The differences in size are truly astounding, especially if you compare them under magnification. A friend once photographed four styli at 200x and printed them out for me. IIRC it was a Grado (forget the model), a Denon 103, a Shelter 901 and a ZYX R100 Fuji.
The photos made it difficult to believe these four objects were even made for the same purpose. The Grado looked like a jackhammer bit and the Denon like a chisel. The Shelter was more like a chef's knife. The ZYX was a surgeon's scalpel. Truly incredible when seen side-by-side.
I presume styli like ZYX uses are harder to make accurately. Styli like the Grado's are so huge that accuracy at the ZYX level would be, um, pointless.
In addition to the benefits already discussed, a small, line contact stylus obviously can "see" smaller groove modulations than a large, conical stylus. Large styli slide ride over high frequencies that fine styli can trace.
I don't know about wear, but advanced styli are certainly more sensitive to alignment. A large conical doesn't care much about SRA. A small line contact needs perfect SRA to reproduce its timbre, imaging and soundstaging magic. Once you've heard that however, it's very hard to go back.
The photos made it difficult to believe these four objects were even made for the same purpose. The Grado looked like a jackhammer bit and the Denon like a chisel. The Shelter was more like a chef's knife. The ZYX was a surgeon's scalpel. Truly incredible when seen side-by-side.
I presume styli like ZYX uses are harder to make accurately. Styli like the Grado's are so huge that accuracy at the ZYX level would be, um, pointless.
In addition to the benefits already discussed, a small, line contact stylus obviously can "see" smaller groove modulations than a large, conical stylus. Large styli slide ride over high frequencies that fine styli can trace.
I don't know about wear, but advanced styli are certainly more sensitive to alignment. A large conical doesn't care much about SRA. A small line contact needs perfect SRA to reproduce its timbre, imaging and soundstaging magic. Once you've heard that however, it's very hard to go back.