When are you supposed to change the cartridge?

[Bol]

I have a turntable I bought about 1 and 1/2 years ago. It is Rega P-1. I am wondering when I am supposed to change the cartridge? Are there any rules of thumb?

[peterintoronto]

I have a turntable I bought about 1 and 1/2 years ago. It is Rega P-1. I am wondering when I am supposed to change the cartridge? Are there any rules of thumb?

2000 hours, more or less.

[mikelz777]

Use it until it dies or until it gives a noticably diminished sound.

[mjzee]

Use it until it dies or until it gives a noticably diminished sound.

I thought the problem was that at that point, it is damaging the vinyl.

[JohnS]

I have a P3. I think the last change was about four years ago. I've no plans to change it any time soon.

[Bol]

Use it until it dies or until it gives a noticably diminished sound.

I thought the problem was that at that point, it is damaging the vinyl.

This is what I am worried about.

[shaft]

If the cartridge plays without any mistracking distorsion it should be fine and not damage your precious black gold. You can however make a visual inspection to see that the tip is OK. Requires a microscope though.

[mikeweil]

The criterion is not the age, but how many hours it actually was in use. The cartridge itself might last for ten years or more, if you replace the stylus after a certain playing time. The user manual should give recommendations. But in many cases, replacing the complete cartridge might not be much more expensive than a replacemant stylus.

I check my stylus with a small microscope, about twice a year, especially after I might have dropped the tone arm or the stylus skipped - there are small hand microscopes available, 20 x magnification is sufficient.

[shaft]

The hours on the Cartridge is not an absolute answer. The kind of wear is also depending on what kind of records you play or to be more specific what condition they are in. If you play heavily worn and dirty records the stulys gets bad quicker.

Also if you play heavy metal it wears down almost instantly (just kidding it's your ears that wear down... )

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, my stylus is probably about 3 or 4 years old, and I'm probably due for a change soon. Then again, I only play clean/NM records, so I haven't really noticed anything.

[shaft]

My stulys is from 1995 still going strong ;-)

Before you think I'm too crazy there was a long time I maybe only played an LP once every week or so.....It looks fine through a microscope and sounds great with no mistrackin. Only problem is with LPs with groove wear which I try to avoid anyway.

[sidewinder]

My cartridge is at about 6-7 years now (Dynavector moving coil). Still seems fine..

Edited May 17, 2012 by sidewinder

[Werf]

I change my stylus every six to eight months, as I average 15 to 20 hours of vinyl listening per week.

On cartridges, my assumption is they last indefinitely, it's only the needle that needs to be changed.