When do records damage a stylus

I used to worry a lot bout this and winced every time one of those loud pops occurred. But as far as I know I've never damaged a stylus playing vinyl. On the other hand, I've never used a cartridge for much more than five years, so I guess it's possible, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Technically, records always wear on a stylus. Simply, a clean record of high quality vinyl will wear on a stylus less than say a dirty 3rd generation pressing.

I'm sure someone could come up with some extreme counterexample, but in general, records cannot damage styli. In the real, physical world, hard things damage soft things, not vice versa. Don't worry about this.

If a defect is bad enough to cause damage, it is more likely to do it by jarring the stylus loose from the shank than any other way. (Yes, I've heard of it happening, once to a Grado, and once to a Koetsu, no less.) Anyone who plays a record with that kind of obvious defect deserves the result.

Both Timo and Bomarc are right. Friction "grinds" both the stylus and the record. As a general rule though, diamonds are harder than vinyl, so most of the damage will be on the vinyl end of things. Ticks and pops are bad for your amp and speakers whereas "groove grunge" is bad for your groove walls first and then your stylus. As such, cleaner records will reduce the chance for damage to your amp, speakers, records and stylus. I'd worry more about cleaning the records and stylus properly more-so than damaging either of them. If the records are bad enough that you are experiencing high levels of transient energy bursts ( HUGE ticks and pops ), you might want to think about replacing the record or not playing it. Then again, there are a few threads in the archive about how to remove or at least reduce the effects of ticks, pops and scratches. It might be worth some occasional surface noise to enjoy irreplaceable tunes. Sean
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