The Lifespan of an LP?

I bought my first album in 1967 and like many albums I own from the 60s, 70s and 80s, played the hell out of it. I always took good care of my vinyl. But the grooves on my favorite albums (many of which have been played over 100 times) appear noticeably worn.
Up until the 1990s, I used the likes of a Shure V15Type lll with elliptical stylus at 1 gram in a modest system. Starting in around the year 1995, I started to get into high end audio with much more expensive and revealing gear. I switched to cartridges like the Dynavector XV1-s and the Atlas line. To this day, all of my albums sound as good as new and almost always sound better than reissues off of the master tape. Is it because a line contact stylus hits a different point in the groove and only the top of the groove is actually compromised? Is the top of the groove compromised merely because it looks worn? I don’t know--but in any event, all of my records sound great today and will sound great long after I’m gone.

It's been a while for me, but the first three plays were the best. 

The ARSC Guide to Audio Preservation, 2015 (https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/pub164.pdf) commissioned for and sponsored by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, states: “Vinyl discs are the most stable physical sound recording format developed to date; they can last 100 years in a controlled environment.”  History will probably show >100 years.

The RCA record composition developed (early 1970's) for quadrasonic play with a Shibata stylus (RCA Engineer Magazine, 1976, Issue
02-03, Development of Compound for Quadradiscs, by G.A. Bogantz S.K. Khanna 1976-02-03.pdf (worldradiohistory.com)) at 1.5 gram after 100 plays showed little or no wear. They did show clean-narrow trenching with a Conical stylus at 4.5 grams after 100 plays, but a Shibata or equivalent stylus shape would bridge the trench and playback with full fidelity. 

We should hope that current record compositions follow what RCA developed which is open source info they detailed in their patent - RCA Patent 3,960,790, June 1, 1976, DISC RECORD AND METHOD OF COMPOUNDING DISC RECORD COMPOSITION  1498409551006799538-03960790 (storage.googleapis.com)

That’s what she said, Russ.

@lewm

ROFLOL!

@tablejockey

I doubt someone has played an LP to it’s death to find out

You haven’t seen my 1st press Zeppelin & Sabbath albums. Many took care of their albums in the 60’s & 70’s but we had cheap TT’s with a heavy tracking weight. Line Contact stylus MAY wake them back up. I don’t know. I fell for "Perfect Sound Forever" hype in the 80’s and purged the system. Oh well. i have 4k to play now but I’ll never know about those albums.

@gpgr4blu

Is it because a line contact stylus hits a different point

When I got back into vinyl, (1990’s) I purchased about 3.5K used albums. I got pretty good a knowing Goldmine and knowing what an album sounded. I don’t play anything under VG+. But anyway, I purchased about 5 or 10 from one guy who had taken very good care of them and the looked very good, most NM. I got them home and had very bad surface noise that would not clean out. I had a pretty good setup then. VPI & Dyna 20 XL (I think) but still surface noise. Wish I could remember which they were now that I have a Zyx with LC stylus. BTW, 1st thing I noticed was better bass, I suspect where it was digging deeper. Cartridge before was a Benz Ebony L. No slouch, but not LC.