I emailed Grado this exact question and they replied there was no need to change cartridges because of this. They said you hear a loss of hi frequencies when you need to change cartridges.
typical "shelf-life" of phono cartridges?
Just wondering if there's a rule-of-thumb for the useful shelf life of phono cartridges.. I bought an fairly inexpensive Grado model PZE+(?) P-mount MM cartridge about 7 or 8 years ago which has seen very light use. It still sounds fine to my ears, but can the age alone degrade the sound? and to what degree? Thanks, jz