 or so hours it started to settle down and is now sounding good. It still has that denon boogie in the bass and is a lot cleaner in the mid and treble. Frankly, it does not really sound much like the old denon 103r, however it does sound good. A really good rock n roll cartridge.
It still lacks a little refinement compared to more expensive MC carts.

I also have a Linn Troika that has been re-tipped by ESC a couple of month ago and that sounds really great. The Troika was my Dream cartridge in the mid-late 80's and I stupidly upgraded to the then Archiv. ESC do a lot of Troika's I believe and closest to the orginal specs.

I guess the better the cartridge to start off with, the better the results should be.

So, yes highly recommended, but as ever be careful what you wish for :-)

Thanks a lot !
yes I saw that they have a lot of experience with the Troika.

[Puma Cat]

Jerôme,
I've read and heard nothing but excellent things about Expert Stylus Company. I know that when Koetsu was temporarily out of production while changing hands from father to son, that ESC was the only one doing factory-level and approved Koetsu stylus retips/cartridge rebuilds. There is a Stereophile article available online that speaks to the quality of their Koetsu retipping service.

As for the ruby cantilevers used by Soundsmith and others in their retipping services, I had my 20+ year old Grace Ruby F9E retipped by Soundsmith with their ruby cantilever and nude contact line diamond, and the cartridge now performs better than it did with the original ruby canti/stylus. The Soundsmith ruby cantilever retips will pull an AMAZING amount of detail out of the groove. It's just stupid how much detail they will pull. So, a big thumbs up from me. I will probably have my Grado Sonata retipped by them just to see what it is capable of with a higher specification cantilever/stylus.

if you're thinking of a Denon mod/retip by ESC, I'd say go for it!

[Rafale]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Jerôme,
I've read and heard nothing but excellent things about Expert Stylus Company. I know that when Koetsu was temporarily out of production while changing hands from father to son, that ESC was the only one doing factory-level and approved Koetsu stylus retips/cartridge rebuilds. There is a Stereophile article available online that speaks to the quality of their Koetsu retipping service.

As for the ruby cantilevers used by Soundsmith and others in their retipping services, I had my 20+ year old Grace Ruby F9E retipped by Soundsmith with their ruby cantilever and nude contact line diamond, and the cartridge now performs better than it did with the original ruby canti/stylus. The Soundsmith ruby cantilever retips will pull an AMAZING amount of detail out of the groove. It's just stupid how much detail they will pull. So, a big thumbs up from me. I will probably have my Grado Sonata retipped by them just to see what it is capable of with a higher specification cantilever/stylus.

if you're thinking of a Denon mod/retip by ESC, I'd say go for it!

+1
and very very nice people but the deadlines are often long, several months of wait, it is necessary to be patient or/and to have an extra cartridge....

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Jerôme,
I've read and heard nothing but excellent things about Expert Stylus Company. I know that when Koetsu was temporarily out of production while changing hands from father to son, that ESC was the only one doing factory-level and approved Koetsu stylus retips/cartridge rebuilds. There is a Stereophile article available online that speaks to the quality of their Koetsu retipping service.

As for the ruby cantilevers used by Soundsmith and others in their retipping services, I had my 20+ year old Grace Ruby F9E retipped by Soundsmith with their ruby cantilever and nude contact line diamond, and the cartridge now performs better than it did with the original ruby canti/stylus. The Soundsmith ruby cantilever retips will pull an AMAZING amount of detail out of the groove. It's just stupid how much detail they will pull. So, a big thumbs up from me. I will probably have my Grado Sonata retipped by them just to see what it is capable of with a higher specification cantilever/stylus.

if you're thinking of a Denon mod/retip by ESC, I'd say go for it!

Stephen,
I'm going to try the 103M. Not a big shot at this price.

[Tonepub]

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Not a bad idea Jeff ! My wife will love this one !
BTW, I did not find this in the manual but I probably read it too fast : when you connect 2 inputs, you put both grounds on the single ground plug of the Ref 2 ?

That's what I did...

Keep working on your wife for the two turntables. She can take it all out on me when we visit in September!