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RE: It's not wear, but dust and contamination

Posted by mr.bear (A) on January 22, 2018 at 11:03:28

In Reply to: Average Life, in plays, of an LP posted by CurtPutnam on January 21, 2018 at 23:21:26:

I feel that the vinyl recovers easily from the contact pressure from the stylus, as already noted, so multiple plays are not at all damaging. -- BUT WAIT-- there's more! (always is, in audiophile-land...) Read the superb scholarly article from Shure, penned in 1954 when I was a mere tot. Here's what I took away:

1. Contaminants in the groove are the thing: "The presence of dust, grit and particles worn from the stylus tip itself not only can damage records and reduce stylus life, but may affect tonal response. An analysis of the "dust" removed from a number of stylus tips, which had been used on dirty records, showed that it consisted of approximately; 12% jagged silica particles, 35% diamond dust, 40% miscellaneous particles, including soot, grit and **particles worn from the record groove itself.** The remaining 13% consisted of fibers and lint.
2. Discussing worn stylui: " [Shoving a] worn stylus tip into the engraved depressions is another contributing factor to record wear and distortion. The sharp edges at the ends of the flat can remove record particles as they are forced into the groove depressions. This forcing of the worn stylus against the groove walls may also distort the walls beyond their elastic limit, which results in additional record wear and distortion of reproduction."

So Shure's top scientific brainiacs conclude that as a record is played the groove fills up with mostly household dust and miscellaneous debris (not the Primus EP "Miscellaneous Debris but real debris...), DIAMOND DUST(!), and vinyl chips. They go on to note that "Particles become embedded in groove walls. ...almost 65% of the extraneous material is harder than the comparatively soft record material and, therefore, is capable of scratching and damaging it. ...airborne dust and debris worn from the stylus tip itself are the greatest cause of excessive record and stylus wear."

CONCLUSION: Records wear down- vinyl chips in the groove prove it. Worn styli wear them down faster. Crap on records wear down styli faster and the styli then wear down records faster.

It's a viscous circle, dudes, but it's also a marketing-department conflation to sell new Shure styli, to some degree. These effects exist but occur VERY slowy. As other inmates, I'm playing my first record bought with my very own money in 1964 (Vee-Jay "Introducing the Beatles"- jeezis I had good taste...). In 1964 I only had ONE record and my dad's giantious Stromberg-Carlson console hi-fi with a crystal pickup tracking at about 454 grams. I've played it a million times since 1964 and it still sounds GREAT from my Dynavector XX tracking at 1.6 gm. So the wear seems to take place at Grand Canyon speed. It is, however, a little noisy presumably from grit embedded in the groove walls. There is essentially no way to remove much of that, it is physically welded into the vinyl matrix. I have removed any NEW dust, new starting around 1980 when I was born again as an audiophile. In the words of Shure: "Complete removal of dust and grit from the record grooves resulted in increases of up to 60% in the useful life of both records and styli." Maybe my Beatles LP will last another 30-50 years!

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