Neumann cutting stylus

[Aussie0zborn]

Just a suggestion....

What you have here is no longer made. Unlike us old guys, most of the young guys running professional disc cutting systems today have never used a Neumann stylus. They think its better than an Adamant or a Micropoint stylus - based on legends and based on us old guys saying "back in the day you had so many choices, blah, blah".

These young guys have kept vinyl alive. Some of them are doing some great work developing new or related equipment. In order to foster this spirit would you think about supplying just one stylus to each interested party? This way nine professionals get to sample what was available back in the day.

You can sell all nine to one user but then only one user gets the experience. If you're even remotely fond of vinyl and glad these guys have kept it alive, you might just think about distributing them evenly to the first nine interested parties.

To aspiring purchasers : Don't offer more then the price of a Micropoint stylus. The difference is minimal. I've used all the styli back in the day on my VMS70/SX74 my AM32B/Westrex 3DII and my VMS62/HAECO SC1. The benefit with Neumann was its consistency - never had a bad one. If you get a bad stylus today, you can send it back. If any of these are bad or fail after 10 minutes there's no sending them back to Neumann. Buy at least one for your own reference, You don't need to buy nine or lose sleep over not getting any. If enough people buy them it will be interesting to compare notes in a new topic.

Dude, thanks for posting your sale here and good luck with it.

[analog_ears]

Thanks for the great suggestion, AussieOzborn. I've received quite a few suggestions, which I wish I had in the beginning – I may well have proceeded differently. I do feel a bit stuck, though, as I want to honor the bids of those who have already done so under the terms I spelled out. If nothing else, I can obviously check with the winner(s) how they would feel about adjusting quantities.

There was also a suggestion that seemed reasonable to me: send one stylus to a current manufacturer (I don't know who that would be – I assume there may be a few?) as a sample of the workmanship that was done "back in the day". That might benefit you all in terms of the manufacturer learning how to perhaps adjust their processes to attain a better modern-day product. Again, this whole field is not my specialty, but does that sound like a good idea to anyone? Provided all bidders agree, I could certainly consider allocating one of the lot for that.

Although I originally received quite a few messages expressing interest, I currently only have a few bids in. The reasons for that may be varied but we all know what the main one likely is – I'm not going to be naive about that. One bid is for the whole lot while the others are for smaller quantities. As such, there's definitely still room for more interested parties to put a bid in for, say, one or two pieces each. Look, I can't force anyone to pay up if they decide to get cold feet or have a bad vibe or something (and I can't give you negative feedback for that like on ebay), but do put in a bid if you're interested to try one of these out. In the end, if you choose to forego buying despite having a winning bid, then so be it. In such case, I'll just have to look to the next bidder. I'm very happy to share more of my details with the winners and answer their questions prior to finalizing sales.

Less than 4 hrs left, ladies and gentlemen.

[analog_ears]

Bidding is now closed. Thanks to all who made an offer. I'll be in touch tomorrow, once I've had the styli looked at.

[mossboss]

This is getting to the stage it is becoming analogue tears
Cheers

[analog_ears]

For those of you who have any interest left in this thread:

Today I went to visit Transco Blanx Ltd in Surrey, where I met up with Peter Inker and John Rooke so that they could have a look at the Neumann 74KMH styli. See pic – John (L), styli and Scully (C) & Peter (R). They were happy to confirm that the styli are of the make/model/condition as originally described. They did make me an offer for the lot, which I did not accept, and thus I have now contacted all bidders. They were very keen to at least have one for R&D purposes, so I did opt to sell one piece to them at a very low price with that in mind. I hope it might bring some benefit to you all – the record-cutting community as a whole. We talked about this a fair bit, and it sounded to me like they know enough of you and the companies actively involved in this business that they would be as good as any other party to find the appropriate channels/methods for this work.

I hope I got that right, and I'm pretty sure that they'll discuss the topic on the forum in due course. No, it's by no means philanthropy, but it is a gesture. Hopefully that dries at least one tear – if you're still reading.

IMG_1165.JPG

[mossboss]

I had to dry my tears before I could do so any reading,
Philanthropy no!
A gesture indeed, had them checked out first
Very Fair
They are a very good stylus
Best