How many hours our cartridges will be in perfect conditions?
Shure tell 800/1000 hours
Some tell more than 2.000 and some maximo 1.500 hours
This nobody knows
Do you have one idea?
I am not sure but I tend to sway towards the idea that 1500 to 2000 is possible in the right scenario ( clean records, well setup, well made sample ).
I know what your thread title means, but to me the cart is never perfect but goes through changes its whole life so we need to enjoy the times when the cart really 'sings'!
vdh claims, that the most carts he repairs after certain hours died to early due to much to high Antiskating values, his pictures are a good document for this matter. Means the answer is, the max hours for a cart are a function of the correct installation as well.
The type of Diamant cut is important as well. It is well known, that some of the Gyger cuts are not good for many hours,
on the other hand also the simple cut Diamond of the Denon DL 103 is loosing the performance very fast.
A second matter is the rubber used. To my knowledge Koetsu is voiced and build with aged rubber parts, so a Koetsu will play constant over the time of use. Other manufacturers use new rubbers, so the aging of the rubber will change the sound.
Imagine the different rubber aging process in hot/cold/high, low humidity rooms.
In high humidity rooms rust becomes the next problem, mainly on the iron parts of the coil...
Iron Dust is the next variable to "kill" a cart over time.
(makes the magnetic parts over time black and heavy)
In a nut shell, what I want to say is, that there are many variables out there,
so some carts will play 1000 hours, some 3000 hours, depending on the individual situation.