When to change a cartridge?

Viridian, I think the salespeople at my online retailer told me that my stylus might even last up to 3,000 hours because of what you've said about its shape. Anyway, now that I know I can send it in and have a new stylus put on for about $400 to $500?, I'll have it retipped. If it gets up toward $1,000, I might reconsider. My online dealer will give me a 20% discount on a trade in. I have a Clearaudio Maestro (1200 hours?) sitting around that I could use in the meantime. It sounded great, too. A bit more bloom than the EMT. 

I must admit that being an audiophile is not easy because most people look at me as if I'm crazy, spending $2K on cartridges and $18K on speakers. I have a Hovland Radia amp that is 20 years old and I was worried about its deterioration. I was lucky enough to have access to Bob Hovland, the designer and manufacturer. He looked it over and said it was to spec. Less than $500. My wife still thought that was too much because it wasn't broken. But it is one hell of an amp.

Audio-b-dog, I would just spend the $50 to have it evaluated by a professional, they may tell you they are good to go. Or as you suggest, perhaps if you can't hear it, then it is not an issue. I'm not here to drum up business for retippers.

Viridian, sounds like a plan. I'll have it evaluated like I did with my 20-year0old amp.

@viridian - great article, thanks.  Guess I will retip 500-700 hours, Soundsmith carts looking economically better.

The real credit for that work is due to Mike Bodell, who wrote the piece and did all the research. I just served as editor/publisher. I learned a few things in the process. I now keep track of stylus usage with a simple click counter (of course, Mike turned me onto a very well made vintage unit). Clean records go a long way.

Incremental degradation is not apparent. I liken it to sneakers (or British "trainers"). You don’t realize they have lost their "bounce" until you put a fresh pair on. (Maybe it’s a dumb analogy). I think Mike mentions a reader who said his stylus was well past the normal conservative threshold and thought it still sounded fine, but then decided to send it out for a retip, and was pleasantly surprised by how much better it sounded after it was refreshed.

I keep an eye on the stylus just for basic cleanliness and straightness of the cantilever-using relatively low magnification. I’m not really qualified to examine stylus wear under a microscope, so have used various retipping services, including those of the manufacturer (who will often replace, or rebuilt entirely rather than just replace the diamond and clean up the cartridge innards).

I gather that the micro ridge type has a pretty hard limit at around 1,000 hours-- and that it should not be used after that. I had an Airtight Supreme done with that stylus shape, keeping the original cantilever. I had one Koetsu rebuilt by the factory before they went defunct. And have had a few others over the years- trade ups with Lyra, a rebuild by Van den Hul, etc.

I thought Mike did a great job in addressing the issue and called for more transparency within the industry about realistic wear/life, rather than quoting the absolute outer limit for a cartridge to function. Kudos to him!