Microscopes are really useful!

[pde2000]

I got a lomo biolam of ebay for £29 all in and after a bit of a clean it's good.  With the 8x objective, and 15x eyepiece the diamonds are really easy to look at, using a led flashlight for now.  Much better resolution than the cheap usb scope.  But cant take a picture so easily.  Switching up to 20x objective things get a bit more difficult but very good resolution indeed.

Also got to look at all my old slides under 40x objective.  The shop weirdly included a zeiss jena illuminator that goes with a stereoscope (technival 2) claiming it didn't work.  Can't find anything wrong with it but it's no use to me.  Anybody out there need one?

[terrom]

Could somebody help me to recognize which stylus for the Shure V15 Type 3 is it?
It has a red dot in the middle of the cantilever.
Is it elliptical or conical?

[dimitri]

That red dot thing sounded familiar so had to look it up real quick. Apparently, these are Ed Saunders (stylus supplier no longer in business I believe) elliptical styli. Supposedly made by Pfahnstiehl in Switzerland. Hope this helps!

[pde2000]

Because you can get the AT VMN95ML for about £100 when there's an offer on they can be used to graft onto a worn out jico sas or other boron cantilever.  I cant think of a cheaper way to retip this needle, and the price of a new jico sas has really shot up.  I've just done my other shure N75SAS.  Should get another 1000 hours out of it.

I think the vmn95ml will also go into the JVC LE3 as the shaft is short enough and its held in by a screw.

[pde2000]

Bought another at vmn95ml but it's not a fit for the JVC - the suspension stub is too long.  I have given up trying to change the JVC stylus.  I used it instead to replace the diamond on the shure N97sas.  I had used an old VdH2 off a goldring (reson) but the diamond was very worn.  Now I am using an optical microscope (LOMO biolam) it's much easier to see the contact surfaces of the diamonds.

All it takes is a scalpel, a loupe (I fixed mine into a pair of reading glass frames), a head torch, and a tiny drop of super glue.

The ML diamond is too good for the at95, but it is the cheapest way of getting them, plus the cantilever is rather wide diameter and very robust so it could slip over many alternative cantilvers, including tubes probably.  On my linn K9 I still have the Ogura vital diamond but have lapped it to remove the tip and edges - no groove damage, and its got nice beefy tone.  With the ML on the K9 it just sounds thin and dull.  On the shure jico sas assemblies the ML is sublime.

[SvanteL]

Hi

Hade to move the record player, and forgot to secure the arm, so my micro Benz needle made a bump on to the record player (granite stone), and the stylus broke of. Bought and Oroton quintet blue instead, sounds ok, but I like the Benz sound a bit more, now I have Ortofon on both my arms, 2M Black on the 9” arm, think I prefer 2m Black for rock, but jazz/pop/classical with the Quintet blue, on the 10.5” arm.

[Maxmanu68]

Very interesting

[MusicNirvana]

Bringing up an old thread, I know this has been discussed numerous times (sorry); but wondering if there's been any updates (Spring '24) on any new USB microscopes that are good enough to see cat eye's (wear) in stylus's ?

I know lighting is key but with previous USB microscopes it was just an exercise of frustration and were only realistically about x75 at best; and not the true 100x-200x needed that is grain free enough to be useful. You could see the tip, yup it's still there and pointy, and yeah it needs a cleaning; but nothing more than that can really be seen.

I have a shop mill with an x,y,z table that I can jig up a microscope to, to make adjustments of .001" in all three axis, to help dial in and not shake.

Thanks

[wer]

Waiting to one of these
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004787398256.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.4.48f4f19cVZDZR7

Should arrive next week, with report.

[tomatamot]

Waiting to one of these
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004787398256.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.4.48f4f19cVZDZR7

Should arrive next week, with report.

WOW  , Werner, badly, that's what I need too. 

 

[floppybootstomp]

Waiting to one of these
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004787398256.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.4.48f4f19cVZDZR7

Should arrive next week, with report.

Elektor magazine were offering a similar model to that a few months back but it cost at least twice the price of the one at that link.

I await your findings with interest Werner.

[tomatamot]

Elektor magazine were offering a similar model to that a few months back but it cost at least twice the price of the one at that link.

I await your findings with interest Werner.

And I just ordered: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005743990526.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.4e976d76PJyNGt&gatewayAdapt=glo2nld

 

[wer]

You did better than I Hans, either I did not see it, or if appeared after I ordered.

[MusicNirvana]

And I just ordered: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005743990526.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.4e976d76PJyNGt&gatewayAdapt=glo2nld

 

Please let us know what you think of it? I had a very similar one that was good for circuit board work and inspection but could never get more than 80x that was useful, sharp and grain free. The digital zoom feature for me was pretty useless.  I need to find a version that is good to at least 200x without digital zoom in order to properly see "Cat Eye's" (wear) on a stylus.

For most things, one doesn't need to have crisp, sharp images at 150X; but unfortunately you do approx. tip wear. Like the examples from fellow member martin_bell

Looking forward to anyone who's been able to achieve this with a USB microscope?

The Ortofon pictures are not mine but they do make a point.

Worn Ortofon 2M Black after 1000 hours of use, clearly visible are the "cats eyes"


Brand new 2M Black


These were taken using a Shure SEK microscope especially made for inspecting stylus wear. The biggie is the lighting.
The lighting is wrong on most of these USB scopes including mine, and there isn't enough magnification. The SEK scope lights the diamond from each side, and runs 100x to 200x magnification. Not much depth of field, but perfect for stylus and cantilever inspections.

For example here are some on my Chinese scope of my AT-150MLx.. kinda useless and by moving it I can make it look different from all different angles, the other issue is the auto compensated exposure which I can't change.

[tomatamot]

Please let us know what you think of it? I had a very similar one that was good for circuit board work and inspection but could never get more than 80x that was useful, sharp and grain free. The digital zoom feature for me was pretty useless.  I need to find a version that is good to at least 200x without digital zoom in order to properly see "Cat Eye's" (wear) on a stylus.

For most things, one doesn't need to have crisp, sharp images at 150X; but unfortunately you do approx. tip wear. Like the examples from fellow member martin_bell

Looking forward to anyone who's been able to achieve this with a USB microscope?

Please read description & Specs, and buy the best and safest: the most expensive!