I started writing down every album i play and which sides ABCD in a notebook, at the end of each page i total up the number of sides … for me 3 sides equals 1 hour and i replace my cartridge at hours, this also gives me a journal of what i have played and listening habits.
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. BillK says:. October 22, at pm. Marc Henshall says:. March 20, at am. Rick says:. December 22, at pm. Tom says:. March 18, at pm. March 7, at pm. Robert says:. October 16, at pm. Sennheiser HD Arcam CDS Post by stevoz » 30 Oct I dragged my old Grace F8C, bought in and used for about ten years, which had been sitting on my old TT in a box in a shed and other assorted storage spaces for about 27 years, out of hibernation about a year ago and besides needing a new stylus, it worked like a charm, still does and sounds as good as it did back in the old days.
Your cartridge body should be fine The good news is that with your particular cartridge all the first three sets of parts AND the coils are replaced with the new stylus. A higher reading may be indicative of contamination or oxidisation of the contacts and may just need careful cleaning. Post by Melos Antropon » 30 Oct It's a generally accepted rule of thumb that if you avoid physical trauma, moisture, etc, the cartridge has pretty much an indefinite lifespan.
Stylus assemblies? Besides stylus wear, very old stylus assemblies will develop hardened elastomers in the suspension. That means replacement is due. There are exceptions to every rule of course, but those are basics. Post by analogaudio » 30 Oct The replacement stylus and the cantilever it contains is the most technically demanding part of the pickup cartridge in terms of the choice of materials and the precision of the workmanship.
The life of the cartridge ends when the original manufacturer no longer sells replacement styli. It may be tempting to purchase "equivalent" replacement styli made by others, however these are often made without regard to the technical specifications of the original part and are often offered at much lower cost which raises the question of the unknown quality.
The better solution is the purchase of a new current cartridge for which replacement styli are available from the original maker. The facets of the diamond stylus are designed to fit precisely in the groove, making optimum contact with the groove walls to optimize tracking.
When overhang or azimuth are set incorrectly the stylus now contacts the grooves asymmetrically causing uneven wear, possible mistracking and certainly reduced performance. The Feickert overhang gauge pictured is an incredibly accurate way to set overhang. Most turntables come with at least some type of template or gauge to insure correct overhang. Lastly, tracking force; always stay within the manufacturers recommended range for tracking force. Too much tracking force causes undue wear on the stylus, vinyl and internal cartridge components.
Tracking too light can cause poor tracking, which results in distortion, skipping and accelerated wear of both the stylus and record. Most moving coil cartridges can have a new stylus and even a new cantilever installed of the suspension components and motor are still operational.
I will continue to use that cartridge with rebuilds when necessary. That will continue until there is a more massive failure of the suspension or motor. Bpoletti is exactly right. The stylus is what wears out. Stylus profile has a lot to do with stylus lifespan, because of the size of the contact area. Depending on how frequently you play records, you might need to replace the stylus because the bushings become dry and brittle from age before the stylus tip wears out.
Interestingly, to me, there must be numerous folks who are destroying their precious vinyl, precisely because they are altering the groove with their worn out stylus One side benefit in the design of Decca and London cartridges is they contain no rubber dampers to dry out, if such a thing actually happens in those that do. When a stylus is worn, or the suspension has begun to fail, it will not track as cleanly as before. This is first evident on more difficult to track passages, such as when a female vocalist its a not really hard or gets a bit too close to the microphone.
When you start to notice this sort of change, and cleaning the stylus does not cure the problem, it is time for a replacement. It is NOT the case that slight, occasional mis-tracking from wear will ruin the record; records are not as delicate as some would make them out to be. There is no really good way to determine the extent of wear other than listening for it. Visual inspection is nearly impossible to do right; often a visual check will not show wear or other problems that are quite evident from just listening.
It depends on the stylus profile: Conical has very short life up to hrs, MicroRidge has the longes life up to hrs! I see ads for used cartridges stating that its barely broken in at hours This is not true, even for Elliptical stylus is almost half life! Some of his vintage carts are already worn out and inspection by SoundSmith or any other Re-tipper is a must have! Especially if one particular sample does not sound as good as another newer sample of the same cart.
The elliptical and conical styluses were so worn that after just one play the damage was done. He only recently discovered what he had done by listening to a new Clearaudio Goldfinger and then hearing the damage! Shame that somebody had strongly recommended the older cartridges and he followed their adviceblindly. Agree with chakster. Different stylus profiles have different lifespans.
Also, the construction quality of a stylus can impact lifespan crystal structure alignment. This increases lifespan. A conical cartridge profile has a very small contact area, actually just a point of contact. These wear very quickly. Just because some damage might be done to a record due to a worn conical stylus does NOT mean that your records are totally ruined and unplayable. A new cartridge using a very small line contact stylus or a cart rebuilt by Soundsmith or others using a very small line contact stylus will be tracing the record groove in a different area, typically tracking MUCH DEEPER in the groove.
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