long lasting cart

+1 USE STYLAST 

Would a Dynavector Karat 17d2work?

Yes! Great cartridge, i have KARAT 17d2 mkII now.
MicroReach stylus and very short diamond cantilever.
Really great MC cartridge!

Even two previous models are also very nice (Ruby and Diamond), but my versions of them all were Micro Reach (this is how Dynavector called MicroRidge profile :))

thank you all stay healthy

Chakster, I understood what you said in your first post. Just wondering if my 2m Blue has the same roughly 600 hour life expectancy. Thanks.

@mjcmt Yes, 600 hrs maximum for your Ortofon Nude Elliptical tip. 
The best profile from Ortofon is Replicant-100 

I remember when Ortofon offered very nice FineLine profile even on very cheap MM like M20FL Super, this is why vintage MM are better. Why we had that MM hype on audiogon many years ago this cartridge was just under $100 (amazing), but not available at this price anymore.  

Here is the article for you on SoundSmith website, nearly everything you need to know.

You will be surprised reading the quite below:

Wear, Tear and Life

So we know that the more extreme line contacts reduce wear.... but what is the difference?

Apparently according to Jico (manufacturer of the highly regarded SAS stylus), the amount of playing time where a stylus will maintain its specified level of distortion at 15kHz is as follows:

• Spherical / Conical - 150hrs
• Elliptical - 250hrs
• Shibata/Line contact - 400hrs
• SAS/MicroRidge - 500hrs

This is not to say that at 500 hrs a SAS stylus is "worn out" - but at that stage the wear has reached the point where distortion at 15kHz surpasses the level specified by Jico for a new stylus. (Which I believe is 3%).

Some manufacturers have traditionally defined a stylus as being "worn out" when it starts to damage the record... in these terms the figures provided by Jico can at least be doubled, and in some cases quadrupled.

Summary

In pure sonic terms on pristine vinyl a top notch elliptical can do as well as all but the very best Line Contact / Shibata styli, but will ultimately be surpassed by the better MicroLine styli.

However in terms of reduced wear on both stylus and records - the entry point is the Line contact / Shibata category.

In terms of playing back worn vinyl line contact stylus types also have an advantage in that they can contact "virgin" unworn vinyl.

Narrower side radius = improved tracking and reduced high frequency distortion.

Question- I don't have the ability to change VTA or azimuth on the fly which I understand is recommended for Micro Ridge , MicroLine or similar stylus profiles.Then again I don't play LPs very often- maybe 4hrs per week. So is a spherical- aka Denon or elliptical -aka Denon 103  OK? Kenwood KD500 w/ Grace 707 arm. I have those carts.