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Are Boron Cantilevers Becoming Extinct?

My favorite cart has a gold plated Be cantilever, why the gold plating, don't ask me, as it seems like it would add more mass, but it sounds great
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Thunderbox said:
Boron sells for about $5 a gram. You can probably make band between 5 and 10 cantilevers with that much Boron
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I'd rather think quite a few more. Rough guesstimation: Density of boron is ca. 2.5 g/cm³, so we get ca. 0.4 cm³/g. Let's imagine that as a "block" of 4 x 10 x 10 mm. Boron rod cantilevers typically are less than 0.5 mm in diameter, and let's assume a length of 5 mm. So we'd already get at least 8 cantilevers out of a single 1 x 1 x 10 mm "bar", of which our "block" would contain 40. 40 x 8 = 320.


Ken: In any case (i.e. possible resonance tuning aside) we can safely assume that the gold coating would at least improve corrosion resistance.


Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
Thunderbox said:
Boron sells for about $5 a gram. You can probably make band between 5 and 10 cantilevers with that much Boron
Click to expand...

lini said:
I'd rather think quite a few more. Rough guesstimation: Density of boron is ca. 2.5 g/cm³, so we get ca. 0.4 cm³/g. Let's imagine that as a "block" of 4 x 10 x 10 mm. Boron rod cantilevers typically are less than 0.5 mm in diameter, and let's assume a length of 5 mm. So we'd already get at least 8 cantilevers out of a single 1 x 1 x 10 mm "bar", of which our "block" would contain 40. 40 x 8 = 320.


Ken: In any case (i.e. possible resonance tuning aside) we can safely assume that the gold coating would at least improve corrosion resistance.


Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
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Well when either of you can manufacture your own boron cantilever, then you could sell them to every cartridge manufacturer, or actually stylus/cantilever supplier out there and make a nice income. Get to it fellows! We need our boron cantilevered cartridges!

Regards
Mister Pig
 
I can't find it now, of course, but I ran across a post, I believe from Jonathan Carr, about the boron issue. I really wanted to fit at least one more comma in that sentence.

The gist was that the supply of boron wire used for the cantilevers went away, and a bunch of cartridge manufacturers jumped ship before a new supplier could be found. IIRC the post said new supplier was indeed found.
 
808_state said:
(...) If people are still using Be for speakers any reason they can't find a safe way to produce a few more tiny needles?
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I'd guess that's mainly a problem of return of investment - especially for companies that just are suppliers and hence rather wouldn't profit much from the surcharge of the end products (i.e. the carts/needles).

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
I have an MP 11 Gold, since I shelved it my quality of Turntables have improved immensely. I've cleaned it with some good stylus cleaner and it looks much better through my cheap magnifying glass. (it's not black!) I'll try to get it set up and report what it sounds like.
 
So it would seem that the availability of the raw materials is not the issue, but that the manufacturer mounting the tips to form the needles has stopped production. It's no wonder then that AT, Lyra, Jico, etc all looked liked they used the same needles.
 
Many of the craftspeople who manufacture our analogue treasures are of advanced age and are slowly dropping out of the industry as they reach the point where they can no longer continue. Many also feel that it would take years to really train a apprentice to work to their level and they don't have the time or the inclination to do so.
 
It's not a field that I'd like to enter. I've worked in Laboratories and peering down a microscope for the remainder of my working life is not my idea of an enjoyable employment.
 
I'd deem it likely that there is/was no general shortage of boron and that instead only Namiki has stopped offering boron cantilevers (*) or respetively boron cantilever plus tip combos (not sure whether Ogura ever offered such as well). Whereas Nagaoka isn't concerned, because they can produce their boron cantilever plus tip combos themselves. However, with Nagaoka not being a supplier only, but also a cartridge manufacturer, other cartridge manufacturers might be more hesitant to purchase from Nagaoka for not wanting to be dependent on a direct competitor.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

*) maybe because they deem corundum similarly suitable and much easier/cheaper for them to make themselves...
 
Gibsonian said:
This composite carbon fiber is more rigid than aluminum, iron and titanium. In addition, its specific gravity is just half that of boron. Therefore we can be sure that the C-1000 carbon cantilever is the ultimate and ideal cantilever material for analogue record playback.

Based on the statement above, I believe it is safe to say that boron cantilever is more rigid than the carbon fiber one!
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I'd agree.
 
matteos said:
Carbon fiber is such a great material. People are making speaker cones from it. Would love to hear it in audio. Very light, incredibly strong. I hope we see more gear utilizing it.
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CF is not as rigid as other options, including alu tubing.
 
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