Replicant 100 stylus longevity - truth or myth?

I believe it is the folks at Benz that state that the inherent longevity of a stylus is principally determined by the quality of the diamond. Higher quality natural diamonds being much superior to synthetic diamonds because of the better crystal lattice structure. The particular shape of the diamond is less of a determining factor. Benz quotes a life expectancy well above 2,000 hours if the stylus and record are kept reasonably clean.

I have found that most records are surprisingly durable and can be more or less undamaged even when they are played with a mildly worn stylus (as evidenced by mild mistracking on highly modulation parts of the music). I have gotten records from people that had that kind of gear that played with no obvious wear. It is possible that the wear/damage is on a different part of the groove than my cartridge contacts--microgroove, ogura, replicant, etc. styli contact the walls of the groove deeper down conical styli--so that may account for why I don't hear damage when a record is played by a mildly mistracking cartridge.

Still, for the sake of my collection, I would never play a record when my cartridge shows obvious signs of damage or wear.

Raul,

I don't go beyond about 1,000 hours myself. I am currently running a Transfiguration Orpheus L, and it does not have that many hours on it. I still have the Titan, and it too is well under 1,000 hours. I did run a Helikon to about 1,000 hours and gave it to a friend. He has used it quite a bit, and it does not show any obvious audible signs of wear. I can't say there is no extra damage being done to his records, but, his collection generally sounds great. I don't think he plays his records over and over, given that he has more than 5,000 records (pared down from closer to 10,000). I tend to play my favorites a lot more than he does, and my collection is in very good collection (aside from used records that came pre-damaged), but, like you, I don't push the limit on wear.

Many years ago, when I used cartridges like the Shure V-15- IV, V, I noticed drop off in sound quality MUCH sooner than I hear with the cartridges I use these days. Perhaps it is aging (me, not the cartridge) that partially accounts for this, but, I think those cartridges probably did not use as high quality diamonds. I had them examined by "experts" who never saw visible signs of wear. That makes me a bit wary of visual inspection. I've looked through microscopes at styli myself and I personally cannot judge what consistutes significant wear. The only kinds of pictures I saw that were clear enough, to me, were SEM photos. I bet not too many shops have access to that kind of gear.