How old is your cartridge?

I have 3 actively used vintage Cartridges, and 2 new.

1, Shure V15VxMR from 1996, 24 years old. It replaced my prior V15VMR with worn stylus.

x version: I soon broke the original brittle beryllium shaft of the styus, left it unused for many many years, last year I learned about Jico here, revived it with Jico SAS stylus, it’s now on tonearm #2 (new MC on tonearm #1). Jico has a brush, for dust, it is not damped like the Shure brush.

I gave my earlier V15VMR body to a friend

2. AT440ML, from around the same years, lets say 20 years old. Compared to Shure, great, but the Shure brush feature was the deciding factor. (my hot air system circulated dust, and the brush damping feature solved my springy floors vibration).

I just added a TT in my office, no dust or vibration problem, the AT440ML with it’s original and barely used stylus sounds great here.

3. Shure M95xe. During the many years of CD bedazzlement, V15VxMR out of commission, cost of replacement stylus ridiculous, I bought this M97xe, same brush advantages. I occasionally played old dirty LP’s with this elliptical, again for it’s brush feature. It is a mighty fine elliptical, sounds surprisingly good. It’s stylus should be replaced.

Got back into LP’s, some new, finally properly cleaned my old ones, used the M95xe a lot, stylus now needs replacement.

Relocated TT to location where springy floor is not a problem, reduced dust circulation. Upgraded the whole thing to Vintage TT, 3 tonearms: new long arm for new MC cartridge; Vintage Shure/Jico in the back for comparison of MM to MC, MC won, and to play ’not sonically special’ ’test for sale’ LPs (avoid wear to MC Stylus) (I need space, selling LP’s on eBay); 3rd, left arm for new Mono cartridge.

I’m both extremely happy and proud of my TT, it’s shown in the last photo of my LP listings

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133612076659

Deteriorated Suspension: I was concerned, decided not to buy a used MC cartridge primarily because of suspension concerns.

I got surprisingly lucky with my 20 year old/hardly used AT440ML, I was expecting to experience problems.

I have a shop light with 30 power glass. Shocking at first sight, the aluminum cantilever was black, even more crud heading toward the intersection with the body. I figured, what the heck, nothing to lose: grab the alcohol, a brush, and my compressor (aimed carefully).

Alcohol didn't do it, seemed like I would need automotive brake cleaner. I grabbed my nearby contact cleaner, even then it took 5 rounds to get all the crud off the cantilever. I figured, the suspension might have been bad, these chemicals must have done harm.

Surprise, the damn thing sounds terrific. Downstairs slightly beats my Shure/Jico SAS, and nearly as good as new AT33PTG/II MC.

It's here in my office sounding terrific.

My first MC, I was going to go for the anniversary limited AT1000MC, but suspension concerns made me go for a new AT. These new AT's have the same performance specs as it had, why risk it?