Microscope or Loupe?

[Duane]

Looking for some insight regarding stylus inspection for dirt,etc. Been using a magnifying glass of unknown magnification and it's ok for what it is, but it doesn't magnify enough so, maybe something a bit more powerful. I know there's jewelers loupes that can be quite helpful and if there are any recommendations, that would be great.

I spotted the following thread a little while ago and saw some of the clear images from a digital USB microscope and thought it was pretty good for inspecting.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...roscope-for-checking-stylus-condition.702552/

Thanks for looking.

 

[MRL_Audio]

Yep - need a scope to get the true picture of stylus and facet wear. A loupe or marginal microscope won't cut it.

 

[Wolfe64]

I bought one of these and it works really well. I'm sure others on here have this too.

Mark

http://www.amazon.ca/COLEMETER-Jewe...?ie=UTF8&qid=1456668044&sr=8-2&keywords=loupe

 

[tubewade]

I have one like that in Wolfe64s link and it is good for stylus hygiene inspections but it is incapable of showing anything about wear. 30 to 60x is great for cleanliness evaluation. 200 to 300x is necessary for wear evaluation.

 

[marcmorin]

I was given a medical microscope......lousy for taking pictures through, but great for checking the diamond by eye. With the three main lenses, plus the multiplier eye pieces, I can see if a shot of penicillin is in order too.

 

[kirk57]

A jewelers loupe works well to see if the stylus is dirty. Wear inspection is a whole other thing, and I'd refer to Sparky's stylus microscope sticky in this forum to understand how to do it correctly.

 

[Duane]

Decided to give one of these a try. http://www.amazon.com/ABLEGRID®-50-500X-Microscope-Endoscope-Magnifier/dp/B014CU4QAI

Pretty cheap. Hopefully it works good enough to view debris before and after cleaning with the Onzow Zerodust.

Thanks all.

 

[JP]

I have run in to stubborn debris at the very tip of the stylus that was only visible on my (real) microscope twice. For one of them I had to carefully scrape the stylus with a razor blade to remove it.

 

[Duane]

This is a picture that was taken (with the cheap microscope mentioned above) of an Audio technica AT71 I bought for an Audio Technica LS100 that was just found in a drawer. The original AT70 was missing it's stylus. Played around trying to get a sharp image for buildup of dirt, etc. Better lighting would be helpful. But, I did find some debris on it and after dipping it into a Magic Eraser, the debris was "erased".