I have a long-running thread on the VE forum with an open invitation for folks to send me styli of known wear hours which are starting to exhibit sound quality issues so I can image and measure the contacts. SHF member @Luca sent me two styli with known hours and I have completed the analysis and will link to images below, while @Luca will follow up with details on wear hours, setup, and observations that resulted in the styli being pulled from use. First stylus is a Grado Gold 2. Here are my images of the contacts, front view, and tip view: Front: Dropbox - Grado1.JPG - Simplify your life Left Contact: Dropbox - Grado2.JPG - Simplify your life Right Contact: Dropbox - Grado3.JPG - Simplify your life Tip: Dropbox - Grado4.JPG - Simplify your life The Front view shows a very "sharp" stylus, with a narrow contact span. The contact patches have not formed well-defined flats. Indeed I am not sure if this stylus would ever show flats in the front view, as its contact span is so narrow that it would hit groove bottom before they are formed. In this case, the span is already down to 0.36mil, which is the minimum before the tip hits bottom of an RIAA groove with max bottom radius. The contact patches are at 0.46mils, which is long enough to significantly impact FR. The patches are also very round, indicating that the facets were not cut deep enough to make an "elliptical" stylus. I'll wait for @Luca to make comments on the play hours, setup, and observations before we move on to the second stylus.
Thanks, Ray! Some details about my setup: Technics SL-1210 Mk2 with original headshell VTF 1.6 grams Antiskate at 1.3 approximately VTA 1 mm tails up compared to theoretical perfectly neutral (according to cartridge height) Alignment: Technics 52mm overhang gauge, straight in the headshell Azimuth adjusted visually and by minimizing the signal intensity when summing to mono an out of phase 300 Hz signal (purely by ear) The stylus was sent to Ray after exactly 280 hours of use (I count them precisely). It was used to play a whole variety of records: 33 and 45 RPM, old mono from the late '50s and '60s, stereo from the '50s to current pressings. All of them at least in VG+ conditions: no scratches, but some of them certainly previously played a lot. All records in my collection are washed once with an Okki Nokki + Art du son fluid + final rinse with distilled water. But I do not re-wash records, so I am not obsessive about absolute absence of dust. And I am a pipe smoker, so this can cause some contamination/dust/grime. Stylus was regularly cleaned with Ortofon brush and, once in a while, with AT607 fluid. That said... I sent the stylus to Ray because of a few alarm signs: 1) OK, nobody in their sane mind will ever think that a Grado Gold 2 is the best tracker in the world. But actually, its first 120 hours left me positively impressed. Between 120-150 hours, I started noticing increased sibilance on male vocals in certain records (some Sinatra albums stood to my attention, because they had never been particularly sibilant before), and around 200 hours IGD also started rearing its ugly head 2) When reaching the 270 hours mark, sibilance and IGD had further increased. I was also noticing a slight increase in surface noise, and a quick test with the Hi-Fi news record showed that the stylus could still track the 300 Hz "hot" tracks like before... but with some obvious crackling that wasn't there when the stylus was new. The same bursts of crackling that I was noticing now on hot transients during music, especially on high frequencies. As if the stylus very briefly lost contact with the groove walls. Now, I love the tonal quality and the midrange warmth of Grados... But the stylus life and performance has left me a bit disappointed. While 280 hours is not awful per se, it's certainly much shorter than many other stylus profiles (and makers). But already at half that lifespan, my ears were troubled by the increased sibilance and IGD. I guess that I have been spoiled by microlines, Shibatas and super fine lines... Ellipticals (especially fat bonded ones like the ones that Grado uses for the Prestige line and some of the wooden bodies too) no longer cut it for me. This has certainly put me out of my previous intention to try an Opus 3, since it has the same stylus profile: not worth it at that price. Anyway, this test seems to confirm what has been said other times in past years from inspections of this kind: 300 hours really is the maximum for a bonded cheap elliptical. Both in terms of sound quality, and for Ray's measurement which states that it was almost touching the bottom of a RIAA groove (with subsequent possible record damage). So, please, be much aware of this further confirmation instead of sticking to the old stories and marketing blurbs to the tune of "any stylus will last at least 1000 hours". Simply not true.
And I would like to add a consideration... 0.46 mil contact patches only cause frequency response degradation: the other stylus that I sent to Ray (with a more advanced profile, but I don't want to spoil the surprise) and that he will post soon has 0.20/0.23 contact patches at... 630 hours. So this Grado Gold 2 stylus has twice worse performance in terms of frequency repsonse/detail retrieval at 280 hours, compared to the more advanced stylus at MORE than twice the life. Not good, especially considering that the Grado already had some high frequency rolloff from the start (at 120 hours, it already showed -3 dB from 10 kHz upwards compared to a new AT VMN40ML stylus). But this isn't necessarily worrying: after all many people DO like that kind of high frequency rolloff, calling it "romantic", and they actively look for it in vinyl playback. I can confirm that indeed the Gold 2 is a very quiet cartridge in de-emphasizing clicks and ticks due to small scratches on records, no doubt due to this stylus profile. This "fatness" of the contact patches might not be exactly healthy to the high frequencies in the groove, since repeated play would probably wear them out from the grooves, but not necessarily... at least if tracking at light VTFs and if sibilance (mistracking) doesn't appear yet. But for sure, it debunks Grado's statement of a 10-60000 Kz frequency response: there's absolutely no way that such a stylus profile could resolve 60 kHz, not when new and definitely not when worn. What worries me is "its contact span is so narrow that it would hit groove bottom before they are formed. In this case, the span is already down to 0.36mil, which is the minimum before the tip hits bottom of an RIAA groove with max bottom radius". And from the images, I am not sure that this is completely due to the 280 hours wear of the stylus that I sent to Ray. Looks more like a really bad design/shaping/cut of the Grado diamond to start with. Again, we'll see that the other stylus has MUCH better clearance of the groove bottom, even after 630 hours.
The suspense is over! Here's the second stylus, a Nagaoka MP-500. This one was so interesting that I created a composite image as I've done on the Stylus Wear thread to show the relationship between the measurements. As @Luca says, this one has seemingly excellent characteristics, with very short (play direction) contact lengths even after fairly long play times. The shape is similar to a Shibata but the facets are polished smooth and roughened. I don't have zero-hour images to see how long the contacts are to start, but even after 630 hours they are still short enough for full FR on inner grooves. The contact span is 0.46mil, still far away from groove bottom. A very robust stylus IMO. You can view the composite image here: Dropbox - Nagaoka MP-500.jpg - Simplify your life
Thanks, Ray! For the MP-500 @630 hours: Technics SL-1210 Mk2 with original headshell VTF 1.65/1.7 grams Antiskate was at 2.2 for approximately 300 hours, then I reduced it to 1.6 for the remaining 330 hours 1.3 approximately VTA as neutral from cartridge height (perfectly perpendicular front to record surface) A great cartridge, IMHO. I sent it to Ray even if it was still fine to my ears, for the purpose of science. At 630 hours, I was only noticing a VERY slight increase of sibilance on the hottest of records. And, a very hint of "fizz" on the highest frequencies, again on hot records. Still very very good performance overall, though! But I didn't want to wait until it was completely shot. I wanted to see it at a respectable "mileage", but not when it was too late. Since I have had experience of microlines already completely worn at 550 hours, I was wondering how far the Nagaoka would be from its end of life. I guess that this fineline stylus (which, I agree, looks like a Shibata) would be fine for 800 hours, maybe even 1000 hours on very clean records and if setup correctly. Which makes it a winner not only compared to the Grado above, but also compared to other advanced styli I have tried (namely: Audio Technica 440 MLa, and Ortofon 2M Black). Oh, and if you are in the US: since I already have a new Nagaoka stylus, it would not be worth the shipping cost and the customs duties to have it shipped back to Italy. So if someone has a Nagaoka body and wants to try it, contact Ray!
Very interesting results and subjective observations. Makes me wonder about the hearing abilities of those that claim such long life from those bonded Grado models.
Yes, it's not to bash Grado. But subjectively, to my ears, the sibilance of the Gold 2 was unbearable at 150 hours already, on some albums. I only listen through headphones, so I might be some sort of hypercritical listener... but still...
And considering current local prices for replacement, turns out that both styli on the long run have exactly the SAME cost in terms of EUR/useful hours: around 0.55 EUR/h! So... again, basic ellipticals are not the cost saving bargain that they seem. (and that's not counting that you can actually get the Nagaoka from Japan at HALF the western prices)
It's a great result. I'm actually stunned at how nicely this stylus has worn at 630 hours. The shape of the contacts is superb.
I am happy that it's useful to someone, that was the purpose! My personal crusade, as a heavy buyer of used records and hoping that they have been played on healthy styli by the previous owner(s), is for people to learn how to judge correctly when their cartridges need a stylus replacement. Too many people insist on "my stylus has only 1000 hours, so it can go on for a while", and causing damage (even if not immediately and dramatically noticeable). We have seen people trusting blindly too optimistic estimations (and who would need their ears checked, not only their styli), or on the other hand some paranoia leading to "at 300 hours you have to replace it anyway regardless of the stylus profile and quality". I hope that this test proved that... it depends, and it can really vary A LOT.
Absolutely! While no two styli are the same (and it also depends on alignment...), unless you hear increase of sibilance or high frequencies fuzz/congestion, or surface noise, you can definitely wait. The good thing about that profile, is that it doesn't suddenly become a chisel like a microline: it smudges high frequencies first, much before becoming dangerous to the groove.
any chance we could get some input from @needlestein on what the mp500 diamond might be? ive seen the nagaoka 7/72 shibata advertised for retips, but after 630 hours, the minor radius on this hasnt hit 6um yet if im converting this correctly. what might this be starting at?
Running one (VMN40ML)... But it will take at least a year to reach a significant number of hours. Previously I had the 440MLa, and I replaced it at 530 hours (sudden strong increase of distortion in the inner grooves), but it must be said that I had been using it with dirty records for some time before buying a washing machine, so that may have shortened its life a bit.
I have a question(s) for you guys... How many times can a AT OC9XSL ride across the paper label after it jumps the parking groove? I have a couple "new" albums that do this :-/ I should have marked the vinyl sides with a big red X but I didn't. So how many times can that happen and what will happen the last time? How many hours can one expect a AT OC9XSL to last? 1000+?
Those pics are so cool. How is that photo taken? I have a cheapish Chinese scope that cant come close tot that.
Having observed many wear patterns with a stylus microscope I was continually amazed by the wear rate of many styli. They differ a great deal.
It's eye opening that even 2 LPs a day can wear out a micro line stylus in a year or so. But if a 40ml really goes 1K like AT says, would be nice to see. My current 40ml is 2.5 years old but still sounds good. I swap carts a lot though. Also you mentioned a sudden change on the ML. I've read this before. MLs let you know.
