Do You Play Or Save Your Best Cartridges

I have a strong tendency to hoard while saving the "best" for later. However, with cartridges and vinyl that rather defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. So in fact my best cartridge (Blue Lace) on my best arm (FR64S) gets the most play time. On the 2nd arm I rotate though many other MC cartridges, where no one cartridge (including other Koetsus) has emerged as a definitive #2. I keep looking for that other cart which will match the Blue Lace’s enjoyability factor - and that certainly is possible in the short term (a sonic flavor change is always refreshing) - but getting this to stick in the long run remains elusive.

That said if you have OOP / NOS cartridges in your collection, that would certainly increase the instinct to "save it for later".

* I don’t do "casual" listening here. ~ 4 - 7 hours of "focused" listening per week, which greatly reduces the burden on my best cart.

vinyl is not that good (and I listen 70% of my time to vinyl and I love it) to think cartridges will make such a difference

The last couple of years I work from home, so I am able to listen to the stereo for 1.5 hours to 2 hours before work starts, and as a general rule 2 to 3 hours in the evening. So that is 3.5 to 5 hours a day. That adds up to a lot of time on a cartridge in years period.

In the past I would play vinyl in the morning, but the digital is so good I can use it for morning play. That way I am looking at about 2 hours a night on vinyl. That is still 700 hours a year on a cartridge or a bit more. So that is 2 years on a diamond as a rule of thumb before it is out for service.

I could rotate between two of my best cartridges on one table if i really wanted to. But I do have a second table with two arms, and one cartridge is currently installed on each table, with a third arm on the second table in which I keep a third cartridge.

As I was thinking about this process, I believe I have sussed out my solution. I have two Ortofon MC2000 cartridges, one with OEM cantilever the second I damaged last year. It has been fitted with a boron cantilever and diamond. Sounds quite nice actually. I think I will set the arm up for the OEM MC2000 and then also install the second cartridge on a different headshell. I wont change VTA settings but rather have that one as the casual cartridge, That way I don’t have to change SUT or anything else. That should be good enough for a casual cartridge, and meet my desire for good sound. A slight VTA variacne isnt going to be the end of the world. Who knows perhaps if I pick the right thickness of headshell everything will line up without any issues.

I only own one cartridge at a time. Investing in the very best I can afford. But, then don’t spin vinyl that much… maybe one a day. I now listen to streaming most of the time.

However, since you started streaming. If you dedicate some money and effort to your streaming it can sound as good or better. Might be a good long term strategy… then nothing to wear out.

I own more cartridges (one) than cars right now :)