How does everyone keep track of their stylus hours?

I have a hand held tally counter clicker thingy which I click every time I play a side.
I know my Jico lasts about 500 hours useage and an LP side is on average around 20 mins. 1500 clicks and time's up.
Of course, if my ears tell me differently, I'll replace it sooner. I trust them over everything else.

 

I have a little "clicker" that hit every time I finish a side. I estimate a side to be 15-20 minutes on average, so I can get a reasonable accurate count on my hours.

 

Another vote for the small clicker -- painless, automatic, and confirmed to me over the years what others here attest, my own memory of usage is really not that accurate. When time comes to buy or sell, I know exactly how many sides I've played.

 

Sorry, maybe I'm wrong, but I think all this obsession with amount of hours including "clicker thing" really taking all the fun out of this hobby.
I usually replace a stylus when I feel that sound starting to degrade, for example when I start hearing more surface noise especially on the old less than perfect records. Usually takes about 1,5 - 2 years with my listening habits.

 

I count sides with a clicker too.

 

That's what I do but with a free iPhone app. One tick per side, total number x 20 /60 and presto total hours on the stylus

 

I used a counter app to log sides of an LP... I couldn't maintain it, unfortunately, as I like to play songs as well as sides (perhaps like a 7" regimen). While living with Ortofon for over 7 years now, but it is hard for me to gauge sound because age of a stylus is so gradual. i now just go by a general range of years.

 

I allow an average of 10 hours a week stylus usage....I work shifts,so sometimes I binge,other times I am in denial...I also transfer £20.00 monthly into a separate savings account.....if the performance seems to have dropped off at anytime after two years usage,the funds are there for replacement..If it lasts three years plus, the funds are still there,but with an option for upgrade.

 

One of my turntables has Stylus Hours as a Feature : SANYO PLUS Q60

Of course I have it in storage and don't worry about such things anymore - if I hear something like IGD I change the stylus.

 

Every time I play a side I scratch a mark into my ultra rare Beatles Sgt. Pepper pressing mastered by Francios McOgally - very rare and valuable. Record actually sounds better!

 

Based on my listening habits I play about 4LPs a day on average. At roughly 40 minutes per LP (160 minutes total) x 7 days in the week, that equates to a little under 19 hours per week or 970 hours in the course of a year. I have tended to change my cartridges about every 2 years, so I'm due.

 

I inspect my styli every 3 months via microscope. Or if mistracking noted. And when the first wear flats get noted, I replace the stylus (and put the old one aside, flagged with "useful life, but first wear flats noted)

 

Good idea. Back in the day (the '50s and '60s that is), most hi-fi shops sold a pen-size stylus loupe of one sort or another. It was easy to inspect a stylus once a month (or once a week if someone was really picky). A good, 8X or 10X jewellers' loupe today costs $20-$40 depending on optical quality. It takes no more than 30 seconds to examine a stylus to determine if there are any unusual flats, chips or nicks. Marking time doesn't really make as much sense to me as doing a brief physical inspection once a month. I've got a permanent reminder in my calendar app.

 

Wouldn't you need quite the powerful microscope to inspect effectively? I remember seeing that on another thread from a few years ago. I have a 60-120x pocket scope and I'm not sure if that is good enough. I have used it to inspect my stylus, but not really sure what to look for. I also got a little 30x loupe, which i use to check for dirt and such between lp's (if there is any I clean it).

 

That would translate to about playing 6,000 record sides!

I never really thought about that one before from this perspective.

I doubt that I will be wearing out my Ortofon stylus, anytime soon.

 

I just use an old Shure microscope their dealers used many years ago. Not too fancy. Many of those USB jobs will do just fine.

 

A 10x jeweller's loupe is more than sufficient, as mentioned in an earlier post. You look for nicks, chips and flattened/worn facets. It's very simple.

 

I installed a hour meter in my air pressure control device (APCD) just because I could. It counts minutes and hours that the TT is actually running, not the time the stylus is actually in the groove. Still it works for me. That's the actual air pressure needed to float the Trans-Fi Terminator tonearm BTW.

 

I like to use an official FIDE approved chess timer. Of course, if you are using a Dual as I often do, you really should be using clocks manufactured in Germany. If you are using a Linn then stick with clocks made in the United Kingdom. I'm sure our members understand the importance of same-country correlation with these kinds of things.

 

This is what I use.

 

This is a good idea, if the clock goes to 1000 hours.

 

I asked the same question a while back on here and got a number of great responses. The "best" way that was suggested to me was to log what I played and calculate time based on that. I am an advanced user of Microsoft Excel so using that made sense. That said, I know I don't have the discipline to fire up Excel every time I play a LP so I passed on that.

I ended up buying a "click counter" on Ebay - the kind they use at Costco to keep track of people who are entering the store. It's a cheap mechanical counter and I register one "click" per side of a LP played. I use 25 minutes as my average playing time per side (you could use any "average" number you thought was representative) and that makes keeping track of time fairly simple. I bought one counter for each of my turntables and it's working well for me. YMMV. Hope you find something that works well for you! Happy listening

 

I find this to be an important question. I've had my cartridge (Ortofon 2M Red) since last christmas and I wonder when it's time to replace the needle. I listen daily but I'm in college so on the weekdays it's not as much spinning as it is in the weekends, but when I get home I spin as many LPs as possible until 21:00. I think I'm good though as it has only been like 3 months since Christmas.

 

Excel