Miyabi 47 cartridge: How many hours does it last ?

I would expect a cartridge with 1000 hours will soon need retipping. I don't have any experience with Miyabi, but I have had 3 Benz cartridges that each showed signs of distress at the 900 to 1000 mark. Most recently, my Benz LP was having trouble playing records cleanly that it had easily played before. It still sounded good but it didn't sound as clean as it did previously on some records. I sent it off to SoundSmith for inspection and Peter reported that it had significant wear. He retipped it and it now tracks cleanly and still sounds great. This was with a cartridge that had been treated very carefully its entire life.

Bottom line---I would be suspicious of any cartridge with a claimed usage of 1000 hours. It may still be a good deal but I would plan on sending it off to a retipper like SoundSmith for an inspection to make sure it isn't so worn that you are damaging your records by using it.

I have had two cartridges re-tipped by Soundsmith and BOTH were total disasters.Both were Denon 304s. The first I loaned to a surgeon friend and the cantilever broke off in the first week of use. I thought it could have been his fault so I later had another done; the suspension failed after a week and REPEATED messages to them have never received a response. It looks to be in perfect shape but simply collapses when lowered on the record. I have had some other experienced audiophiles look at it under microscopes and they can't figure out what is wrong either. I sent an AT OC 9 back for a retip [$150] and they simply said it had half its life left, cleaned it and charged me $75. I would liked to have made that decision myself. In about 50 years the only cartridge I ever recall damaging myself was during a group marathon listening session at 2 AM and I knew it the moment I did it. I will go elsewhere next time.

Is this Miyabi 47 really a cartridge made from Takeda??? Some say, it is not.
Takeda himself does no more repairs, when you find out who made it, Service
shouldn't be a problem. Btw. the Miyabi Standard works very will with all kind of
Arms and is really outstanding from sonics. Takeda used that body for a few
manufacturers, Cello, Krell, Mark Levinson, Red Rose ... but he said, the
Standard was his own voicing, he sold it for his own and it was sonically his
best design...

Dear Syntax,'it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks (sounds) like a duck, it probable is a duck'. But I understand when 'someone' pay the full price for his
Miyabi Standard this 'someone' does not like to hear that someone else got the same 'duck' for 1/4 of the price. I am grateful for your advice to look for this 'duck' but
we from the Balkans enjoy in particular such kind of coincidence. Some of us need to 'enjoy' such a 'pleasure' for the rest of our life. I bought this Krell KC 100 a la Raul: 'one never knows'. Beside with the (metal) box I was staggered by the looks: 'looks like a duck'...etc.
I was even more flabbergasted by the sound by my first test in my second system which function as my labaratory. After 20 min. this cart was the first to make the promotion to my main system. 'It' (the duck) got the company of my Reed 2A and substituted the previous occupant the Phase Tech P-3G. If I only can find the Cello which looks to me like a real beauty.
Regards,

I bought a levinson mlc-1 in 1997 re tipped by Van den Hull for cheap.Since that time it has worked perfectly ,last year a new re tipping from Van den Hull again (around 1000 hours since the last time). No problem with suspension...
In an interview read on dagogo, Takeda said that levinson give him the idea for the shape of the cartridge.
I use it on a big plinthed lenco with high end bearing...OL conqueror mk II and am totally amazed by the sound of a 32 years old cartridge.