Cartridge shelf life?


I finally have the time and place to set up my black big disc system again.My Question is simply this - I have a Linn Asak that has literally been sitting for about 10 years - tip was OK when put away. Also have a Sumiko BluePoint High output MC that has been siting for almost the same amount of time - very low hours - tip would be fine.Yesterday I bought a Grado Prestige Blue 1 - new in the box.
I have plenty of originally bought new LP's that are still very listenable because I have been very careful about what ground it's way around the LP - would hate to damage my collection with defective cartridge.
Finally - the basic question is this - the elastomer support ( think rubber/plastic donut) that the stylus tube rides inside of - how subject to becoming either stiffer/more brittle or softening are these materials - if simply left siting - not used ? Is it reasonable to even try these closet queen carts or am I better off simply instaling the known good cart?
Table is a LP-12 Valhalla and RB-300 arm.
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Showing 3 responses by stonedeaf

Photon - your advice made sense.Very pleased with the test.Blue point and RB-300 were ready to go. Had to find the new belt I purchased some years ago for the LP-12 - cleaned bearing out and reloaded oil - yah -some surface noise - but really not bad.And probably the first intrusion of reality was 'Yah know - some of these always sounded pretty awful" - nothing to do with the cart - bad engineering sounds bad at the start and never improves.
The very good news is this will open up another 1500 or so pieces of music to be enjoyed again.Especially since some groups/performances never made it onto shiny small disc or did so with absolutely terrible A-D transfers.
Here's what I'm using: LP-12 Valhala ,RB-300,Sumiko Blue Point, B&K Phono 10 digi out to Benchmark DAC-1, Quicksilver KT-88's and out Paradigm Studio 20 v3's.
Morning update - installed Grado Prestige Blue 1 - very nice - tracks way better than the Grado's I used to sell and install by the thousands decades ago.
Always got a absolute charge out of these cartridges - simply amazing amount of music released for relatively tiny amounts of money - it's always nice when a old audio dog finds that some things change - but for the better !