Replacement Styli
Why Replace Your Turntable's Stylus?
The stylus tip is the tiny component that physically traces the groove of a record, and like any part in constant physical contact, it wears down over time. A worn stylus doesn't just result in reduced detail and increased surface noise - it can also cause genuine, permanent damage to your records, as a degraded tip no longer tracks the groove accurately.
Replacing the stylus rather than the entire cartridge is often the more cost-effective option, since many cartridge designs allow the stylus assembly to be swapped out independently of the cartridge body. This restores tracking accuracy and sound quality to like-new performance at a fraction of the cost of a full cartridge upgrade, making it a sensible maintenance step for anyone who listens to vinyl regularly.
Most manufacturers recommend replacing a stylus after roughly 500 to 1,000 hours of playback, so if you've noticed a decline in sound quality or increased surface noise, a fresh stylus is often the simplest and most effective fix.