Not all manufacturers make cartridges in the same way. For a start they are looking at where they want to be cost wise in the market place, so you always need to be guided by their recommendations. Here is a summary i have distilled from the posts.
Rega up to a Max of 1000hrs.
Ortofon up to 2000hrs.
Lyra 2500hrs.
VDH 3000hrs.
Dynavector They have Multiple cartridges 8yrs old and stylus is fine.
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I am using an ATVM95 Shibata on my Rega P8 and using a Stylus Timer with it.
AT rate the stylus at 800 hours (which is very low and my dealer thinks way off) but will see.
Currently beyond the 700 hour mark and sounds great. Hope to get well over 1000 and see where it goes.
I also have a Reson Mica on my P3 which has been on it for nearly 20 years - sent it to my dealer last year to look at and he says it was very clean and looked almost like new 
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Thatās pretty cool but their website is shipping only to US and Canada. Do you know of a dealer in Europe, couldnāt find any. (Found what looks like the same hardware for 3.38 EUR on Amazon, but that one is programmed as a kitchen countdown timer)
Although thinking about it, I am quite sure I will remember to press start but occasionally forget to press stop, which kind of defeats the purpose. The clickers seem safer for me, I already ordered one. Great idea and thanks to whoever suggested it further up!
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I bought mine from Analogue Seduction but several seller have them no on eBay.
I bought mine before launch in the U.K., after speaking the the guy in the U.K. who developed it and speaking to Tonar in Europe.
Itās like a timer but it only counts up in hours - and I like the obsessive nature of being able to track the use . I also keep a listening diary for all my listening in any system abs device - every so often I write the number of hours at the bottom of the page and if I forget to stop it, roughly work out how long it run and do the equivalent amount of listening until I am back on track
Thanks, yeah I get itās like a timer, looks very much that itās the same one as the one on Amazon, just programmed to count hours up than minutes/seconds down, and with a sticker put on. Though what you describe is what I fear, guess Iāll stick with the clicker. But thanks anyway, it is quite cool
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I think a timer has a lot going for it but we really need to start it at the time you fit the cartridge. For MM you dont really need to do anything at all these are going to have a stylus quality and cost that is relatable to the cartridge cost so wear shedding etc can well happen faster. But just popping in a replacement stylus you have on hand will tell you everything you need to know. For me being an OBSESSIVE tester part playing multiple sections of tracks i spend 3 times as much doing this than actual listening, the timer would be running while i am fiddling things and not recording playing time. There will still be the question of wear versus hours to consider.
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Nerd alert.
After replacing my Kandid late in 2019, I was keen to get a sense of how the sound evolved during the break-in period. I also wanted to get a realistic idea of the lifespan of the cartridge, and to find out what my actual usage of my system was. If nothing else, this would give me an idea of running costs, if I ever get to a point where I want to think about downgrading.
To this end I set up a spreadsheet with columns for date, record, and time, and I began logging every record I listened to. Itās mildly tedious, but also gratifying to occasionally skim through it to see what Iāve been listening to. It dovetails with another project, adding my records to my Discogs collection. Iām about 1/3 of the way through that and, at my current rate, itāll be at least a couple of years before I finish.
Covid has put a big wrench in my listening habits (kids at home all the time, etc.). Anyway, being sensitive to break-in / burn-in, Iāve heard varying estimates of not just the expected life of my Kandid, but also how long it takes for the break-in to complete. My dealer has said that it can be 150 hours before break-in is fully complete i.e. the point beyond which even the tiniest incremental improvement has stopped happening. If this is true, then it was only in late December that I reached this point. And if my listening continues at the current reduced rate, and assuming Iāll get 1,000 hours out of my Kandid ā and I think thatās very conservative ā I can expect to get 7 or so years out of it.
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If the 1000hr figure mentioned on here is true then at current listening levels it wonāt last 2 years ā¦
I have to say though I both hope, and expect it to last longer.
Presently I listen to 2 LPās per evening.
I also log my listening using the āNotesā App on my phone. Just a simple numbered list with the number of albums multiplied by 45 minutes. While not accurate to the minute it gives a decent ballpark figure.
I havenāt started logging hours until recently, but I suspect Iāve gotten closer to 2,000 hours out of the various Linn MCs Iāve used down the years. That said, I usually get a mild telling-off from my dealer each time I bring my turntable in because Iāve let the cartridge go beyond the optimum replacement point (I typically have my LP12 rebuilt and cartridge replaced at 5 year intervals).
I would rather not but in to your comradarie but the Kandid is A hugely Expensive Line Contact MC. Where is the reasoning Kandid life is a 1000hrs. There is no mention on this forum of life of a Linn cartridge. In fact you could just as easily guess at the VDH figure of 3000hrs. Probably more accurate. This shows how easy it is for forums to get derailed. If the rumour is true that the Linn cartridges are made by Lyra 2500hrs is the figure listed here for Lyra.
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The break in requirement is due to the suspension being set fractionally tight so after the initial give the Generator is in correct alightment if it sounds fine after 10hrs you may never notice further break in. Correct alightment is centre of recommended tracking force and many people track outside this figure so this setting can be slightly out regardless.
For your entertainment, this is what Nagaoka says on their website (nagaoka dot eu):
The stylus replacement interval varies depending on the using conditions. But for general use at home, the reference time is between 150-200 hours in which the stylus begin to wear and the tone quality deteriorates. Recommend replacing the stylus as aerly as possible to enjoy clear tone for a long time and not to damge the disc grooves.
A new Kandid every 4 to 5 months for me then!
With 100-150 hours run-in time 
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Crikey thatās quite a cost per listen
Wondering what Koetsu recommends for their Tiger Eye, Coralstone, and Blue Lace models starting at 12,500 euros 
(found nothing on their website)
I think the break-in time will vary from one cartridge to another, depending on the details of its design and manufacture. With my current Kandid, I noticed progression up to around the 50 hour mark, not much after that.
I do not know how that got past the Sales Dept! Japanese when trying to convey meaning to English often loose the plot. As a cartridge starts to wear from the first hour it deteriorates so
it is actually correct. Relevance of wear either means something to the Maker or the User but it would require a microscope analyisis and a declaration of some sort regarding life span rather than the meaningless info on their website.
That said i am a bit interested in Nagaokas Flag Ship MM, MP-500. 760GBP (see Hi Fi choice No 467) I cant say now i am as confidant as i was, but it does have a bolt in Stylus.
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They are heavy trackers. I think Koetsu place themselves above mere mortals regarding
such matters, a bit like Rolls Royce used to.
If you have a VDH cartridge you send it back to him after 250hrs and he resets the suspension he does not charge for this.
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