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AKA: Weird Science…

Some may remember me whining about the cracked rubber damper inside my now-24-year-old Ortofon MC 3000 II phono cartridge following Steve Leung telling me specifically that he had replaced it, also my related surprise when cartridge expert Andy Kim re-tipped the cantilever without mentioning or replacing the damaged damper. I tried to “not worry about it” for the last 2 years, since, honestly speaking, the re-tipped cartridge sounded great despite (or, perhaps because of…) the degraded damper (and sound is what it’s all about, right?). Well, my Wa was finally disturbed when the sound from my cartridge became somewhat garbled in the voice range, also a little confused with respect to ensemble play, and I was convinced the problem was the bad damper. And that’s all it took to bring back the OCD jitters. I contacted Andy, and he said it would cost a maximum of $600 to replace the damper. I swallowed hard and sent him the cartridge via Priority Mail on a Thursday. He received the cartridge Saturday morning, and I got 2 emails from him Saturday evening. The first email asked for $417 for repairing the cartridge (plus return postage). The 2^nd email explained that a key set screw was frozen in place, and he was sure if he applied more force, the sintered ceramic cartridge body would break, so he was not able to replace the damper, after all, but he had done some other things to address the suspension. I must say, I was nonplussed. Why the hell had he not contacted me about the problem and the change of plans before racking up billable time? I straight-up asked him this, and I also asked him exactly what what work he did do. And he literally refused to tell me what he had actually done to bill $400 (17 was postage…)! It took a while for me to collect myself, but I did it, and I paid him. A couple of days later, the cartridge came back to me, and 2 days after that I re-mounted the cartridge, including thoroughly cleaning the cartridge pins and the tonearm’s cartridge clips. The next day, I warmed up the system and played a few LPs. I am both relieved and chastened to report that the cartridge now sounds so clear it is breathtaking. Gone is the congestion, replaced by a balance of differentiation and integration I have only seldom heard before. Andy did say, if I handle the cartridge with care I should get another 2 years from it. Fingers crossed. I still have no idea what he did or did not do, which galls me, intellectually, but my inner hedonist is just living with the situation, since it includes such great sound. IMO, this whole episode is a both a caution and and another snapshot of vintage audio nervosa and resultant nonsense.

Paul S.>>

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