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

Thanks, Peter. That is an interesting article from MF. I am curious as to when the actual onset of wear will occur on the record in relation to the wear pattern on the diamond. The conventional thinking is that the wear will be severe on the LP when the wear on the diamond is as shown in the examples by amhifi and Kharma. OTOH, I would suspect that the shape of the stylus has something to do with the shape that is seen under the microscope...in relation to the supposed wear pattern. The idea of listening for wear that MF brings up, makes a lot of sense to me. The 'crackling' that he was talking about would be a definite red flag. I wonder what other red flags there are?? Only problem is that by the time you hear the red flag...I suspect it's too late!!

I've got one cartridge with a worn stylus that renders some minor but audible distortion on the inner-most grooves -- that's definitely where you'll notice issues first. To be honest, it still sounds awesome on the outer and middle grooves. But obviously it's high time for a re-tip, and I don't play it since I noticed the issue. Unknown hour count on this one, but I absolutely knew it was high up there when I acquired it (early 1990's Koetsu).

I've rotated through a lot of cartridges over 7 years, and I haven't put enough on any 1 cart (~ 400 hours max) to drive it into audible wear. So I've never encountered any issues besides on that one.

Buying a used cartridge is always a stupid move.

Ebm, that's your opinion and your entitled to it. Other respondents, including myself, have set out the broadly good experiences we have had and the resulting big money savings.

Everyone buying second hand in this area are aware of the risks, or should be. It is their money to gamble and their risk to take, but stupid it is not.

Beautiful looking. Fantastic sound and still going strong.