I dodged a bullet

Yesterday morning, I fired up the TT for a bit, listening to Heart's "Little Queen" on CBS Mastersounds half-speed mastered pressing. Sounded fine.

I went out in the afternoon, did some shopping, went to dinner, came home, turned on the TT for Elton John's "Honky Chateau" and...

Right channel is nearly dead.

Lots of hum, barely able to hear anything. Left channel was fine. CD, tuner and tape all played okay. Switched the phono cable left to right and right to left. Aha. Now the left channel is near-dead. This narrows it down to the cable, mute switch, TT wiring, or cartridge. I put in my old OM 20, and there was no hum at all.

I put the OM 10 Super back in, and I pull out my DMM and measure for resistance at the end of the phono cable. 1.01kOhms on the right, 1.03kOhms on the left. Nominal is 1kOhms. Plugged it back in, turned on the amp and..

Everything's fine.

It looks like the current from the DMM cleared up an intermittent somewhere in the OM 10 Super. Not a good forecast. My OM 20 is 20 years old and still okay, this OM 10 Super was new August 2005. I guess they don't make things like they used to, even in Denmark. Oh, well. If the OM 10 Super dies, at least I'll be able to fall back on the OM 20.

When I look on Ortofon's site, there are only five OMs still being made:
OM5E
OM D25M (mono)
OM 78 (78rpm mono)
OMP 5E (p-mount)
OMP 10 (p-mount)

Ortofon magnetic cartridge line 2007

The LM/OM series is headed for the history books after 25+ years, and the 2M series is replacing it. MSRP for the cheapest, the 2M Red, is $99. The mass for these is incredible: 7.2g vs the OM series 2.5 (no weight) or 5g (added weight), but reviews are quite good.
LP Gear has the OM 10 Super for $69, but I have no idea how many are left in the pipeline.
Intermittents, in my experience, don't heal themselves, so yes, I think it's only a matter of time until the 10 quits for good.