At What Point is the Needle Damaging Records?

Get a loupe or magnifier and carefully examine the stylus. Sometimes you'll find dirt is the issue. A layer of grunge may have built up that does not come off with normal light brushing.

It may be difficult for an untrained eye to spot mild wear, but it's still a pretty good habit to visually check the stylus periodically.

Stylus microscopes - while it's always nice to have a specially designed, dedicated professional tool for a job, it's a classic mistake to assume that having nothing is the only option if you can't have the fancy one.

Some magnification is better than none. I've got a little 8X printer's loupe that lets me see all kinds of things I can't with the naked eye and I doubt it cost $15.

Same story with sound level meters. Depending on the specific abilities, calibrated meters start at hundreds of dollars and quickly go much higher. Yet the $50 Radio Shack model can be extremely useful to the home listener.