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Cartridge Longevity

M

Mick P

Retired and content
Chaps

I have a Garrard 401 fitted with a Naim Aro and a Dynavector D3 cartridge.

I bought the cartridge in 2007 and gut instinct tells me it is high time to replace it because it is 8 years old and may be ageing.

However when I use it, it still sounds perfect and I have a few LPs with the same CDs and the vinyl sounds better, so it still must be in good nick. It does good bass and the top end is very detailed.

I am in the camp of " if it ain't broke, don't fix it" brigade and then there is the hassle of getting someone to fit it as I don't trust myself to it properly.

My main concern is potential damage to the records due to a faulty stylus, but am I worrying needlessly.

I have a simple question - should I change it or leave it be.

Regards

Mick
 
Roughly how many hours has it done? That's the only measure that counts. Diamonds don't wear out when they are doing nothing! There is some argument that the suspension ages with time, but so many very old NOS carts sounding as good as they do kind of negates that. Basically if you only average a couple of hours a week it will likely be fine, if several hours a day then it's almost certainly shot. A good cart correctly set up and playing decent clean vinyl should be good for a couple of thousand hours, maybe considerably more.
 
Tony L said:
Roughly how many hours has it done? That's the only measure that counts. Diamonds don't wear out when they are doing nothing! There is some argument that the suspension ages with time, but so many very old NOS carts sounding as good as they do kind of negates that. Basically if you only average a couple of hours a week it will likely be fine, if several hours a day then it's almost certainly shot. A good cart correctly set up and playing decent clean vinyl should be good for at least a couple of thousand hours.
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Tony

That is good news.

My vinyl is always clean, I have never played uncleaned records. I used to pay to have my vinyl cleaned before I bought my own RCM.

I cossett the bloody thing. I have banned Mrs Mick from moving the TT lid or dusting it. I am the only person on this planet allowed to touch it.

I would say that its use averages 5 or 6 hours a week due to long periods of non use.

My main worry was that the suspension may have aged but using the Steve Toy expression of the "proof of the pudding", it still sounds good and one of my sons heard it last week and made a comment on the quality of the sound.

Many thanks for your advice.

Regards

Mick
 
It also carries a MicroRidge stylus profile which should give 2-3 times the useable life of a good elliptical or standard line. MRs wear quite differently.
 
Mick, some simple arithmetic would indicate that it's done between 1800 and 2200 hours. There's plenty of debate about stylus wear, and suspension wear, from what I gather you should expect 2-3000 hours on a high quality tip.

My advice would be to replace it and do your bit to stimulate the economy:)

The hardest part with cartridges is the fact that they slowly deteriorate and you don't notice it until you replace it. Unless of course it starts to distort or mis track but that's quite an extreme situation, normally you just lose resolution.
 
TPA said:
Mick, some simple arithmetic would indicate that it's done between 1800 and 2200 hours. There's plenty of debate about stylus wear, and suspension wear, from what I gather you should expect 2-3000 hours on a high quality tip.

My advice would be to replace it and do your bit to stimulate the economy:)

The hardest part with cartridges is the fact that they slowly deteriorate and you don't notice it until you replace it. Unless of course it starts to distort or mis track but that's quite an extreme situation, normally you just lose resolution.
Click to expand...

I hear what you say but when I compare the sound from the same CD and LP, the LP actually sounds better in all respects and I use a CDS3. It was this that prompted me to ask the question. This was on classical and pop.

Regards

Mick
 
Mick P said:
I hear what you say but when I compare the sound from the same CD and LP, the LP actually sounds better in all respects and I use a CDS3. It was this that prompted me to ask the question. This was on classical and pop.

Regards

Mick
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My comment to replace was slightly tongue in cheek - but in all seriousness it's actually quite a difficult area to determine how well vinyl systems are performing in the absence of easy comparisons and in isolation. Whilst I hear what you say about comparisons to CD, it's not that simple - I used to do the same but when I changed or upgraded the cartridge I was surprised at just how much I was missing and the size of the improvement.

With car tyres, you quite often get very low wear rates over a long period of time and then once you get to a certain point, the wear rate goes up quite sharply. I have a feeling that the same may be true with cartridges. It's a shame that there isn't more data available about stylus wear, I have never come across a proper scientifically based report about how cartridges wear etc, nor seen anything specific from manufacturers, perhaps there are too many variables, I don't know
 
I have an Entre MC bought new in 1979 and it's still OK.
Expert Pickups have fitted 4 or 5 new styli over the years,
and when the last one was fitted ( about 18 months ago )
the suspension was fine.
Wyndham Hodgson ( Prop. Expert Pickups ) told me it is still one of his favourite cartridges.
 
Mick, if you're referring to a 17D3, eight years is good going, even with your relatively light use of it. The issue with 17D3s and D2s (and I've had maybe five of them over the years, three on Aros, two on an RB1000) is that the very short cantilever gets gummed up. I'd usually expect to get 3-4 years out of mine.

Fine cart though, so as you say, if it ain't broke... When they go it tends to be pretty audible IME.
 
I'd take it to a local dealer and get it looked at under a microscope. If it's on ~2000 hours it may be getting ready for replacement, or it may only be half worn. Clean records will help, I also find that upmarket styli last well compared to stuff like AT95s. I have a currently resting Goldring 1042 that has done a lot of hours but is still good.
 
I recently had my Ortofon Kontrapunkt B repaired due to excess wear. The cost of installing micro ridge stylus and boron cantilever was £350 inc postage and taxes so this may not be economical.

I have at least got quite a nice cartridge now but you can get a new cartridge for that sort of money. Just not a Kontrapunkt B.
 
In my experience worn out carts start distorting at certain frequencys.

I know many around here are sceptic about test records, but personally found my Zyx Yatra failed on producing a clean sound on a specific frequency by a test record.
At the time being I would not have realized this by listening to music alone btw.
There is a danger you get used to the sound & thus don't realize it got worse.

So, when I am suspicious a cart could have reached then of it's live, I run a freuqency test & if it plays all frequencys clean I consider it ok.

All parameters have to be ok of course, esp. effective mass for cart and arm should fit & weight applied.

I recently got an SL10 Technics with a tangential arm & one obvious point about the system being under the hood, never exposed to sunlight in any way might make a bit of difference to the live of the suspension...my guess.

Anyways, this MC310 is from about 1985.
30 yrs old...and what can I say, after a cleaning with Lyra needle cleaner it revealed a (to me) good looking diamond tip and it sounds great.

To be sure and out of curiosity I'll send it in to a specialist and have it looked after & maybe renoved depending on damage report.
I'll make a little review of my experience in that once this is done.

I had a D3 for a while too, they can last quite long if treated well imo, and mine started distorting quite obviously within short time when it came to an end,
I can second Tim Jones in that.
Also your CDS3 should 'overtake' the vinyl considerably at this point, so a D3 beating a CDS3 can't be that bad yet imo.

Your clean records are a definite + on it's live I think.
Try the distortion test , and if it passes, just enjoy it for now..
 
Mick, your problem is that you don't feel up to fitting a new cart. Whether that's through lack of knowledge and the associated kit or simply DTs, you have the hassle of employing a dealer, which is a limiting factor, i.m.o.

Regardless, 8 years with the same cart. is too long, and the stylus is not going to be in its first flush of youth ! :) That it sounds better than your CDS3 is not an arbiter, either.

I think you need to seriously come to terms with not only replacing your cart. but upgrading at the same time. A re-tip is a possibility, but not one I would ever consider. If you can get a trade-in, that's a bonus.

If you like DV. stick with it, but Transfiguration or upper Benz wouldn't cause you any misgivings. Lyra is more or less a given, too, with your Aro.

At only 4 hours average per week, you'll have knocked up close to 1700 hours, and even though your stylus may be perfectly functional (for a little while yet, anyway), it will not be at its best, EVEN if the stylus is squeaky clean, and you'd need to take it off to verify this with a loupe anyway.
 
Why wouldn't you ever consider a re-tip, Mike? Especially by companies such as Goldring or Expert Stylus.
 
Bob McC said:
I very much doubt that Mick would ever consider a re-tip - the ultimate bodge!
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But I am very happy with the work he did on my Shelter 501 which never sounded this good! He cleans the cartridge ultrasonically as well and a new rubber damper is fitted as standard.
 
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