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USB Microscope for checking stylus condition

On the subject of worst, here is my worst ever stylus. It's a Pickering DAT2 that came on a Garrard.

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This is a new DAT2, as it should look. Conical with no wear, so a very round looking tip.

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Here is the worn one. The flats make it almost look like the front or rear cut of a pseudo elliptical stylus, but's not. This was a 0.7 conical.

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For those that prefer a top view, here is a shot looking down on top of it with a lamp on the right and left sides of the stylus. These are the largest wear facets I've ever seen on any stylus, but I have no idea how many hours it took to do this.

In case you are wondering what it sounds like, attempting to play a record with this results in nothing but muffled distortion.
 
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I have a feeling that it´s generally better to go by tracking, tracing and sound, than trying to get an informed view by trying to look at wear. The reason is we always have to incorporate the sound anyway. The tracing distortion and sibilances will always increase with wear, and the levels of those are deciding when to swap needle. Of course one might have to swap in a new needle now and then for hearing the original sound, as a reference.
 
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I have a few test records that I have never used. I'm going to pull them out to see if there are any tracks that may help to ascertain the health of the stylus.
 
I agree gusten. It is interesting, though, to try correlate the sound we hear with what we might see when looking at the tip with a microscope. And some correlation can be seen sometimes. This more for the fun of doing it than for any other reason and I agree with you that the sound is most important so if a stylus sounds good and is not having problems tracing complex areas on records then it is still good. Bad needles will not be able to trace complex passages and if one has another needle that can be substituted when you suspect wear problems then it will become quite evident upon listening. On the other side, as JP alluded to above, one is probably better off to replace high hour needles before they can reach the point of possibly damaging records. This is easy to do with low cost styli, but can become a bit of an issue with expensive exotic ones.
 
Good point.

The music from my table actually sounds quite good, but since I procured the table/cart/stylus used, I don't have any reference for what an "as new" stylus would sound like. I was advised that the stylus does have a bit of time on it (perhaps 150 hrs or more).
 
tubewade said:
I agree gusten. It is interesting, though, to try correlate the sound we hear with what we might see when looking at the tip with a microscope. And some correlation can be seen sometimes. This more for the fun of doing it than for any other reason and I agree with you that the sound is most important so if a stylus sounds good and is not having problems tracing complex areas on records then it is still good. Bad needles will not be able to trace complex passages and if one has another needle that can be substituted when you suspect wear problems then it will become quite evident upon listening. On the other side, as JP alluded to above, one is probably better off to replace high hour needles before they can reach the point of possibly damaging records. This is easy to do with low cost styli, but can become a bit of an issue with expensive exotic ones.
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Yes I agree, it is interesting tryin in getting a reference SQ versus wear, but it´s tricky I think.
 
GoBlues said:
Good point.

The music from my table actually sounds quite good, but since I procured the table/cart/stylus used, I don't have any reference for what an "as new" stylus would sound like. I was advised that the stylus does have a bit of time on it (perhaps 150 hrs or more).
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Yes it´s rather difficult to know much about the needle in this situation.
 
Now, here is my opinion only. I think it best best to not base stylus evaluation on microscope studies only, or on sound/tracing ability only or on estimated number of hours only, but on all three actually. If a stylus has accumulated a rather higher number of hours, and it seems like maybe it's not tracing as well as it used to, and the microscope reveals what appears to be possibly a worn area then I would consider it's probably time for replacement. Does this seem like a sensible approach?

For that matter, even if one has no microscope, hours and bad tracing are a pretty good indication.
 
For someone who hasn't got a way of visually identifying stylus wear I would like to think I could base the condition of the stylus on the sound I am hearing and when I notice this has started to deteriorate/mistrack, change the stylus without having done any damage to my records from the time the stylus began to be significantly worn until the time I noticed and replaced it. Does this sound realistic?
 
I think that is reasonable. Like gusten said above, "When is a needle considered to be be worn?" or too worn for acceptable use. I've certainly used needles in the past until I noticed I was having problems and then I replaced it and those problems went away and the record sounded fine, and I think a lot of people used to run needles quite a long time past their prime. The last one I changed was the AT3600L above and I hadn't really noticed that it was sounding "bad" but it did sound different. That's when I examined it and saw that it looked worn so I replaced it and the highest frequencies were suddenly apparent again. Switched back to the original and they were gone. The records that I played with the worn one still sound perfect today and I am confident that no audible damage was done. This is why it is a very good thing to have a new stylus on hand so comparisons can be made when the time comes that you suspect a problem. I should add that I knew that the AT conical had about 500 hours of use, my use, so I knew it was approaching the end of its life.
 
Without the tools it's about all you can do.

My regime is quite a bit more involved. I've found when using a test record and oscilloscope that I can see mistracking long before I can hear it. To that end, when I see increased wear via visual inspection I then verify with a scope and beater test record as my tests indicate a large amount of mistracking can occur before it'll be noticed.

I don't sweat it too much, as I hardly come across records worn from bad styli, though I don't play my $100+ pressings with styli that show appreciable facets.
 
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That's good, I think I will go with that strategy. I'm not too bothered about general stylus wear as I can always just change the stylus each year as I'm only using a budget cartridge. I get more concerned/paranoid about stylus damage caused by accidents but if I remember that the diamond is very strong then apart from it becoming detached altogether I'll just carry on using it if the sound is good until the year is up.
 
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