Replicant 100 stylus longevity - truth or myth?

To my knowledge Jan Allaerst uses Gyger S for all of his carts. The Gyger S is designed by van den Hul for Gyger and also used by Lukaschek by some Benz carts ( SP and Ruby 3s). According to Fremer the Replicant is similar to Gyger S qua shape ( see his revieuw about A90).

Regards,

Hi Wrm57

By sonics and starting to not track as well.

One day I'll get someone to look at it.

cheers

I believe it is the folks at Benz that state that the inherent longevity of a stylus is principally determined by the quality of the diamond. Higher quality natural diamonds being much superior to synthetic diamonds because of the better crystal lattice structure. The particular shape of the diamond is less of a determining factor. Benz quotes a life expectancy well above 2,000 hours if the stylus and record are kept reasonably clean.

I have found that most records are surprisingly durable and can be more or less undamaged even when they are played with a mildly worn stylus (as evidenced by mild mistracking on highly modulation parts of the music). I have gotten records from people that had that kind of gear that played with no obvious wear. It is possible that the wear/damage is on a different part of the groove than my cartridge contacts--microgroove, ogura, replicant, etc. styli contact the walls of the groove deeper down conical styli--so that may account for why I don't hear damage when a record is played by a mildly mistracking cartridge.

Still, for the sake of my collection, I would never play a record when my cartridge shows obvious signs of damage or wear.

Dear Larryi: +++++ " Still, for the sake of my collection, I would never play a record when my cartridge shows obvious signs of damage or wear. " ++++

I'm with you and I would like to add that many times our cartridges are damaging our LPs when for us there is no obvious stylus tip wear but if that cartridge stylus tip is analysed by an expert thighs are way different.
That's why I posted several times that maybe the stylus tip of your Titan could be in pristine condition ( wear and performance level. ) perhaps between 500-1000 hours and no more.

Yes, we can follow hearing it through 2k-3K hours with out be aware not only the damage is doing but even with out be aware of changes in the quality performance ( that exist for sure. ) and this is the real problem/subject. That that top cartridge is doing a damage for ever to our precious LPs.

Only an expert as J.Carr from Lyra can put some real " light " on this critical subject.

I own several cartridges and I'm not accustom/equalized to any one of them and through the years I noted changes in the cartridge quality performance of several cartridges even the top ones.
Of course that if we are " married " with just one or two is extremely dificult if not imposible to be aware of it.

Anyway, IMHO an interesting " land " to explore.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

FWIW, I talked to my Ortofon dealer yesterday about the life of the A90. The "official" position appears to be: sonics will begin to change on the Relicant 100 at around 1,000 hours because of "changes in the molecular structure of the diamond" (whatever that means), resulting in less detail. By 1,500 hours, the stylus is basically shot.

Ortofon will rebuild the entire cartridge, retaining only the housing from the original, for $2,100 (here in the US) and it takes 6 weeks. Essentially, you get a new A90. But they could discontinue the rebuild program within a year or two unless demand is significant.

I think mine has around 800 hours on it. I'll probably go for a rebuild some time next year. I can't think of a $2,100 MC cartridge I'd prefer, even with it's all-too-short lifespan.