@ricmci , By the time you know your cartridge needs replacement you are damaging records. I use a medical microscope and special lighting to examine the stylus after 2 years about every 6 months. Most can not do this so, the next best solution is to have two functioning cartridges and after two or three years send the cartridge into Wally Tools for examination using the other cartridge in the mean time. You can use a stylus timer and arbitrarily send the cartridge in for retipping every 1000 hours. I think that is a PITA.
How do you tell your Cartridge needs replacing?
I know this is a stupid question but I don't know how to answer it. I have a Sumiko Blue Point No. 2 on a MT-2 player. Came with it. Probably , 4 years old now. The first 2 years I was not cleaning records but have been for the past 2 years. I have no equipment beyond my ears to measure degradation of the stylus. Seems to me that the intervals between cleaning of the stylus due to muffled sound are getting shorter. That is all I can say. Maybe my brain is adapting to the sound degradation over time and what I would not consider abnormal 4 years ago is now normal. Anyways, I suspect the easy answer is just to replace it and listen but was wondering if there is any other advice out there. Thx.