USB Microscope for checking stylus condition

[tubewade]

Here are a few more for the sake of comparison. I know these aren't great, clear shots, but they are able to show what we need to see.

The Shure N104E, same as shown above. 0.2 mil minor radius. Notice how small.

ATN3482P 0.7 mil conical stylus. Notice how round the radius is! Much bigger than the Shure.

Ortofon FF15XE 0.3 mil minor radius. Much smaller than the AT conical. You can see the wear on the bottom. I took this out of service when distortion had gone up and channel balance in the high frequencies was going away.

ATN3600L 0.6 mil conical. I took it out out of service after seeing this wear. Installation of a new stylus restored the missing high frequencies.

 

[DaveyW]

Damn Davey - nice pic at 200x.

Thanks - It's a Damn Nice Cart Too

 

[wintersdawn]

Just took this image using my digital camera and wonder if what is attached to the stylus is vinyl filings?

 

[tubewade]

No. That's regular old lint and dust. A stylus brush should get that off of there. If anything remains then barely touch it with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser and then the brush again. A badly damaged tip could carve up the record under heavy tracking force or even a good stylus could do it with enough force, like if you took the counterweight off the tonearm and played the record. I'll bet neither of these things apply to you.

 

[wintersdawn]

Thanks, that's good to know. The strands seemed similar in appearance so made me wonder. My original concern about stylus damage is because I played a record which had a raised 'bobble' of vinyl due to a manufacturing flaw. I am still not sure how big an accident is needed to chip the diamond stylus.

 

[tubewade]

I've heard that diamonds can chip but I've never actually seen one. I have seen a stylus that lost the diamond tip out of the mounting post and I have seen a chipped sapphire stylus but I have no idea how it happened. It was on a turntable that I took in. I would say it would be very rare to encounter a chipped diamond stylus, but it's not as rare as one might think to encounter one that is worn beyond optimal condition.

 

[wintersdawn]

Thanks, I'm glad it is rare, it seemed unlikely with diamond being the hardest material and all. Looks like the stylus tip hitting some sort of obstacle or being dropped onto a moving turntable due to cueing error is more likely to rip the diamond from its mounting post rather than chip it?

 

[tubewade]

Yes. I would say it would be more likely to bend the cantilever or maybe to rip the stylus tip out of the cantilever than to actually chip the diamond.

 

[wintersdawn]

Thanks, starting to feel more confident about the durability of the diamond stylus now and will be less likely to dump one due to an accident. Will go back to the idea that 'if it sounds good, it is good' because with a chip unlikely (which I'm sure would produce some audible evidence anyway) will just look out for lessening sound quality due to stylus wear, perhaps check with headphones now and then. Hopefully this strategy is a good one.

I had a similar situation a while ago regarding how likely vinyl can be damaged and found that it tends to be stronger/more durable than one might think. I believe that in the past there have been turntables with much higher VTF than say 2grams and hopefully vinyl coped ok. I have quite a few 40-50 year old LP's and they still play well and could have been played on some high VTF tables in the past and survived

 

[DaveyW]

I've heard that diamonds can chip but I've never actually seen one. I have seen a stylus that lost the diamond tip out of the mounting post and I have seen a chipped sapphire stylus but I have no idea how it happened. It was on a turntable that I took in. I would say it would be very rare to encounter a chipped diamond stylus, but it's not as rare as one might think to encounter one that is worn beyond optimal condition.

This is the worst condition stylus I've come across

A Shure V15 II came with my Dual TT - this was a spare, used stylus included in the bundle.

Thankfully it had been recently replaced - This is what it should look like

 

[wintersdawn]

Thanks, is the damage caused in the first picture from wear?

 

[DaveyW]

Thanks, is the damage caused in the first picture from wear?

I strongly suspect so

 

[wintersdawn]

Thanks

 

[JP]

This is the worst condition stylus I've come across

A Shure V15 II came with my Dual TT - this was a spare, used stylus included in the bundle.

Thankfully it had been recently replaced - This is what it should look like

What are you looking for in the pictures? I'm having a hard time fathoming how wear can be seen from the view and magnification level.

 

[GoBlues]

What are you looking for in the pictures? I'm having a hard time fathoming how wear can be seen from the view and magnification level.

It appears to my untrained eye that it is a matter of symmetry. The "good" stylus is symmetric with equal angles on both of the exposed sides. The "bad" stylus appears to have been worn much more on one side, giving an asymmetric profile.

Is that correct Davey? Are there other factors at play here as well?

I really appreciate this thread, since this is something that I have been interested in for quite a while.

 

[DaveyW]

Yes - The edges should be straight and the tip surface not pitted.

Another pic

Appols if it's not self evident - these are as good as I could get at the time (pre-digi scope)

 

[tubewade]

It's certainly damaged, but I don't understand what we are seeing. There wouldn't be any part of the flat sides of the cone that actually touches the record. The very tip where the round "radius" is all that touches the record. This looks as if it had been worn by playing coarse groove records, but that doesn't make any sense at all. This is a very interesting case, difficult to explain (at least difficult for me to explain).

EDIT: Yes, that bottom picture makes it easier to see.

 

[GoBlues]

It would indeed be useful to understand what distance from the stylus tip in the photos corresponded to the depth of the record groove.

Edit: viewed some really good pics by entering "stylus groove depth" in a Google search field.

 

[gusten]

This is the worst condition stylus I've come across

A Shure V15 II came with my Dual TT - this was a spare, used stylus included in the bundle.

Thankfully it had been recently replaced - This is what it should look like

I don´t think we can actually see if the needles are worn or not. The contact with the grooves makes two very small contact points, at the very tip of the needle, those we can´t see here.

 

[kirk57]

^^^this.

Folks can read Sparkys stylus microscope sticky to see how to do this correctly. These side views don't tell much at all about actual wear.