Stylus Wear Question

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 

it's like car shock absorbers, you travel miles and miles getting used to driving and slow but inexorable wear and you don't notice it until the car begins to skid more and more with the passage of time.

I have been away for a while and am sorry that I missed this discussion last week.  I have a Wild-Herrbrugg M5 microscope, (actually I also have an M3), and use it religiously to check for wear on my stylii.  Wild-Herrbrugg has been absorbed into Leica, but is still very much in business and these microscopes, especially the M5 are the cats meow for our purposes.  We used one for years to check the condition of stylii for our customers when I worked in retail.  McIntosh encouraged their dealers to have an M5.  Audio Technica encouraged their dealers to have an M3.  These instruments are old fashioned, optical bi-focal microscopes.  Too expensive by today's standards I suppose, but I am used to using them and and fortunate to have them.  I wish there was a way to share them with you.