How Do You Keep Track Of The Wear On Your Stylus?

[The Gryphon]

I see many times on fora, discussions about stylus wear and how old a stylus is ...BUT, how do you keep an eye on your stylus wear? Personally I have a couple of click counters and when I am getting towards 800 to 1000 hrs it is time for a new stylus.....what do you do ?

 

[JohnVF]

I listen for obvious mistracking and occasionally use a USB microscope. I don't keep specific track of time, to be totally honest, I don't think I have the personality type to do that.

 

[ChrisO]

I also listen for it but I do need to pick up a microscope.

 

[UncleBingo]

I Listen for sibilance. Harsh cymbals or hashy high end usually signal the end is near.

 

[Ernie]

I have found that stylus life is strongly dependent on the faithful adherence to a rigourous record cleaning regimen. I use the VPI 16.5 on every record, even new ones, before their first play. Clean records go in MoFi sleeves. Parastat Mk II, on the record, and Zerodust for the stylus, before play. No garage sale records on the primary system, even after washing. My Benz Ace has well over 2000 hours on it. I do have a Charisma waiting in the wings.

 

[Wntrmute2]

I do as the Gryphon does currently. Had an hour meter at one point but that grossly over estimated the hours on the stylus.

 

[Gene_StL]

As an expert on microscopy and particularly stereo microscopy I have never found microscopes very useful for gauging stylus wear. They will make it easy to see if your diamond has flown the coop which does happen though often can be seen with the naked eye.
Styli rarely fracture because of the orientation in grinding them. Ones that are oriented wrong don't survive the production process.
As much as I love using and owning microscopes they don't make it very easy to assess a tip.

The suggestion above for cymbals and sibilance works pretty well for me.

 

[JohnVF]

As an expert on microscopy and particularly stereo microscopy I have never found microscopes very useful for gauging stylus wear. They will make it easy to see if your diamond has flown the coop which does happen though often can be seen with the naked eye.
Styli rarely fracture because of the orientation in grinding them. Ones that are oriented wrong don't survive the production process.
As much as I love using and owning microscopes they don't make it very easy to assess a tip.

The suggestion above for cymbals and sibilance works pretty well for me.

I have a Dynavector XX2 with the diamond mounted at abouot 45 degrees off center on the tip of the cantilever. Which is why I have it..it came in on a used turntable at a friend's store. Lord knows what this cart did to records. I really would love to know if it went through the production process like that? Or maybe some sort of solvent cleaner dislodged it and it settled off center? Its a complete mystery to me... I'm going to get it retipped (obviously). Just need to find the right person to do it. I don't want to deal with Soundsmith and honestly haven't been blown away by the few styluses (stylii?) I've heard from them.

 

[Salectric]

I know I listen to records 30-35 hours per month. I kept track of the hours a few times with new cartridges and discovered my listening time is pretty consistent throughout the year. With this information I can estimate rather closely the number of hours on a given stylus. This translates to roughly 1000 hours in 3 years.

I also notice a decline in sound quality around the 1000 hour mark, with more bothersome inner groove distortion, so the cartridge needs to go to SoundSmith for retipping every 3 years.

 

[Golden Gate ER]

I don't keep track of ware. I simply listen to the music until it sounds like crap or until the diamond falls off. At which point I'll replace the stylus or the entire cartridge

 

[Gene_StL]

I started having some bad sound on my beloved EPC 310 boron cantilever moving coil cartridge. It is kind of unobtainium. So I thought I better take a look at it under the scope.

It never got that far. It was so crapped up that I gave it a cleaning and now it sounds great again. I don't like to handle it nor have it off the table any more than the minimum possible.

I prefer linear tracking tables when I can get them.