I have had a long time love / hate relationship with Supex cartridges, but that has now stabilised to mostly love… for a reason. The Supex 900 Super is a legend, well at least in France it is. It was mostly offered with Linn (Ittok) tonearms fitted on LP-12 turntables as an alternative to the much less affordable Koetsu cartridges following Mr Hiraga's warm recommendations. The Supex 900 Super used an aluminium cantilever with either elliptical or vital tip, later version evolving to boron cantilevers. It also displayed a low output of 0.2 mV and 2.2 ohms impedance, not the easiest cartridge to play but the Supex step-up transformers does make it sing.
Supex considerations
To be honest, I did not like Supex until a day in 2011 when I found one that matched my taste, being reminiscent of what I had heard or read about them. It was a 900 Super, repaired by Soundsmith with a ruby cantilever and nude Line Contact tip. Clearly it did have tracking issues under 1.9g on my Schick 12'' tonearm, but it did hint that it was a serious challenger to my Musashino Lab made Koetsu Black.
After this positive experience I started collecting broken Supex cartridges to send them all over the world to different craftsmen able to rebuild them. It was interesting to see that they did not return what I had 
once had in the Soundsmith retiped Supex. Theirs sounded different and most of the time, well, … boring. With a muddy sound, low dynamics, a shortened bandwidth and timbres that were not what my ears were hoping for. This frustrating experience started my quest for a cartridge repair team that would be able to rebuild cartridges back to their original sonic performances.
Most of the time repairing a cartridge means sending it to shops the world around, where different price tags for various 
options are supposed to be better the more expensive they get. The only sure thing is that you will at least get a playable cartridge in return but only with luck will it eventually be musical again. Will it be true to the original, better, or even worse? You just have to try and hope for the best. But not always, one 
of the gentleman to whom I had sent a Supex sent me an email which contained the following photos with his recommendations.
My Supex had been previously 
repaired and exhibited the previous sonic behavior/symptoms and frustrations mentioned. With his photos I immediately understood what was wrong with most Supex rebuilt cartridges I had listened to until then: the coil protector on some of them had melted on the coils and prevented the coil former to move freely thus significantly altering the playback performance of the cartridge. After a few email exchanges, it became obvious that removing all of this melted plastic was not an easy task and could lead to eventually tearing apart the fragile coil wires. An ultrasonic bath could not be used for this operation as the varnish on the coils risked being damaged too and that would lead to short-circuits. It could also alter the damping factor. 
The only way to go was to manually remove every speck of dust, a long and rigorous operation for a perfect control of the repair preparation process as can be see on the pictures.
Once the plastic parts removed, the damper, dried out over thirty years, was finally accessible and showed its clear needs of care before any new cantilever could be fitted. With this level of care and knowledge I knew I had found the retip team I would send all my cartridges to for checking, repair, rebuild or optimisation. Eventually they would join the Ana Mighty Sound to bring the love back in many cartridges, but I ramble …
Listening experiences feedback...
Back to our Supex, the team just sent me a Supex 900 Super mk IV I had acquired with missing cantilever. It now sports a boron cantilever with a nude Line Contact III tip, a very close match to the original Supex Vital design. After being repaired, tested and measured in order to offer the best mechanical and sonic performance it came back with a recommended vertical tracking force of 1.5g and an astonishing 110 micron tracking at 315Hz lateral. Our standard for 
Supex repairs aim for a tracking result of 80 microns at minimum, so this one is clearly a unique variation. Tonight I just had time to set it up on a Schröder CB ebony finish tonearm. At first I used the standard mounting plate but it turned out too light for the very lightweight Supex cartridge so I inserted a brass plate instead. I adjusted the speed of the PTP Audio Solid9 turntable and dug out an ECM record with no groves, ideal to adjust the anti-skating force. Following Frank Schröder's recommandations after having set a correct SRA. at 1.5g on a 9" tonearm, adjustments of antiskating force is crucial, the Schröder CB makes it a very easy task with its magnetic anti-skating mechanism.
I started playing the side C from the ECM record (Gnosis ECM 2526) I had just been using for the anti-skating issue. I was immediately surprised by the energy in the low bandwidth, low bass and sub-bass. On the Klein & Hummel O-92 speakers via the Le Phono (stage) it lead to an incredible spatialization of 3D imaging with huge depth and ... an unexpected vertical imaging. Piano notes being particularly well textured and floating in the air. But I was not really in the mood to listen to this record and after this first very positive quick listening impression, it was now time for a more ambitious record spin.
The first record I set for was the initial LP of French electronic music artrist Malik Djoudi (insert ref). Djoudi composes light pop electronic music, which speaks to me as it makes a direct reference to the French electronic pop scene from the early 21st century. It is full of blips and textures and unfolds a very coherent and articulated bass structure. With the Supex the sound is just astonishing and the electronic character is perfectly rendered with the shear and realistic dynamic exerted by the cartridge: legibility at its best. The record is unfortunately not exempt of background noise that is also magnified by the Supex ...
.... On the turntable goes the James Allsopp quartet record I'm a fool to want you (insert ref) a jazz
standard played just like in the sixties and this one has a very live feel to it as well as excellent timbres that rise with a lot of grip and control. As a former biker the the feeling to me was like fitting race tires on my Kawa and flying through every bend and curve on the groove road. And this new grip in the groove lead me to listening to records with a new perception, hearing new perspectives and new unheard details in the recordings. 
Cécile McLorin Salvant last triple LP (insert ref) is a blend of live and studio recordings, it presents a perfect example of how this rebuilt Supex is able to play every refinement of an excellent recording. On this record each take is different from the previous and the Supex delivers a perfect extension of the space surrounding the band and Cécile's voice flows with an infinite array of inflexions and details.
Late into the night yesterday, dimmed lights, rain pouring outside in the howling wind, I ran one last LP: Mahler's fourth symphony under the bow of Rudolf Koeckert and the stick(s) of Rafael Kube
lik. With my eyes closed while the symphony was playing I had the rare and clear sensation that the orchestra was live in front of me. The oboe soloist is here and perfectly coherent at the rear right, Koeckert's violin stands out of the orchestra without shading the horns kontrapunktik thema or the chorus of the violins on the front left of the ensemble. The soloist is just in front of them all, close to the middle while not standing out of the orchestra but perfectly surrounded by it, making the whole performance an extremely live concert experience in my living room.
even though the pizzicati from the soloist at the end of side A are much too loud to sound real but it is a choice from the sound engineer. On the soprano solo of Elsie Morison (side B), I am surprised by the textures of the orchestra with the bells being always perfectly rendered as well as the lower strings of strings instruments while still having the powerful voice of Morison being delivered with ease.
Coherence is certainly one of the strongest abilities of the Supex giving to the music a natural incarnation which is mesmerizing.
Conclusion
This Supex 900 Super mkIV after rebuild by our team is an excellent performer hold its place among modern cartridges. As of my listening results of today with this particular Supex its main characteristics are :- strong musical coherence
- high dynamic
- high resolution
- firm bass definition
- superb soundstage with 3D rendition
- high spectral and timbre differentiation
- extremely involving and certainly not made for "light listening sessions"
- sensitive to background noise and poor quality pressings
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Ana Mighty Sound Vinyl Event n°3 : Technics SP-10R, Audio-Tecnica Art-1000, 26 of April in Paris !
Ana Mighty Sound Vinyl Event n°3 : Technics SP-10R, Audio-Tecnica Art-1000, 26 of April in Paris !