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  3. 161423-107

Cartridge reliability

Not having purchased a cartridge in at least 15 years, and probably more, I’m curious what has been your recent experience with cartridge reliability. Any cartridge failures? Significant channel imbalance? Loss of a channel? Suspension collapse? Etc. My focus is on moving coil cartridges.

I’m trying to get an idea of which manufacturers are tops in terms of reliability/QC and which have a thing or two to yet learn. I’m asking as my cartridge, though still sounding quite nice, surely can’t last forever. 
For instance, I’ve read about some albeit quite rare problems with Lyra, but I can’t recall ever hearing about any Dynavector issues. I have heard of some issues with Goldring 

your own user experience is appreciated!

thanks! 
zavato

Showing 1 response by terry9

terry9
2,354 posts
 
I heard something recently about stylus longevity. My dealer said in passing that he was glad he sold me a Koetsu, because some clients had experienced excessive wear on some other expensive cartridges. This may be for any number of reasons, like not cleaning records, etc. But my experience with Koetsu is very good in this respect: minimal wear at 1000 hours.

I note also that Soundsmith puts their money behind their mouth with retipping. You could do worse.
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