Osmium is rare enough to be very expensive, I seriously doubt it could be used so ineffectively (as for grammophone needles).
Modern day high elliptical tracking forces concern..
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It is rare today. Very soft metal, and needles are still available (however for modern electrical grammophones like Philips from 50):
P.S. OK, I believe I am a bit confused, they are really not for old grammophones.
Nat wrote, "When LPs were first introduced, there were three stylus options: diamond, sapphire, and osmium." I don't have any evidence specifically for 1948, but I have album sleeves from the 1950's that mention all three. The warning about osmium is that while "it is least expensive on initial investment," it "lasts only about 15 hours."
Would be interesting to see photos of these envelopes!
You can see a few by doing a Google image search using "columbia take care of your needle" as the search phrase. One that I have in front of me is from Columbia ML 5286, but I bought this used so am not sure I have the original sleeve.
I remember the inner sleeves of records in the 60s listing the three choices. I may be mistaken in my memory, but I struggle to explain the comment about damage with a single playing with a 3mg tip mass when the stylus of the lower end Ortofon mentioned was .8 mg, and Shure's bonded ellipticals were .4. That would have to be a very large stylus to have triple the tip mass, unless the stylus or cantilever were very dense (and given the common use of plastic cantilevers with inexpensive ceramic cartidges, a dense cantilever seems somewhat unlikely). Saphire (which is white corundum, and ruby is red corundum) is denser than diamond, but only about a sixth more dense, not three times denser.
I wonder what this 3mg tip mass cartridge was.
I wonder what this 3mg tip mass cartridge was.
A sentence that even a blonde would clearly understand!
Really? Did you heard "Diamonds are forever?" And "Diamonds are a girl's best friend".
I remember a college roommate whose parents had a console that claimed to have a lifetime stylus. I can't remember the company - for some reason Jensen is in my head, but I don't think they even made consoles. I was curious, so looked in old stereo magazines, and found the ads - his parents were correct about what they had been told.
I believe the parents took the advertised lifetime to mean their life, not the life of the stylus (which would be a pretty feeble claim - it will last as long as it lasts), so they were still using it, possibly more than a decade later. Of course, who knows how many records they had actually played - the stylus might have still been fine.
I believe the parents took the advertised lifetime to mean their life, not the life of the stylus (which would be a pretty feeble claim - it will last as long as it lasts), so they were still using it, possibly more than a decade later. Of course, who knows how many records they had actually played - the stylus might have still been fine.
And as Fred Sanford said: "And so are the payments."
twiiii
Lunatic Member
I have used everything from Spherical back in the early 60's to Micro Ridge or fine line today. I have never worn out an LP. The most important thing is to keep your record grooves and cartridge stylus impeccably clean so you do not scar the grooves of the LP. Thats what I would be concerned about. Also make sure your tone arm lift is working properly and the anti-skating is set reasonably. I don't trust semi automatic turn tables preferring manual ones.
I will say the more advanced the stylus shape the quieter the groove noise and the better the stylus faithfully follows the grooves with a minimum of tracing distortion.
I will say the more advanced the stylus shape the quieter the groove noise and the better the stylus faithfully follows the grooves with a minimum of tracing distortion.
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