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Buying a used cartridge...tell us your tale.

Personally, I have a VERY BIG reticence to buying a used cartridge. The amount of use or damage to the stylus and/or other working parts would seem to me to be a large unknown. Since just one play of a damaged stylus will result in damage to your records, I have always shun away from any used cartridge purchase.
OTOH, I'm sure many have been successful in buying a used cartridge and then again...there are those that have NOT:(.
I would be interested in hearing the tales...the good, the bad and the ugly
128x128daveyf
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,360 posts
 
I bought a used Dynavector DV20L and the suspension was totally collapsed. Although the cartridge sounded wonderful, the bottom of the cartridge was scraping the record. I ended up selling the cartridge at a 400.00 loss to someone who was going to send it out to be fixed. Never Again!
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Risk crossing the street...that said...with new catridges at many price points...going used unless no longer manufactured vintage (shure) ...seems less attractive. Still, Shure V series has tempted me on numerous times will excellent results. Maybe others can chime in...any super bargains in the sub $100 vintage cart arena?
pops
2,273 posts
 
I would not buy used, too delicate. Besides it is hard to track how many hours are really on it. I have used a Jubilee for about 7 years, I can't tell you within 500 hours how many it really has.
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