Sharing shots from dirty (phono) needle

Rodeodave · 22nd August 2011, 08:44 AM

The other day I was a bit worried about needle wear, so I decided to get out my old microscope and get some close up shots of the needle's tip. The cartridge is a MM Sure M75 Type D, with a type 10946 needle, I think it's elliptic.
The pictures were taken with my trusty old Nokia 5800 phone, pointed it right down the ocular, macro mode with flash off. Illumination was done with my desk lamp.

As far as I can tell the needle is fine, albeit a bit dirty. Enjoy!

lohk · 22nd August 2011, 08:53 AM

good news for older cartridges and stylus assys - I always assumed that needle wear was overrated
and: chapeau to your "cheap" and ingenieous way of microscopial photography!

Salas · 22nd August 2011, 02:10 PM

Can you see a bit of misalignment regarding azimuth of the tip assembly on the cantilever in pic2 when looking in the microscope, or its just a picture effect?

lohk · 24th August 2011, 09:21 AM

you are right - both images show a litte misalignment - to the right seen from the front.
don't you think that some cartridges show certain "tolerances" - in my experience (maybe outdated) many catridges of the lower price ranges show these "imperfections"

kevinkr · 25th August 2011, 04:28 AM

Looks like parallax to me, but could be a small misalignment - in the plane in which it is occurring I doubt it would cause a significant problem. (I have done some very close up macro photography of phono stylii - nothing I can share here unfortunately.)

Rodeodave · 26th August 2011, 09:55 PM

I think it's a parallax error, yes. Took some more pics today to be sure.

The needle is not that old, I bought it some years ago and now it has a couple of hundred hours on it, but it also went through quite some painful adjustment procedures...therefore I was worried it might have some wear and thus damage my precious records.

Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Cal Weldon · 26th August 2011, 10:01 PM

post 1, pic 2

Is that wear we see starting halfway down the tip where the reflection goes from rounded to more of a straight line?

And yes you really ought to brush those aphids off.

kevinkr · 26th August 2011, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cal Weldon

post 1, pic 2

Is that wear we see starting halfway down the tip where the reflection goes from rounded to more of a straight line?

And yes you really ought to brush those aphids off.

Looks OK to me, appears to me to be a conical/spherical stylus but I can't see enough of the profile to really be sure. Kept clean should be good for at least 1K hours worth of use.

Dave check your inbox for a PM..

22nd August 2011, 08:53 AM	#2
lohk diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Austria, near Linz	good news for older cartridges and stylus assys - I always assumed that needle wear was overrated and: chapeau to your "cheap" and ingenieous way of microscopial photography! __________________ /alohka/

24th August 2011, 09:21 AM	#4
lohk diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Austria, near Linz	you are right - both images show a litte misalignment - to the right seen from the front. don't you think that some cartridges show certain "tolerances" - in my experience (maybe outdated) many catridges of the lower price ranges show these "imperfections" __________________ /alohka/

25th August 2011, 04:28 AM	#5
kevinkr diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Blog Entries: 6	Looks like parallax to me, but could be a small misalignment - in the plane in which it is occurring I doubt it would cause a significant problem. (I have done some very close up macro photography of phono stylii - nothing I can share here unfortunately.) __________________ www.kta-hifi.net

26th August 2011, 10:01 PM	#7
Cal Weldon Speakerholic diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: British Columbia	post 1, pic 2 Is that wear we see starting halfway down the tip where the reflection goes from rounded to more of a straight line? And yes you really ought to brush those aphids off. __________________ Next stop: Margaritaville Some of Cal's stuff \| Cal Weldon Consulting

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22nd August 2011, 02:10 PM	#3
Salas diyAudio Chief Moderator Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Athens-Greece	Can you see a bit of misalignment regarding azimuth of the tip assembly on the cantilever in pic2 when looking in the microscope, or its just a picture effect?

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