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When do records damage a stylus

I hope this is not a dumb question. How bad does a record have to be before it damages your stylus? I have a bunch of old records. Most of them are in very good shape. Some have ticks and pops even after I clean. Some have some scratches that don't make the music skip but you can here a pop, pop, pop when the stylus hits there until it gets past the scratch. Everybody talks about hear some pops but how bad before you do damage to the stylus? I can't afford to replace all of my records but I can't afford to replace my stylus either.
motdathird

Showing 2 responses by aceto

aceto
273 posts
 
As Groucho would say, records break a stylus when the stylus need replacing. And you can afford it if you look at Grado or Goldring. Styli wear badly at something like 500 hours of playing uncleaned unpreserved records. Good cleaning will add a factor of three or five. Well cleaned records tend to become less noisy as the stylus shears off the offending anomolies.

The worst thing I have experienced is when a hard particle becomes wedged in the groove. With good light and a good jeweler's loop (sp?) you can always see them. They are disloged with a needle.

You may have bad alignment which will multiply all problems.

I think we need more detail. How many of your records worry you? What are they like in terms of age and visual condition upon inspection?

What are you using to play them? I confess, this is one of the stranger problems and I am keen to suss it out.

Chin up
aceto
273 posts
 
I am going to try this again after re-reading your question. I will now say that since you have cleaned them, that the pops should be sheared off after several playings.

I would start using Last record preservative for the ones you have cleaned. The above still does apply, but I hear significant noise reduction.

I stand by my Groucho paraphrase
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