Do Turntable Cartridges wear out?

[Winstone]

I have an old Kenwood turntable and the sound quality slowly deminished to where it sounded like I needed a new needle. Music was thin and sounded like a dirty needle. It has a Shure M97he cartridge. I purchased a new needle and installed it, but there was no improvement in the sound?

Can the cartridge itself wear out? Could it be something with the electronics that has worn out?

Oh i also tried purchasing a new RAII (?) conversion box but that did not provide any benefit either. I also tried different inputs in the back of the reciever which made no difference. When i play the radio or a cd the system sounds fine.

Thanks for your help.

 

[markw]

Sure,it's conceiveablethat the rubber parts in a cartridge could dryup and wear out but that takes a really,really long time. I've heard of catridges over thurty years old still running fine. Generallya new stylus will cure any problems.

As for that "Trying different inputs", well,one can only use the designated phono input on a receiver. That input contains extra amplification and special equalization designed specifically for phono cartridges, nothing else. Likewise, a phono cartridge will sound like drek if you use a different input.

It DOES have a dedicated phono input, doesn;t it?

 

[Winstone]

I am using a separate phonopreamp. It is a TC-750LC model preamp, so it should work with any of the reciever inputs.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have an old Kenwood turntable and the sound quality slowly deminished to where it sounded like I needed a new needle. Music was thin and sounded like a dirty needle. It has a Shure M97he cartridge. I purchased a new needle and installed it, but there was no improvement in the sound?

Can the cartridge itself wear out? Could it be something with the electronics that has worn out?

Oh i also tried purchasing a new RAII (?) conversion box but that did not provide any benefit either. I also tried different inputs in the back of the reciever which made no difference. When i play the radio or a cd the system sounds fine.

Thanks for your help.

The shell only contains the coils. So they are either open circuit or not. So they do not wear out, but you can get a wiring break and you get no sound at all on that channel.

Did you purchase a genuine Shure replacement? All off brands are highly suspect.

Are you using a phono preamp or plugging into a phono RIAA input?

If you are using an external preamp, you need to plug into a line level input.

If you are not using an external preamp, then you must use a high gain RIAA equalized phono input.

If you are using a preamp, then that may well have failed. If you are using a phono input, then the phono stage may have failed.

You absolutely do need to use a genuine Shure stylus replacement, and not some cheap copy made in China.

Finally make sure your arm is not out of adjustment.

 

[Winstone]

Ok I took a look at it last night. Started by reseating all the little wires. It turned out that i could take the cartridge apart just by sliding the insides out of the aluminum casing. Then I found the problem, it was all full of green corrosion from the brass/copper components. So i took some alcohol and cleaned it all up.

I put it back together and tried a record. I sounded great for about 30 seconds then slowly started sounding worse and worse.

So, i went out today and bought a Grado Black.

 

[TLS Guy]

Ok I took a look at it last night. Started by reseating all the little wires. It turned out that i could take the cartridge apart just by sliding the insides out of the aluminum casing. Then I found the problem, it was all full of green corrosion from the brass/copper components. So i took some alcohol and cleaned it all up.

I put it back together and tried a record. I sounded great for about 30 seconds then slowly started sounding worse and worse.

So, i went out today and bought a Grado Black.

I have never seen that happen, in 50 years of dealing with cartridges. Is you system located in a very damp humid area, and possibly an area with a lot of pollution.

A normal environment does not do that to a copper coil. However I have seen it in loudspeakers stored in damp basements.

My hunch is that there is a major problem in the environment where your turntable is located.