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You may remember the thread where we discussed how cartridges are re-tipped. Also, I was inquiring about various small files, particularly root canal files. Anyway, I bought a Grace F9E cartridge with a fatally bent cantilever for $30. Later on, I bought an NOS Empire 875XLT. The Empire has its own story. It is a "P" mount cartridge which explains why I got it for $11, but it also was made after Ernst Benz acquired Empire. It is not the typical Empire design, but it is far overbuilt for what you might expect from a "P" mount cartridge. The cantilever is a tapered one with a nude mounted tip. Its construction is exquisite by any standard. It is a sleeper for sure, assuming one has a "P" mount tonearm that sounds reasonably well, and that is assuming a great deal. The nice part about the cartridge for my purposes is that the cantilever was made so that removing it from the assembly is extremely easy. The difficult part of the transplant involves the magnet structure. In the case of the Empire, the magnet consists of magnetic material that fills part of the cantilever. That's the stub, and explains why the cantilever assembly is easily removed from the plastic part. It is also where the root canal file came in handy because I used it to dig out the magnet. Then, without a great deal of difficulty, I was able to glue the Empire cantilever over the Grace stub with lacquer, AKA fingernail polish. Lining it all up was a breeze, too.I can inspect at only 30X, so I can't tell for certain which type of tip it is, but it is a nice one. If anyone happens to have a sheet on the Empire 875XLT, I would appreciate it. The cartridge sounds great, so far. It may be the equal of an original Grace 9E, but only extended listening will tell.
Follow Ups:
And I'm hard to impress. Nice Job!
Its like one of those old Mom cliches, you never really know what you can do until .......Good work.
I'd like to see the other picture, though, the cantilever POV looking back (thru magnifying glass ?) at the intrepid experimenter.....
WOW!! You just impressed the hell outa me!!Once I tried rotating the cantilever damper o-ring in an old MC as the cantilever/coil assembly had formed depressions in the o-ring.
Thought I could get more life out of it if the cantilever/coil was on "new" rubber but I just ended up breaking the coil wires as the cantilever rotated along with the o-ring! Oh well....live and learn.
Excellent job sir.
Regards,
Would love to hear about how it fairs after extensive listening.
You may have unwittingly opened a real pandora's box here!!cheers,
Send an instant karma to me...
-Ray
Ray,
Thanks. It is a Pandora's Box, but it doesn't take from the pros. The Grace is a relatively easy one, but I believe that some would be very difficult to do.
I didn't think it would work, I'm glad you proved me wrong.
Mark,
Thanks. Now you know I'm willing to try anything. ;) This one wouldn't work with just any spare cantilever assembly, though. I bought an Audio-Technica ATS14 stylus assembly for the experiment because I knew its specifications, but there was no way that it would fit with the primitive tools that I have at my disposal. Finding the Empire with the Swiss cantilever assembly was a stroke of luck. So far the Grace-Benz F9 is a winner. The longterm test will be to see if it holds together. That's because the fit has more clearance than I expected. Nonetheless, the lacquer damping doesn't seem to hurt the sound. Call it the Grado Signature twist because female voices are rendered quite nicely. Curiously, it seems to be having some break in time because it continues to improve, but that may be from the suspension being stored for an undetermined length of time. Also, the bent cantilever caused the suspension grommet to be deformed on one side. I spun the grommet around in the assembly, and that pulled it back to its original shape. The key seems to be in removing all the original cantilever material that one can without destroying the original stub. Another thing that made the experiment a success is that the Grace is an easy one to work on. A moving coil with a fixed stylus assembly would be possibly far more difficult, if not impossible without cantilever assemblies and tools that are special for the job at hand.There are two questions that I have about the experiment. First, I would like to know what adhesives are used by the pros. I couldn't determine anything by looking at the two original assemblies. Also, I would like to know more about the donor cantilever. I can tell that it is of a high quality, but I can't find any information about it.
As far as I know "the pros" usually use acrylate adhesives, which is pretty much what you have done (I'm pretty sure nail polish is based on methacrylate lacquer). One problem with using lacquer as an adhesive is that lacquer often has a fair amount of solvent in it which gives shrinkage on cure. Good adhesives show no shrinkage on cure so they don't pull away from the joint.The other problem is that it's usually very hard to get a good bond to aluminium without fairly specialist surface prep.
That's my primary concern. I used some on the outside of the joint however, and that may help to keep it together. My first inclination was to use gel type super glue, but I was concerned about the working time. If it stuck before the tip was properly aligned, the cartridge was a piece for the junkpile. Then, there was the alternative of a two-part epoxy. I have a particularly thin one that is specified for marine and aircraft applications that has a forty-five minute setting time, but it doesn't cure as hard as I would like. My gut feeling is that a two-part is probably the one to use, but what is the formulation? That's most likely a secret we will never find out about. In any event, my results on this one look promising, so far.
Maybe the pigment in the fingernail polish will act as a filler to some degree...crosses fingers. I have the feeling that if the re-tip fails, it will do so on the most rare album in my collection. Let's hope that isn't the case because I have gained enough confidence in it already to move up to better recordings, in order to give it a decent testing.
You may notice that the cantilever is made with an angle at the tip, so the VTA would be easy to properly adjust with the Empire cartridge. Luckily, it is very close to that of the original Grace. Would you mind taking a look at yours to see if it is similar?Maybe I can make some well-defined comparison photos of this one and my untouched original F9E. If you could also make one, we could see how close they are to the original Grace design. I don't suppose the exercise would have any value really, but I am curious. If anyone else is interested, I'll take the time to do it.
Looks pretty similar, mine might have a slightly greater rake angle but then mine isn't original (it's a Garrott retip).
Yours may mirror the original more closely, but I haven't taken the time to carefully compare my pair. It isn't important one way or the other, but I thought of it as an interesting side note. I did briefly look to see if my DIY cantilever length was somewhere in the ballpark with the original, and it appears to be close. Initially, I was afraid that it would be too short.
Hardcore dude. We never had any doubts though!
-Bill
Bill, I'm proud of it...if not a bit surprised that it worked. This one is in memory of SCEvans. I miss that guy. ;)
I would love to hear the Grace with a line contact or Shibata diamond!Most of the manufacturer's buy these already built as a unit. I wish I could find that source!
My digital camera is a gadget that I have never warmed up to. I despise the menus and the small size of the thing. I'll get out the old Nikon F, so we can have some good old-fashioned analog pictures. Maybe I can get some with better detail. I'll post them later, if the cartridge continues to work out.
I just got it back from having the cantilever replaced (about half the price of a retip).I really like the F9 with the line contact stylus, I posted a review a while ago. With the different stylus / cantilever it's not an F9E any more, perhaps I'll call it an F9G (for Garrott).
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