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What is the life of a Grado Wood cartridge?

I spoke with John Chapis,chief engineer of Grado and I asked him how long does a wooden cartridge last.He stated well you've got 2 minutes to talk to me.How does 5,000 hours sound to you.It all depends on the care of your vinyl
and the use of a stylus cleaner.If you use clean records
it should last you a very long time.
I spoke with other dealers who stated it should be changed before 1,000 hours due to the inward parts detereating over time even if the cartridge is not being used.
What is the coorect answer? Was John just trying to sell me his top of the line cartridge,or was he just giving me an answer I wanted to hear?
128x12876doublebass
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
I'd go with Chapis. A thousand hours is ridiculous. And as far as "deteriorating over time" is concerned, my current favorite MM cartridges date from the 1960s and 1970s (ADC XLM and Sonus Blue) and sound fantastic. The dealer just wants to sell cartridges, though I give him credit for at least carrying them! Good luck, Dave
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mescabo
7 posts
 
I am amazed that someone would respecfully disagree with the chief engineer at Grado on how long one of "his" cartridges last. This is of course based on cleaning your records and stylus on a regular basis.
So do you think that the chief engineer of Grado does not know what he is talking about? But maybe you have the kind of credentials that Mr. Chapis does, I don't know you, so I apologize for my ignorance if you do.
If you don't, and after hearing what Mr. Chapis' take is on cartridge life is, aren't you the least bit interested in talking with him to understand how he comes up with his conclusion of 5000 hours?
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