Ok, so we're in lockdown. Can't go to shows, can't get out to events. No worries, right? You have tons of records lying around you've been meaning to listen to anyways: new ones you've recently bought, some old favorites to revisit, and some killer upcoming releases on your radar.
So, consider corona quarantine primo album spinning time.
But then the question arises, as you're spinning your albums, when was the last time you changed your stylus? How often should you change your stylus? How many cumulative hours of play do you have on your current stylus? Are you actually damaging your albums with each spin by using a worn out needle?
Well, turns out a stylus needs to changed about every 1000 hours or so. It varies by company and materials, but it's a rough estimate. So, if you play albums 2 hours a day on a regular basis, that means every 1 - 2 years you should change your stylus. Who keeps track of that? Then you get something like Corona quarantine, where you turntable becomes your best friend. How many more hours have you logged in the last 6 weeks? Hundreds? Who knows?
Fortunately, Don Linich, the syndicated writer of the Sound Advice column (that I read religiously every week - an absolutely fantastic resource if you're looking to buy new tech) has the perfect solution.
The Stylus Timer is the odometer for your turntable. Simply place this handy device near your platter, hit it when you start spinning albums, and stop it when you're done. The manually operated timer counts hours of play and has an operation light as well as a reset button with a safety feature to avoid accidents. This is key. Most timers count seconds, minutes and hours -- and not many hours. That's not gonna work for us vinyl freaks. The Stylus Timer counts the number of the hours the needle spends in the grooves of your records -- up to the 1000's of hours, which is what we need to truly log our playing time. You can't inadvertently erase the hours log (there's a reset button) and the number of hours is automatically remembered when you go to change batteries. Cool.
The Stylus timer is available at https://www.stylustimer.com/ and costs only $19.95 with free shipping, about the price of one album, and it's going to be an essential part of your soundsystem to get the best performance from your stylus and protect your valued collection from damage. I find that I'm already shocked at how quickly that little timer is moving just as I play records while working at my desk.
Quickly finding that the Stylus Timer is indispensable for me.
Now go spin some albums
--Racer
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