What devices have you found useful when inspecting your stylii for cleanliness?

lewm,

guilty, I knew it at the time about the stylus, but safely seeing while cleaning the stylus is important.

I didn’t imagine cleaning lp’s to be a part of this, but when he mentioned how hard it is for him to see combined with checking between sides, ....

De nada.

I just use my iPhone, put it in camera mode, then zoom in.

lak,

interesting, but the max is only 3.5x, and getting the right distance to the object is important, not to mention, viewing the underside which is why a magnifying mirror works well.

@lewm

Thanks, I can see where you are coming from, even if I cannot see my own stylus! Just as an aside, what do you consider the back of the stylus to be, the bit that faces the oncoming groove or the bit that is essier to see?

My tone arm dates from about 1972, and is an SME 3009 Series II improved with fixed head shell.  SME sold almost half a million similar arms but I have no idea how many had fixed head shells.  Secondhand it is worth less than 1/10 of your Tri-Planar!

SME gets most of the credit for the industry standard head shell socket, which was actually by Ortofon.  The advantages of a fixed head shell include less mass, more rigidity and fewer electrical connections.  The disadvantage is, er, it is fixed.

My current cartridges are both Moving Magnet types, so the stylii can be pulled out of the cartridge body, though I have not been game enough to try this yet.

I takes just a few minutes to unscrew the four screws holding the arm to the base and unplug its DIN connector, so I can look at the whole assembly upside down.  Or just undoing two bolts achieves the same thing but does not guarantee to keep the previous alignment.

Happy to do this every few months to look for wear, but I really want something that helps each day, and ideally has near zero set-up time