Low Hours Phono Cartridges?

Well, I have my current cartridge for a little over 3 years. It didn't get mounted until 6 months after I bought it. I was too busy with work and other priorities, and my backup cart was mounted already. So I let it sit on the sideline. After it was finally mounted, I was traveling every week Monday through Friday for over a year, so the system basically sat and collected dust.

The traveling was killing me, so I switched job about 18 months ago. Although I work from home just about every day and have cut back my traveling down to 25%. My system still does not get as much use as I would like. Most of the time, I pop in a CD so I can listen while doing other stuff.

Yeah, it's laughable when you think about it. But I think there are many people out there with decent systems but not enough time to enjoy them.

It has become a "luxury" for me to be able to actually sit down and put on an LP to listen. If I get to do that once a week, I would be happy.

So yeah, I would be surprised that my cartridge has more than 100 hours on it. And, I've been thinking about a new cartridge already. Why? Since I can't enjoy my system while traveling, I guess buying new stuff and browsing various boards has become my temporary fixes while traveling. ;-) Can't wait to get home tonight from my trip!

FrankC

I bought a Koetsu Rosewood Signature several years ago from a very helpful Swiss lawyer living in the US. He said 30 hours and I believed him. Have anyone been to Switzerland, even the bus's run exactly to timetable, to the minute. Seriously, it was a great purchase, I used for 3 years and sold at about the same price, with an honest report of useage. Buying used cartridges is a lottery, that is why they are so cheap. If you feel lucky, you can make a great saving.

I've also found that most sellers are honest. I've bought a few "low hours" cartridges from respected A'goners and have been very satisfied. I also bought a few "high hours" cartridges just so I could try them out at a very low price.

As for the "low hours" claim, many people try different cartridges before settling down. I've done it myself, selling carts with only 50 or 100 hours on them because they simply didn't appeal to me.

My criteria for trusting a seller is (a) positive feedback, (b) length of time on A'gon and (c) their experience with analog. If A, B and C are all met, chances are very good that the cartridge really does have low hours as claimed and the seller just got a case of upgrade-itis.

My guess is that many people selling carts advertised as "low hours" have listened to the cartridge and then decided it's not a good match in their system, so they're sellng it to fund the next purchase.