Stylus Wear Question

Dear @stringreen  : In the last 2 months did you listen, on LP tracks that you know very well, some anomalies that you never listened before?

If not then you have not to worry about but by the contrary then the JC advise is the best one.

A microscope can serve to you as for just some fun and nothing more because you are not an expert for can say by sure that the stylus tip has something " wrong " but some cartridge anomalies not necessary could come because the stylus tip degradation but from the cartridge suspension too and this you can determine in any way.

The Windfeld is very good performer and maybe you can take advantage through Ortofon to own the Ti that's even better.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

@karl_desch , absolutely right. If you do not have an adequate stand with Vernier control all you will see is a shaky mess but there are reasonably priced digital microscopes sold with decent stands. 
There is also some truth to what Raul says. You need to know what you are looking at and for. Early on wear is hard to see and your lighting needs to be perfect to see it. You will have to spend several hours learning to use the microscope. If you are mechanically inclined it should not be a problem. Alignment problems are easy to see. I always take a picture of the stylus when it is new so I can compare profiles. It is easier to spot wear this way. I also use the microscope for setting VTA. This is the only thing I look at with the stylus mounted otherwise always remove the cartridge for examination. 
With clean records styli will last a long time. Given the huge range of record hygiene I think it is folly to try and predict how long a stylus will last in any given situation.  

At the risk of tooting my own horn, I did a deep dive on this issue- stylus life- in helping Mike Bodell publish an article on the subject entitled "The Finish Line for Your Phono Cartridge." Mike, who is a geologist by training, found that his cartridge was beginning to exhibit signs of wear at far fewer hours than those claimed by the manufacturer, which led him to explore the subject extensively, starting with Harold Weiler’s seminal paper from 1954. Mike updated Weiler’s work based on what he was able to learn, including discussions with manufacturers and retippers and a search of the literature. He also had help from Ray Parkhurst, who not only did the photomacrographs for the article, but in a thread on the Hoffman forum, did a real time test of wear using a lower stylus force than I am accustomed to-- interestingly, Ray’s real life tests showed very little wear at 1,000 hours, when Mike’s expectation based on the data should have revealed otherwise. (I think part of it may be stylus pressure- remember when the ultra light stylus force designs were all the rage? Maybe they had something there). I guess the main take away is that the multiple thousand hours claimed by some manufacturers is probably the outside limit.
One user on the Hoffman forum said he had been running a cartridge for years without any noticeable wear. But, once he finally convinced himself to have it inspected, it turned out that it was worn (I think it was a London Decca) and had it redone by the manufacturer. The user reported that he had not realized how much gradual degradation occurs over time that you don’t really notice. (I find the same with tubes).
The other take away for me was to keep track using a tally counter. It isn’t a big deal to click the counter each time you play a side- this is "rough" approximation, not scientifically exact, but gives you some idea of how many hours of play are on the stylus. You might find the Bodell article or the Hoffman thread of interest if you curious about the subject. (I like working on these projects with specialist authors and always learn something).

Dear @whart  : Years ago Ortofon made it its own research about and the results showed that a good stylus tip starts to have signs of playing degradation at early as 500 hours even that the lisrteners can't be aware of any single anomaly down there through the LP play, in that same research found out that close to 1K playing hours sympthoms  srarted listenable.

""  I think part of it may be stylus pressure- remember when the ultra light stylus force designs were all the rage? Maybe they had something there). ""

Not exactly because the VTF is determined by the overall cartridge designs where are involved the cartridge weigth, compliance and that coils been centered.

Some cartridges as the SPU needs high VTF figures ( not all models. ) but all is perfectly calculated by the designer not only in the SPU cartridges but in any cartridge for the playing hours the designer has as the cartridge design target about with out gone in detriment of accelerated stylus tip degradation or LP surface degradations.

Of course I can be wrong but that is what I remember and learned through reading designer point of views on that regards.

R.

The user reported that he had not realized how much gradual degradation occurs over time that you don’t really notice.

This is why it’s important to have more than one cartridge (or additional stylus in case with MM/MI) so you can compare used and almost unused sample.

The OP has the most advanced modern profiles in the history - The Replicant 100