ADCOM HC/E II cartridge mothballed 25 years ago.

Keep the stylus clean! I use the AT liquid stylus cleaner and brush.

I revived my AT440ml cartridge I had kept unused for over 20 years. Had no more than 20 hrs on it.

I thought the rubber would be hard, but after I thoroughly cleaned the whole tip/cantilever/rubber suspension and let it break itself in playing a few unimportant LPs.

It sounds surprisingly good. compared to my shure V15Vxmr body/Jico Stylus SAS/boron/brush, it competes with it same as when new back in late 90's.

Next, I put a drop of rubber renew on the suspension that I use for Reel to Reel capstan wheels, belts ...

The suspension can fail, though. it depends on the rubber, and how it was stored, where it orignated from, how it was handled and applied during manufacturing, etc. multiple aspects to the story, in all cases, so one story of failure or success in age of a cartridge is not comparable to another when it comes to predicting specific outcomes for models or brand sources.

Eg, I have here, 5x of the beryllium cantilevered AM40 Signet cartridges, new in the box. their rubber suspensions went hard and they are a write off, regarding the stylus of each. too bad. They are also, basically, an A-T cartridge, by any measure. and of similar age to an AT440. But these ones failed.

The situation has always been, be very very careful when buying a so called NOS AT cartridge/stylus. This also goes for many others. Buy the given cartridge for the body/motor and if the stylus suspension turns out to not be hardened and useless, then consider yourself very very lucky.

then, watch for wear on your records, very very closely, as distortion may creep into the situation far sooner than one might think. the suspension of that NOS unit may have a very short lifespan.

The main reason one might want such a cartridge is the given beryllium cantilevers and hyper elliptical, or shibata or micro ridge stylus. As getting modern equivalents can be very expensive, and even..completely unavailable.

So don’t buy too much into the hype of old NOS AT cartridges, or any others, including older MC carts, without doing lots of due diligence in research.

No free rides!--a functional working brain, used in continual analysis- is always required, as per the norm in all things. throw money at the new, so you can spend brain power and life/time somewhere else.... or use your noggin/brain..in trying to slip the surly bonds of requisite financial input. for their cantilever suspensions are not immortal, and each case is VERY individual and unpredictable until it is actually tested and run out to the ends of their given life, in the now...

One might get lucky at $50 input..or one second later, you or someone else gets burned at $1200 or more being spent.

There is no harm in testing the cartridge using recommended VTF, etc. If it appears to work at all, give it many hours of playing time before you judge it. If you own the Cardas test LP, side1 has tracks that are very useful for reviving cartridges. Tracks 2a,b,and c, I think. Truth is you can never know if it’s good as new, you can only judge it as it performs now.

ADCOM was never known for great sounding phono cartridges, thats not their forte'. Time to get a real cartridge for that DUAL :-) Ortofon, Grado, Audio Technica, come to my mind real quick.

Matt M