Viridian, sounds like a plan. I'll have it evaluated like I did with my 20-year0old amp.
When to change a cartridge?
I currently own an EMT HD006 cartridge that cost about $1900. That's as much as I've ever paid for a cartridge. Previously I was in thousand-dollar territory. I can't imagine spending $5K for something that's assured to wear out. I play my turntable (VPI Prime Signature 21) every day for at least a few hourse. I guage that I put about a thousand hours a year on my cartridge, which is now at about 1500 hours.
I have read forums in which people talk about putting their cartridge under a microscope every few months. I don't own a microscope and I wouldn't know what to look for if I did. After reading forums in which people talk about cartridges wearing out before the manufacturer's recommended hours, I began to hear my cartridge slowly declining. I thought perhaps the attacks weren't as crisp.
I called my online dealer to discuss replacing mine, telling him that I thought I heard deterioration in the cartridge's sound. He said it doesn't work that way. I will know when my cartridge is ready to be changed. It will not be subtle. Often the suspension collapses.
My reaction was that a dealer wouldn't talk me out of spending about $2K unless that expense was foolish. So, I am still playing my EMT HD006 and not worrying about subtle changes as it wears down. The dealer said it might be fine for up to 3,000 hours.
I'm curious to know what other people do about their cartridges. Wait for the suspension to collapse and the thing sounds terrible, or monitor it more closely and perhaps even change the cartridge before the manufacturer's recommendation?
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@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! |
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