No Retipping for Miyajima – An Important Consideration Before Buying a Cartridge

[Yanni]

I’d like to share an experience that may be relevant for many analog listeners.

Before buying any high-end cartridge, you should always check whether retipping is possible and at what cost.

In my case, it concerns the Miyajima Infinity Mono. I accidentally damaged the cantilever and diamond — clearly my own mistake. I contacted my dealer, who then reached out to the Miyajima distributor.

The result:
Miyajima does not offer retipping at all.

Instead, they offer a 10% discount on the purchase of a new cartridge, provided the damaged one is sent in. The new cartridge is only shipped once the old one has arrived.

For me, this has two consequences:

1. I also need a new high-quality stereo cartridge, but I will never buy another cartridge again without confirming the retipping policy beforehand.
2. Without a proper retipping option, I will not purchase another Miyajima cartridge.

I will most likely switch to a mono cartridge from Tedeska (Berlin) instead. They offer professional retipping, which I find both technically reasonable and much more sustainable.





Hopefully, this experience helps others in their decision-making process.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i don't own any Miyajima Labs cartridges right now. but......i've owned 3 Miyajima Labs cartridges, a Premium Be mono, and 2 Infinity Mono's, a 1.0 stylus and a .7 stylus. i was very happy the quality and performance with all three and they never gave me any issues but also as mono cartridges they did not get serious play times.

but i would add that the price/performance point of these Miyajima's was outstanding, they punch way above their retail price points. so the retipping issue from my perspective would not hold me back from purchase again. great sounding cartridges at very fair prices. maybe other Miyajima Labs cartridges are not as outstanding for the money. i don't know about that. and i respect how you feel about it.

if i was going to knock the Miyajima carts it would be for their challenging mounting hardware and the finger gyrations i had to do thru to install them. they needed threaded holes. it's possible your accident might be related to that issue. they were a pain to mount.

just my 2 cents. YMMV.

 

[Yanni]

i don't own any Miyajima Labs cartridges right now. but......i've owned 3 Miyajima Labs cartridges, a Premium Be mono, and 2 Infinity Mono's, a 1.0 stylus and a .7 stylus. i was very happy the quality and performance with all three and they never gave me any issues but also as mono cartridges they did not get serious play times.

but i would add that the price/performance point of these Miyajima's was outstanding, they punch way above their retail price points. so the retipping issue from my perspective would not hold me back from purchase again. great sounding cartridges at very fair prices. maybe other Miyajima Labs cartridges are not as outstanding for the money. i don't know about that. and i respect how you feel about it.

if i was going to knock the Miyajima carts it would be for their challenging mounting hardware and the finger gyrations i had to do thru to install them. they needed threaded holes. it's possible your accident might be related to that issue. they were a pain to mount.

just my 2 cents. YMMV.

Thank you for your reply.


But just to clarify: my point is not about the sound quality or the price–performance ratio of Miyajima cartridges. I have never criticized that. The cartridges sound excellent, no doubt.





My issue is something completely different:


With products in this price range, I expect them to be sustainably repairable — and that is simply not the case with Miyajima. Retipping is not possible at all, and the only option offered is a 10% discount on a new cartridge if you send in the damaged one. To me, that is neither modern nor sustainable.





For me personally, if a manufacturer sells high-end MC cartridges costing several thousand euros, there should be a proper service concept in place — including professional retipping.


That’s why I will not buy another Miyajima cartridge in the future: not because of the quality, but because of the service policy.





Other manufacturers, such as Tedeska, prove that it can be done differently: excellent quality and the ability to retip a cartridge properly. This is the more sustainable and customer-friendly approach in my opinion.

 

[Another Johnson]

I realize that aftermarket retipping does not reproduce the original cartridge. But aftermarket retipping can turn a useless lump into a very fine cartridge.

Steve Leung of VAS does an excellent job and has retipped/recantilevered 5 figure cartridges with very happy customers.

Phono Cartridge Repair & Retipping Service | VAS Audio

VAS offers professional phono cartridge repair and retipping services for those in need of a rebuild.

vasnyinc.com

I have used his services and was pleasantly surprised. He works on a very customer friendly time frame with very customer friendly pricing. Peter Ledermann’s competing company (@ Sound-smith.com) is also good.

Either will give you a candid assessment of the damages, and advice on repair options … including the sad option of “not possible to repair.”

 

[Vinylfan]

I can certainly empathize with the accident and the damage to the cartridge. While setting up my brand-new Infinity Mono for the first time, I accidentally flattened the cantilever. My experience with my local dealer—Matt at Hearkin Audio in Canada—and the U.S. distributor, Robin at Robyatt Audio, was completely different from yours.
We shipped the cartridge back to Miyajima, and they graciously repaired it. The only part that could be salvaged was the wooden body; everything else was replaced. As noted in Miyajima’s email, they offered the distributor a generous discount because the damage was caused by an unfortunate accident. Both Robin at Robyatt and Matt at Hearkin refused to add any markup to the repair cost charged by Miyajima, which I considered very reasonable. Thanks to their help, I was able to correct my mistake.
Given how fair the pricing was, I’m sorry to hear that your experience was so dramatically different.

 

[ravenacustic]

I have stated somewhere in past conversations here that Ana Mighty Sound in Paris does excellent work. Francois repaired my Transfiguration Proteus in a very short turnaround time after Transfiguration went out of business. Does the cartridge sound precisely as it did before I damaged it? I cannot tell. Yes, still mounted and being used. Highly recommended.