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Phono stylus life

Tony L

Tony L

Administrator
One of audio’s most contentious topics for sure with real information as ever being exceptionally hard to find. There is an interesting feature on VinylPress. Worth a read IMO.

My strategy is a couple of nice Belomo loupes and a vintage Olympus microscope (see thread here) along with a new and unused stylus for my MP-500, i.e. I have the ability to look at the current stylus tip plus have a reference point to compare it to.
 
Interesting reference! FWIW I sent the Shure V15/III series stylii I use to Expert Stylus a few years ago, and despite decades of use they said they were fine with no need for any work or replacement. However during the last couple of decades I've only used them to play LPs once per LP to make a digital transfer. Been nursing them as I doubt any NOS replacements are going to turn up!

Wear isn't simply a matter of downforce. The tip mass as well as compliance matter as the g-forces are high at HF.
 
I.D.C. said:
Many factors including clean vinyl and clean stylus.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the quality of the diamond and its setting, plus tip profile, tonearm and, last but not least, set-up.

Interesting if rather long article, and it does generally concern itself with the lower end of styli/cartridges. I'd imagine that the polish and attention to detail of styli as one climbs the ladder may influence longevity. E.g., Koetsus have long been touted for their life span, but who knows? Maybe that's just audio folklore and your average K is knackered at 1000 hours !:)
 
The problem is so much of the properly done research dates from the ‘50s or ‘60s with spherical or early elliptical tips and maybe 6-8g tracking force. I’d love to see a lot more research done now with typical modern arms with very low bearing friction/stiction, typical <2g tracking weight etc. As an example I’m tracking a micro-line tip at 1.6g across mint wet-vacuum cleaned vinyl. Too much of the recent content of the article reads as opinion as opposed to controlled research.
 
If you take a look at the wear patterns on different styli shapes on the link, you can see that the worn areas are not a million miles from the same radius as the tip profile.
The tip profile will be in the VERY rough order of 10 microns. So, you are trying to see wear on the scale of 10 microns.
What sort of resolution do you think your eye has? This is far from a simple thing to get your mind around but is around one sixtieth of a degree (as in angle of vision). The human eye has only around six degrees of useful vision when considering things like this (but around 120 degrees when peripheral vison is counted), so, say, something like 20 microns must be magnified to occupy just six degrees of your vision. That means that magnification must place the image of the stylus around 10 microns from the lens of your eye.

I reckon that is absolutely impossible with anything but seriously expensive microscopy. Having mucked about with x20 loupes, I need no convincing.

This is an interesting video - note the size of the groove compared to the stylus tip. Try resolving groove shape/profile using hand lenses...……

https://uturnaudio.com/blogs/uturn/how-to-clean-your-stylus
 
I’d be inclined to agree with that, I view the loupe as an essential tool for establishing the tip is clean, plus you will definitely see chips or other damage that would be missed with the naked eye. As I say I have a proper microscope, one that looks very similar to the Shure dealer unit pictured in the article minus the dedicated cart mount (which would be exceptionally useful!).

Nice second-hand microscopes are cheap and easily available, my ‘60s Olympus cost £70 IIRC, and there are usually lots of nice Russian ones going for little money on eBay. As such no reason an audiophile shouldn’t own one IMO. You just need to be sure the viewing platform has enough downward movement to focus on the front-view of the stylus. Not an issue in my case as I use MMs with detachable styluses that can easily be accommodated. For lighting typical LED bike lights are great and cheap (I already owned several)!
 
One word of warning if you are looking at a MC where you cannot remove the cantilever - getting that sort of magnification means having the objective lens VERY close to the stylus, and collision with/demolition of the cart' would be VERY easily achieved.
 
mercalia said:
hmm that put the fear of god in me. And I got another shock it seems the stylii for the Ortofon 2M series are discontinued According to Henley website

https://www.henleyaudio.co.uk/shop/...Filter=&Search=&BrandIds=1&ShowDiscontinued=1

You can only buy the cartridge. The whole point of getting a MM was to avoid this not having to fiddle around with setting up a new cartridge?
Click to expand...

No - the Ortofon 2M styli are still available - see this page https://www.henleyaudio.co.uk/shop/product?page=2&BrandIds=1&ShowDiscontinued=0
 
Best way to view is by electron microscope, not a normal thing to have lying around but when I bent a cantilever years ago I had a look at high mag on optical then popped it in the SEM. It's very low mag stuff for a SEM and great depth of field.
Didn't see anything of value and that's when I realised I didn't really know what I was looking for or what it should look like. Some great pics though, wish I still had them. Would have made great wall art above the TT.
 
Micro ridge stylus shape has the longest lifespan up to 3,500hours same stylus profile Jico supply ( SAS ) super analogue stylus Microridge & kept shure V15s running for decades now
neosas_20.jpg
[/QUOTE]
 
Jagged24 said:
No - the Ortofon 2M styli are still available - see this page https://www.henleyaudio.co.uk/shop/product?page=2&BrandIds=1&ShowDiscontinued=0
Click to expand...

seems I was right and wrong. I contacted Henley the distributor in the UK -

Thank you for your enquiry regarding a 2M Bronze Stylus. You're correct in thinking that the original stylus has been marked as discontinued. There is however the Stylus 2M Bronze 100. The only difference is that this anniversary stylus has the 100 anniversary logo, all technical specification is the same but also has a nice 20% off the original price which makes it slightly less costly.

The Stylus 2M Bronze 100 is a special edition production run of the Stylus 2M Bronze, and features Ortofon's 100th Anniversary logo. Featuring the same technical specifications as the original 2M Bronze, the model has been released to promote stylus upgrades for existing Ortofon customers throughout the company’s centenary year.

so it seems just a rebranding thing
 
I'm surprised to read in the article that stylii wear faster when mounted on unipivot arms compared to gimballed ones. I was sold the ARO on a promise of double stylus life. Robbed!!!
 
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