In your case, the limiting factor will not be wear on the stylus…it is more likely to be degradation of the suspension, and much less predictable. Rega do not use rubber/foam damping in at least some of their MCs, so this is much less of a factor in these cartridges.
My advice is leave it. If you reckon you put in 500 hrs plus, listen again. It’s usually the treble area that may sound corse . Obviously if you keep the needle clean , records clean and stuff sounds a bit ragged it’s probably time to change . Btw I recommend the at 95 microline or shibata cartridges
Asgaard’s Dynavector XX2 mk II has just died after 8 years. No sibilance, just a dead LH channel and very twitchy suspension.
I have owned 5 different cartridges during the past 45 years so I guess my estimate is that the empirical time between replacement is 9 years on average if you, like me, play 2-3 LPs a day. With one exception I replaced them when they wore out. As others have said, it’s not that difficult to tell when a cartridge is going south; for me, it is the distortion due to tracking issues. Apart from stylus wear, the compliance of cantilever can also change slightly over time.
So I guess the rule of thumb I get from this thread is about 5 years, or 10 years if you stay on your OCD medication.
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