How do you know when a stylus is wearing

[Ammonite Audio]

Hi grant , you may be right , but ive got the feeling the suspension is at fault plus the cadenza bronze must be 8 years old now , i think the suspension being weak puts the needle at the wrong angle , bit like a ramp , phil.

At that age, I would have it checked and re-tipped and the damper adjusted as necessary. I would recommend Holistic Audio in the Netherlands - very quick service, reasonable pricing and he does know Ortofons inside out (he rebuilt an SPU that I managed to destroy, to very good effect).

[walpurgis]

I never clean my records either - I just take them out of the sleeve, play them, put them back into the sleeve.

I do the same and have no issues with stylus picking up dirt or surface noise or static.

[jandl100]

The generally accepted rule back in the day was that if you can hear stylus wear then it's too late, you've already fecked your vinyl.
From comments here, though, from folks still into deep-analog, it seems that thinking on the subject has changed,

My old fashioned advice would be to stop using it and get it checked out by J7 or similar.

[Ali Tait]

As a friend has proved with a Fozgometer, levelling your cart by setting azimuth with a bubble on the top as we all do does not always give the best result, as the diamond may not be quite straight in the cantilever.