Does anyone else keep track of the hours played on their cartridge?

I suspect I'll either upgrade to a whole new turntable or be out of this hobby completely before I have to worry about the cartridge going bad.

 

I use a Shure M97xe as my main stereo cartridge and I have played 100's of LP's and 100's of 45 rpm singles with it. Just for the heck of it, I grabbed one of my new, genuine Shure replacement stylii and swapped it out. I carefully listened to the new stylus and even used it to make a new wav file of an LP I just had recorded using the original stylus. There was absolutely no difference in the sound quality and no difference looking at graphs of both recordings. No, I don't keep track of the hours.

 

I use a counter app on my phone .. as other's have stated I times the number of sides by 20 to get a good rough estimate of total time.

 

You bet I do. I use a click counter as well, every time I play a side and I use it religiously. With a 2K cartridge I want to know exactly how many hours on it.
Besides, if I was to sell it with half of it’s life left, I would want the new owner to know how many hours are on it. Cheaper cartridge, then maybe not so much effort.

 

+1

 

I'm sort of surprised by the poll results, I would have thought more people tracked the usage on their stylus. I am an accountant by trade so my personal flavor of OCD is that I tend to track everything; I practically maintain a spreadsheet for everything, work or personal. It never occurred to me though to keep track in case I was to sell up and wanted to let the new owner know how many hours were on it. @ Otlset, wow, into a second decade, I'm impressed.

 

I keep meaning to start doing this.

 

Nope.

I'll play it by ear.

 

I can relate to this! I too track my stylus hours with a log book. I worked for years in a regulated analytical laboratory and we kept logs of everything! So, I'm used to this mindset so logging stuff like stylus use is second nature to me.

I play a lot of records so I rack up hours very quickly. I easily log 1000 hours in under 18 months. Since my collection contains a lot of records that I can't replace regardless of cost, I play it safe and never use a stylus for more than 1000 hours max. Sometimes I start to notice a decline in sound quality and tracking as soon as 700 hours. Once I hear it, it's time to replace it.

I too am amazed at the stories of people getting over a decade out of a stylus. Even way back in the days when I made a lot more money and used multi thousand dollar MC cartridges, I never got more than 1000 hours out of them before hearing significant degradation in sound quality. And every record I own goes through my VPI 16.5 before hitting the turntable so it's not from playing dirty records! I'm OCD about cleanliness too .

 

I keep a piece of paper on the shelf below my tt, and use small lines to count. 4 lines and then 1 line across to counts of 5. Each album side represents one side each side averages between 20-22 minutes so every 3 lines equals 1 hour.

 

Another click counter user...cheap, sits by table, has become automatic for me with each album I play. No longer feels like any effort. Like others I want to know for myself, and to be able to give precise usage stat to future buyers when I sell on or trade. It's amazing how many used cartridges allegedly have 'low hours'

 

I created a simple spreadsheet to keep time. Album, Artist, Time of album, Total time. I need to add the date played.

Just wanted to see how long my Linn Krystal would last. This is my first MC cartridge so I have the time and was curious.

 

Same here! I've never worn out an LP or a cartridge after 37 years of trying! If everything still sounds great, what's the worry?

 

Yes I do....but loosely. Not logged after every listening session. When I start thinking about it, or if things don't sound quite right, I create an average hours per week figure and multiply that by as much time as it's been installed. Not high science/mathematics by any means, but gets me within spitting distance and allows me to gauge how close I am to the manufacturers published lifespan.

 

oh hell no

 

I downloaded a click counter app for my phone. If a play a regular LP I’ll click it twice 1 click per side. I work on 1 side been 20 mins or there about. I’ll simply multiply whatever the counter reads x 20 then divide that by 60 been an hour. That tells me roughly how many hours the Stylus has on it.

 

Me too! I feel I've already gotten my money's worth in a way, at least compared to what others are posting about their stylus life expectancy. And it still sounds wonderful, and so I'm still playing...

 

Every time I play a record, I read the reviews on All Music and I note the length of the record. In my iPhone "Notes", I've created a list called 'cartridge play' and I complete it every time I listen to a record (I never miss a track and I always play the whole record).

 

This amazing cartridge is still going strong, sounding sweet and stunning and clear as a bell. I'm bumping it up because I haven't heard of anyone getting anywhere close to this cartridge's longevity. Is this a freak? Or is everyone else getting rid of their cartridges too soon?

 

I have a clicker. I probably miss a click here and there, but I will be in the ball park. It makes sense for me to keep track of stylus hours. My Soundsmith Hyperion has free stylus replacement for ten years. Soundsmith recommends stylus replacement after 1000 hours.

 

Nope! X2

 

I should, but I'm not that obsessive about stuff like that. I usually switch carts well before they exhibit problems (at least that I can hear).

 

I do. 165 hs on my present stylus.

 

This seems like a good option and makes me wonder if a simple timer exists that could be rigged to automatically count total elapsed time the line is energized, arm is off the armrest, etc. Whatever might work.

 

No thanks...

I work in television master control,
where we count minutes, seconds, and frames
for 8 or 10 hours per day.

If and when you make a mistake that gets on-air,
the station is bleeding money at $500 per minute or more.

So when I get home from work,
I want to take off my glasses,
take off my shoes,
and RELAX.

Playing music is very helpful in this regard.
To sit with the turntable and the headphones and a cup of tea
becomes a form of meditation...

I keep a cheap cart for dollar-bin records,
and just replace the stylus once a year.
Can't be bothered with more than that...