Ah yes, this one is a real gem, but it causes a lot of pain.

The “only 50 hours” cartridge use/wear meme has been part of the hi-fi community and forums for decades. It’s where someone selling a cartridge typically dramatically understates the number of playing hours a cartridge has seen to tempt buyers and get a better sell price. It’s like winding back the odometer on a car – a dog act.

Wear

Cartridges wear out, based on playing hours, condition of your vinyl and other factors like stylus shape and tracking force. I’ve written more about stylus life in this FAQ.

Therefore a typical cartridge-for-sale ad might read:

“Ortofon MC Jubilee moving coil cartridge for sale, only 50 hours!”

50 hours is almost like new for a good line-contact type stylus, perhaps only 3 – 5% worn. The ‘funny’ part, for those who think being ripped off is funny, is that people are rarely creative in terms of their usage estimates. Folks invariably settle on the 50-hour estimate, no matter how ridiculous or implausible it is that every cartridge has only 50 hours of use! Wear and usage can of course be estimated, a specialist service we offer.

Example

One should probably use a 10x multiplier with many of these listings, based on what I’ve seen over the years. Take this example from a seller in Tasmania, advertising on StereoNet here in Australia.

This Ortofon 2M Bronze moving magnet cartridge, a transducer I’m very familiar with, was listed as having only 20 hours of use, in supposedly excellent condition. One of my customers purchased it and asked me to install it on his Pioneer PL-71 direct drive turntable, after servicing the deck for him.

I realised after closely inspecting the cartridge that it was damaged and the suspension was shot. It actually looked more like it had seen 200+ hours, perhaps many more, tying in with my 10x multiplier advice. It might look like this after 20 hours playing my garden beds, but not playing good, clean vinyl.

The seller’s photos were poor and/or misleading because they lacked the resolution, detail and angles needed to clearly see the condition of this dud. Unhelpfully, the seller did not respond to my customer when he raised his concerns. This says a lot.

Moral

There is no doubt that legitimate sellers will list cartridges with “only 50 hours” use, and various other low hours numbers. Just know that near-new cartridges will look near-new – no surprises there. By and large though one should be extremely wary of these sorts of very low-hours claims.

Many sell cartridges that are damaged, with bent cantilevers, or with much higher than stated wear. They do this by obscuring details and many buyers lack the experience to know better. High-resolution inspection will, of course, tell the story. We offer this service, as do others. Just be careful and be sure to ask lots of questions, especially with much higher-priced “50-hour” carts!