The Hardest Naturally Occurring Substance on Earth

It's simple physics. According to my handbook for sound engineers, the contact area of the stylus is 0.2 millionths of a square inch. That means a tracking force of 1 gram (0.0022 lbs) divided by the contact area is 11,000 psi. That is way more pressure on the diamond than the jack hammers that cut the diamonds out of the mines.

When you own an expensive stylus, it’s simply disconcerting to play records with deep scratches and gouges that will result in loud POPs at best, and groove jumps at worst. It SEEMS like that would induce more wear on the diamond - but is it enough to matter if most of your collection is "clean"? And have there ever been any formal studies to the effects of such records on stylus wear? We don’t seem to have too much in the way of studies (or agreement) on stylus wear rates even in typical conditions. And what about the end groove "pop". Does that wear the stylus faster than a clean groove, even though the linear speed is very slow at the end? A guy posted a couple years ago about accidentally leaving his cartridge running in the end groove over a long weekend - he said the stylus was toast. 100 hours in normal grooves wouldn’t kill a stylus like that - or was it lack of cleaning that was the problem?

I have 2 arms on my main table, and any records I know to be very rough/scratchy, or generally suspect, will get played on the arm with the "lesser" (but still expensive) cartridge. Records with damaged grooves that skip will be tossed in the trash when identified. Beyond that, I try to not be too paranoid as that can kill the enjoyment of our systems - but I do exercise caution. I do have one record I really like with an end groove that fails to "catch" (Dust: "Hard Attack"), sending the stylus careening into its water-damaged label. Yikes! I wrote a note on the label to remind myself, lol (though these days I also use massive record weights that will block the headshell from advancing over the label).

And I do agree that our ears are one of the best tools for detecting a worn stylus. Especially listen for sonic grunge on the inner grooves - and try not to worry too much!

I did know that audiophile are using rough/scratchy records.

I was thinking even a MINT- copy considered rough by audiophiles who clean every record with vacuum cleaners before each play, especially those who would like to hear vinyl as digital.

I am surprised.
Personally, I try to avoid scratchy records, no reason to buy them and many reason to replace them with better copy sooner or later, if the record is really good one. Is it a problem to replace VG+ for MINT- and sell VG+ then ?

Of course, some records are very rare and hard to find or extremely expensive in higher grades. I have no problem playing the occasional VG or even a G+ of an album I love until I can source a better one. I did that with a G+ Metallica "Ride the Lightning" I found locally, until I pulled a VG+/EX off DiscOgs. Though to be fair my G+ mostly just had a very very high noise floor; it didn’t really have much in the way of banging loud pops. But some records are 99% clean and then have that banging loud POP or 2 out of seemingly nowhere. It happens. I’m not going to stop playing them - but I do try hard to keep them of the Koetsu Blue Lace. And of course I also draw the line at a groove jump/skip.

Again, I’m an advocate of enjoying the gear and keeping paranoia at a reasonable, cautious level. And I’m not the kind of audiophile to listen to Krall/Barber/Stanley/SRV/Dire Straits on repeat all the time, so previously "well loved" heavy metal albums get playback here. And I still prefer a great pressing in G+ or VG over digital copies most of the time. I don’t even have a digital source on the main 2ch system. And of course I prefer EX or NM, but I'm really quite happy with a VG+ if that's all I can get.

Yes Chak
Real enthusiasts and lovers of music will play less than mint records on their systems.

As already stated it may not be possible right away to locate a mint or EX copy or quite likely not financially viable!

I have a lot of VG/VG+ records that I have no qualms playing on my rig although none of my carts are to the order of Mulvelings but still a few 2 to 3k mc carts in the mix.