NOS cartridges

While I ceased being a dealer for some years I am now one again and I certainly do not consider myself lost in todays audio. I have been a dealer for Supex, Ortofon, Grace, Shure , Sumiko and others in the past and now am a Dynavector and Van den Hul dealer as well as a VPI dealer. I admit that I have lost interest in the parts of the market that feature components costing over $20,000 each. If you want to think that cartridges are good for only 18 months that is your privilege. If anyone out there has an 18 month old Koetsu Rosewood and is ready to throw it away I'll give you $200 for it.

I think the 18 month was for the ceramic.Of coarse I may take what Stanwal doesn't want.After all,they are bad,aren't they.♫

I will provide the information that I have. But a good starting point is Good Sound...by Laura Dearborn. This book is not biased, like calling a company like Ortofon. This book uses experts in the fields opinions. Creators of Table, Tonearms, etc... and they give the take on cartridge replacement. I would say they are more informed than I am. And whoever you spoke with at Ortofon, I did the same here at their USA plant, and got faulty information regarding a MC3Turbo Cartridge. So, you never know what kind of nimrod is on the other end of the phone. But as a start, it would help you, and many others here, to look for the Book called Good Sound, By Laura Dearborn. Best, Ray

Stan,
These words are not mine. I am repeating things, statements I have read in audio books, and magazines that afre informative. Some are designers. In fact, one is named Les Watts, a cartridge designer for Shure for many years, and he was cautioning many members of the Forums, such as Audio Karma, Audio Asylum, Vinyl Circle, and others, about how these parts deteriorate over time, even in NOS Stylii. This was a direct conversation that I had with Les Watts, again, a cartridge designer for Shure, not some Salesman, or the like. And he is from the days of Vinyl from 1970's and 1980's. And also a Audio Consultant besides a designer. I am not talking with some of these young kids, or guys that are hired today, that in conversations you can tell, that they know no more than I do, by their responses, and the need to look things up in books because they have no clue of what Im asking. Not everything has to be a moving part to age, and become brittle, its human nature, like Science. I dont care whether you want to accept it ot not, thats on you. But my sources are very reliable, and the cartridge designing was their specialty. Not sales. Les Watts is well known, and worked with the Berrylium cantilevers, the best cartridges that were ever available. I still have his email for contact. So Stan, this may not be advertised on a box, but is in nearly all informative books and magazines about audio, and cartridges/stylii. Ray

Kristian, although I presume that the reply that you received is correct regarding the M20FL, I believe that it may be stretching the truth to extend that explanation to every cartridge.

When it comes to cantilever metallurgy and corrosion resistance, or chemical composition in the damper elastomers, suspension, coil lacquer and so on, there are too many differences between brands and even individual models to apply hard-and-fast rules.

And although Ortofon may be one of the oldest cartridge manufacturers, they have managed to lay a few eggs in production models. For example, at least one model that I know of combined silver coil wire with damper elastomers containing sulfer. The sulfer in the dampers would gradually penetrate the lacquer insulation protecting the wires, attack the silver, and sooner or later the coils would corrode and break. Needless to say, the follow-up to this model was substantially revised.

A couple of other models from several manufacturers (unfortunately all very nice-sounding cartridges) didn't incorporate sufficient strain relief on the coil lead-out wires, and with the constant flexing that regular use would impose on the lead-outs, they would gradually work-harden and eventually break.

Other cartridges used certain aluminum alloy cantilevers that had good performance when new, but were prone to corrosion failure over time (particularly in humid environments), and the cantilevers would tend to collapse after a few years.

All of that said, I agree that an 18 months replacement cycle is much too short for any model that has been designed reasonably competently and used carefully.

hth, jonathan carr (cartridge designer)