A Phonograph Stylus Wear Experiment
Please see this new thread on Vinyl Engine entitled Stylus Wear Study 2. A link is provided below.
https://www.vinylengine.com/turntabl...?f=19&t=134294
Vinyl Engine @ray_parkhust (Ray Parkhurst) has posted his set up for evaluating stylus tip wear and provided examples of wear on a conical or elliptical stylus tip. See page 2.
Another VE thread details Stylus Wear Study 1: http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable...?f=19&t=113013
Three of us are supporting and conducting this evaluation, along with the generous support of others in the community. Ray Parkhurst as you will see above is an expert in photomacrography, and whose hobby is imaging phono styli. He has been doing this for better than a decade and has contributed to VE, SHF and many others forums on stylus imaging with a focus on shapes and wear.
The second person goes by BMRR on VE and the Steve Hoffman Forum. Is is actually handling the operational end of this experiment. His equipment and the procedure is detailed in the VE thread posted first there and in the thread posted below on the SHF. BMRR volunteered to run the experiment as outlined in the first link above. He will use a very good quality Sanyo Q50 turntable (TT) as seen here https://www.vinylengine.com/library/...-q50.shtml.The TT will be fitted with a new Audio Technica VM95E cartridge. This cartridge has a bonded 0.3 x 0.7 mil elliptical diamond with recommended VTF of 2 grams, which is representative of those used in a wide variety of today's most popular moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) cartridges at many different price points. Examples are the Ortofon 2M Red (MM, $100), Clearaudio Concept V2 (MM, $250), Rega Elys 2 (MM, $350), Ortofon Quintet Red (MC, $400), Hana EL (MC, $475), and Sumiko Songbird (MC, $900). The 2 gram tracking force of the VMN95E is also highly representative: the six cartridges listed above have tracking forces ranging from 1.75 grams (Rega Elys 2) to 2.3 grams (Ortofon Quintet Red), with an average of 2.0 grams. Therefore, we believe that an elliptical stylus tracking at 2 grams represents the most common scenario among today's vinyl enthusiasts.
I'm the third leg in this experiment. Note here I am BendBound, same on Steve Hoffman Forum, but on Vinyl Engine I am Tetonbound. I've provided 20 vinyl records for this experiment, one in VG+ condition, and all the rest in VG++ to mint (sealed) condition. Here is a chart on condition:
The condition of the records is as follows:
Twenty (20) records:
1 VG
2 VG+
4 VG++
9 NM-
3 NM
1 M, Sealed
We want a realistic set of records in mostly terrific condition, but also we wanted a few records that are in average condition. That is how I play records on my turntable and the wear my stylus is subject to. We did not want only NM records for we don't believe that represents real life use of a turntable. Nor do we want all VG or VG+ records since most of us work to upgrade or we are picky about what cartridge we use to play them. All records are ultrasonic cleaned and finished on a VPI17 vacuum machine, as we've noted prior. From that perspective, these records are on balance in better condition and better cleaned than most users I know. This chart shows the near normal distribution in condition of the selected vinyl records for this test.
As far as the records selected for this experiment, they date from 1958 for the sole mono title, then from 1961 to 1989 for the stereo titles. Most records are from the 1980s, but numerous titles are from the 1970s and some from the 1960s.
The records are a mixture of rock, folk, country, R&B, easy listening, Broadway musicals, gospel, orchestral music and classical. These titles feature singers, some bands, some choirs, but also classical, for example Bach organ music. They come from obscure record companies such as Westminster Records, but most are Capital, Epic, RCA, Angel and MGM. All but one records are original issues according to Discogs, one is a reissue. RCA records records beginning in the 1960s have a slightly different vinyl formulation, we have one as early as 1969 and as late as the mid-1980s.
These records have been cleaned in an 80kHz ultrasonic tank on a Vinyl Stack set up for 20 minutes. Then each record is finished on a VPI17 vacuum machine. There is more to this including photos of the cleaning set up so please see the initial VE thread for details. After cleaning and removing static charge, all records have been resleeved in Diskeeper™ record sleeves, make by Sleeve City.
Also, we are hoping to understand vinyl degradation from this experiment on played records and change in total harmonic distortion of playback from a worn stylus. To that end, I've recorded one full side of three titles at 96kHz/24bit on a Tascam DA-3000 pro recorder. If I cannot do it, we'll find someone who can take those files apart looking for THD changes over time as these titles are recorded again, later. We've recorded one title in two copies of the same release in nearly identical condition. One to be used as the first record to be played, and the second as the final record to be played. We may even decide to push the play on that final record (after recording it again). We will attempt imaging of groove wear and detailed analysis of signal change.
The work is contemporary, supported by a published procedure and revealed in progressive photomacrographs performed by one of the most knowledgeable guys anywhere doing that as a hobby.
Next, we have also posted this experiment on the Steve Hoffman Forum as seen in the next link.
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...iment.1174862/
Our reason for employing multiple sites for this experiment can actually be seen when one reads through the VE and the SHF threads. Each community has its followers, and the discussion in each has a life of its own. As a consequence of comments on the SHF, we have added to our set up for the physical turntable portion of this test.
I've been a member here, mostly a lurker, for some time. But I wanted to pull into this discussion Art of Sound folks I know and whose opinions I respect.
Thank you.
Mike
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