The arm and cartridge are about 4 months old and so more than 100 hours of playing.@ationg how long have you had it? my Audio Note ioGold is thrilling on the Safir and it is quite detailed. The wire burnt in and then disappeared as far as I can tell. I am so pleased I was thinking on writing a post about just how good I am finding the Safir to be. I would have about 200 hours of actual playing time on the arm by now.