Not sue what what is the question, any great cartridge i have bought and mounted was great from the start or it was bad from the start.
I pay attention to all the settings when i mount any cartridge. However, we need a few days or even a week to listen and compare one cartridge to another. We must be in a certain mood. So raving about a cartridge sound in the first 10 hrs of listening is probably too early anyway. We're always biased by new toys and we want to believe it is great.
Cardas LP can be used for burn-in, you can leave your new cartridge on that record for a night to speed up things.
I can’t recall any cartridge that wasn’t good from the start and became superior just because of the burn-in process. There might be some minor changes for previously unused cartridges, but the cartridge will not change it’s character (sound signature) that much (from bad to good).
The best vintage cartridges made with LC-OFC or PC-OCC coil wires and pins does not oxidize even after 30 years. I have compared regular Grace and Grace LEVEL II LC-OFC (and F14 LC-OFC) the cartridge pins on regular version are always oxidized while the LC-OFC are always clean and not oxidized. The Audio-Technica PC-OCC is more advanced technology. If you’re worry about cartridge generator just look for the models made with LC-OFC or PC-OCC wire.
Some third-party styli for vintage cartridges are just 100% junk compared to the originals, except for the Jico SAS, but even JICO does not sound right on many cartridges and easily can be surpassed by the original stylus (if it’s Beryllium, Ruby or Boron Pipe with profiles like MicroLine or MicroRidge).
I pay attention to all the settings when i mount any cartridge. However, we need a few days or even a week to listen and compare one cartridge to another. We must be in a certain mood. So raving about a cartridge sound in the first 10 hrs of listening is probably too early anyway. We're always biased by new toys and we want to believe it is great.
Cardas LP can be used for burn-in, you can leave your new cartridge on that record for a night to speed up things.
I can’t recall any cartridge that wasn’t good from the start and became superior just because of the burn-in process. There might be some minor changes for previously unused cartridges, but the cartridge will not change it’s character (sound signature) that much (from bad to good).
The best vintage cartridges made with LC-OFC or PC-OCC coil wires and pins does not oxidize even after 30 years. I have compared regular Grace and Grace LEVEL II LC-OFC (and F14 LC-OFC) the cartridge pins on regular version are always oxidized while the LC-OFC are always clean and not oxidized. The Audio-Technica PC-OCC is more advanced technology. If you’re worry about cartridge generator just look for the models made with LC-OFC or PC-OCC wire.
Some third-party styli for vintage cartridges are just 100% junk compared to the originals, except for the Jico SAS, but even JICO does not sound right on many cartridges and easily can be surpassed by the original stylus (if it’s Beryllium, Ruby or Boron Pipe with profiles like MicroLine or MicroRidge).