The Finish Line for your Phono Cartridge- Stylus Wear by Mike Bodell

I dont think we ever came to a conclusion regarding if brand new styli cause more wear. It makes sense anyway. I dont get your wording of "produced by wear" however.

 

Am finishing the selection process for a collection of 3000 vinyl records bought as a set. The original collector had a system in place where, if it was a record he listened to regularly, he would turn the inner sleeve sideways and the record was easily removable. After previewing a bunch of these...
...YOU GUESSED IT...
All of the regularly-heard records have groove damage -- so much so that they get thrown away immediately.
SO this collector was highly intelligent and wealthy, had great taste and superb audiophile equipment, and did not bother to replace his worn-out cartridge.
Suspect the professionals on this site see this a lot.

 

Oh yeah buddy, not uncommon at all.

You wont believe some people. One I know purchased an RCM because they cared about their records. I played one of their LPs and within just a minute the whole stylus is covered in grime. Turns out they didnt think you need to clean the white velvet strips, which were brown from gunk, rinse the machine, or even empty the tank. Some people think just spending enough money solves everything. He hasnt replaced his stylus in 2 years either and I can hear the distortion every time I visit.
Needless to say we dont borrow records from eachother anymore. Its too bad, he has some nice records.

 

This doesn't surprise me at all. I've heard stories like this before. The problem is stylus wear is like a frog boiling in water and our hearing diminishes as we age. By the time they guy would notice a problem, it was probably way too late for those records. Too bad.

 

A few years back the owner of the local record shop asked me to take a look at a collection he had just acquired. The records and sleeves looked near mint. The music was 1970s Eno and Fripp in type, original issues. He asked me to take a few home, clean them and tell me what I thought. I did that on a VPI17.

When I played the first record, I instantly knew something was amiss. After skipping tracks, it hit me. These records were played with a severely worn stylus. All were like that, every last one of them.

The shop owner, a friend of mine, kept some of the sleeves, but the lot of lps made a trip to the dump. Super shame.

That experience helped nudge me towards understanding stylus wear, diamond life spans, and ultimately record groove damage.

 

Not yet. I did just finish some work in another thread that included some captures, so maybe I'll go back and finish the work on this.

It does seem logical that modulated grooves would produce rounded-edge wear, but every stylus I've imaged with significant wear has flat contact patches. Maybe spectral density is at play? You'd especially think that the RIAA curve would enhance the effect, but the result is still the same...flat wear, which indeed seems counter-intuitive.

 

Id love to hear it.

And yes that seems counter intuitive, it must mean that most grooves just are touching the very sides. Maybe it does make sense considering thats where you ideally want the contact to be, otherwise distortion would occur. Perhaps if one only plays challenging passages with distortion that would create other wear patterns.

 

I think it is simply a function of the radius of the average record groove being so enormous relative to the radius of a stylus and the area of the contact patches.

Someone could do the math, but deviation from flat (of the wear spots) may be something only discernible at the atomic level.

 

Wow that provides some interesting mental stimulus.

So now I need to use :

(1) the original Rega carbon to test 2nd hand records for damage.
(2) the 2M Silver Stylus for backup
(3) the 2M Blue for daily use
(4) set up the Nagaoka MP-150 cartridge to show off my sound when mates come around

& get a counter for the hours of use for each

 

That is a good idea. But to use a conical stylus to check for wear might not be such a good idea, conicals will distort on certain passages as they can not track them, same for basic Elliptical.
You just cant be sure if its groove wear, stylus mistracking or part of the music, its pretty indistinguishable.

I would never be able to bother reinstalling carts that often without headshells however.

 

I'm not changing out too often as I live on acerage 250Km out of town.
Visitors generally want a drink or 2, so critical listening is out most of the time,
just pop in a thumb drive and yarn.

I generally use the fabulous auto old skool semi retired Dual CS 731Q with DN-150 E elliptical diamond stylus for evaluation.

 

I'm getting a couple cartridges re-tipped and here is a photo the re-tipper took of the micro ridge stylus on my Benz Micro Wood SL after probably less than 500 hours of play, 19 months of no more than moderate use (and there was even another cartridge in use on occasion so it may be even less). It was tracking at 1.9g VTF on an SL-1200G. This is with every record cleaned on a VPI 16.5 with MoFi Plus Enzyme and distilled water rinse, plus regular cleaning of the stylus by brush after every side and brush with MoFi No. 9 fluid after every few records.



There appears to be significant flat spots in this photo. This was giving audible distortion, though not on all records. It was pretty apparent on harder to track records and tight inner grooves. If I played only tamely cut "audiophile" records it would have probably been longer before I noticed and took it out of service.

After I retired this one I switched to higher compliance, lighter tracking moving magnet designs (Pickering XSV/5000, Stanton 980LZS and 981HZS and a KAB Concorde Pro S 40) and began using a tracking app to count sides on every stylus I use (estimating about 20 minutes per side). If one doesn't want to damage records I think it is essential to track the sides or hours, and to have a good idea how long the stylus will really last. It seems to me the manufacturers' estimates are high, and based on old research like that done by Shure that was based on their high-compliance, light tracking moving magnet cartridges, not moving coils tracking at 2.0g or more.

Anyone who thinks he's going to get 1,000 hours out of even an advanced stylus tip like ML/MR is probably fooling themselves, unless you have a cartridge that tracks very light -- like around 1.0g -- like the old Shure V15. Consider yourselves warned.

 

I have a group of these Veeder Root counters, for each cartridge, and labeled. The build quality is absolutely phenomenal. These vintage pieces are a joy to own. See a favorite sales website for examples. Do you own search on type and be sure to examine past sales figures.

VINTAGE VEEDER-ROOT COUNTER MANUAL TALLY made in the usa WORKS FINE LOOK #MJX | eBay

VINTAGE VEEDER-ROOT COUNTER MANUALLY TALLY 1915 WORKS | eBay

Vintage Veeder-Root Hand Held Tally Counter 4 Digit USA | eBay

727215-001 PD07M Veeder Root Mechanical Counter | eBay

The one shown above is really awesome. While the hand-held ones are also terrific.

With patient shopping, you can find these in NOS for extremely attractive prices. Some folks think these things are worth a mint, but they are not.

NEW Veeder-Root Mechanical Counter - D197215 - FREE SHIPPING! (*) | eBay

I own three different models of Veeder Root vintage counters and most I secured in like new condition in the original box.

Here is one that looks great and a model I do not own:

Veeder root counter 101315 013 or 101315-011 and other veeder root counters NOS | eBay

 

Example: 1000 hours playing say 25 LP (a lot) per week (10Hrs) gives you around (520) Hrs per year.(roughly 2 years) between stylus replacement

My working auto Dual CS 731Q tracks super light with the ULM-60E elliptical diamond
I have about 5 new spares to go.

 

Surely you jest.

 

I can hear when perfirmance falls off.
Usually 300 to 500 hours.
A mate has got 1000 hours with a 2M Black.
I fear that when he does fit a replacement
That a lot of his records will de damaged.
Its way off the mark.
But, he s gotten used to it.
They don,t always get noisier.
Sibiliant , yes. Bass, in particular gets warm and ponderous.
I have heard Ortofons statement on
Stylus life.
I would want it examined after 500
Hours.
Jico say interesting things about the subject.
After 200 hours their SAS is past its best.
Can be used up to 300 to 400 hours.
Be warned!

 

I don't doubt that flats are generated, I've seen them through my microscope. What I wonder about is whether the edges of the flats are sharp enough to do disproportionate damage to a record. All mistracking is probably more wearing than good tracking. I just think the increase in damage may be exaggerated. So many arms and cartridges mistrack that it is hard to put wear down to flats on the diamond. The main factors which I would expect to contribute to record wear would be down force, cantilever/suspension whip, low compliance, heavy arms, mistracking, dirt on the record, dirt welded to the stylus (very common), incorrect azimuth, leaving the stylus in the last groove for hours.

I almost never find damaged used records. They often sound horrible at first, but I clean with PVA glue, several times if necessary, and invariably distortion, which sounds like mistracking, disappears altogether. I wonder if some records ooze goo over the years, or accumulate a coating of airborne grease.

At any rate, something strange happens, because even the worst offenders sound undistorted after one, two, or three PVA strippings.

I think there is less wear than we worry about, but more deeply embedded oil/dirt.

 

To me, this is why buying used LPs is a crapshoot. Sellers who deal in collector's items usually only visually grade the records, which is often misleading because of invisible damage from poorly maintained stylii and playback setups.

 

Could you make 2 recordings of these examples where you think its wear with distorting passages and then how it cleans up?

 

Good idea - I will try to remember to do this next time I come across a record that sounds messy and then cleans up well.

 

Speak for yourself.

 

In my experience line contact diamonds are extraordinarily revealing. But you have to pay attention to the wear. As Peter at Soundsmith told me, a worn styli will “shave off” the higher frequencies. The record wont sound dull. You might not even notice it. Depending on how often you play Heaven, (Every day here) two years should be safe.

 

I believe ultimately a middleground is best. So 3 clicks for 4 45RPM sides. Since 45RPM is roughly 35% faster I think the math works out decently in general. I dont think ease of tracking plays a big role.

 

yup, that’s what I’ve been doing so far, 3 clicks for a double 45rpm play through.