Six years is a long time for a stylus unless you only play a few records a month. Generally a diamond stylus has a life of around 1,000 hours. Six years of average listening would probaly be a lot more than that. One of the big advantages of the Shelter 201 is cost of ownership. A replacement stylus from an authorized dealer is only 100 bucks, which is way cheaper relative to the cost of the cartridge than most other replacement stylii in that price range and it's way cheaper than a retip for a moving coil cart. The more sophisticated MM replacement stylii are a lot higher too. Even the replacement stylus for an Ortofon 2M Blue is twice as much as the stylus for a 201. Get a replacement stylus for your Shelter 201, snap it in, and party on!
