Long Term Stylus Storage

revox-b77

Super Member
So I like several others here have NOS replacement styli for a bunch of my cartridges. These styli are no longer available and very pricy when found. The rub is in many cases these styli are not going to be used for years. Many years in fact. So as we all know the suspensions dry out and the stylus may or not become junk.

I was thinking about this and the causes for rubber breakdown. Ozone eats rubber. Air may dry out some rubbers. Light exposure damages some rubber. My styli are in a fishing tackle box. That is dark so no light issues so that leaves air. Thinking about this I began to wonder if there would be a benefit in storing styli in a vacuum? Wife has a seal-a-meal. It would be pretty easy to box them so they would not get crushed and suck all of the air out.

What say ye? Could vacuum storage help in long term protection?
 
Or, suspension breakdown could be a result of interaction between compounds it's made from. An air free, dark environment may be effectual but there's only one way to find out - a long term experiment. Can't imagine that what you propose would accelerate degradation if prone to it.

I bought a NOS Empire stylus from the 1960's in it's original packaging and the suspension was hard as rock. No way to tell if it was environmental or otherwise. Might have even been a reaction with the foam rubber (long disintegrated) inside the case. Could be they just do that with age and nothing would have prevented it.
 
Van den Hul recommends putting them in the freezer for long-term storage, and he should know — I have the interview somewhere, I'll try to find it. It has many, many points of interest. Your idea of sealing in a vacuum, and storing the sealed bag in your freezer, seems like two good ideas in combination. I don't see how it cause any damage.
 
One thing that comes to mind would be to squirt the bag full of nitrogen to displace any moisture and oxygen, like they do with bagged salads. But I guess you'd have no real way of knowing if the gas gradually diffused out of the bag. At least if the bag is under a vacuum, it's pretty obvious later if the seal is still intact.
Also, you said that air dries out rubber. Remember, a bag in a partial vacuum is going to be extremely dry.
 
I still have and use a original N91ed stylus for a Shure m91. The suspension on it has begun to sag but still sounds great. 2x7 ellipticals are special in my world. Can't use more than 1 gram or it gets to close to the record. Wish I had a way to stiffen it a bit. It is sometimes used on my Dual 1219. The vacuum sealing you mentioned sound like a good idea. Not sure about the freezing, as the temps in the freezer change every time you open the door. Might create condensation in the storage container. Just my thoughts.
 
Not sure about the freezing .... Might create condensation in the storage container.
My first thought too when I read the Van den Hul interview: must seal it against moisture. But it was just one line in a very long interview — I'm sure if he'd spent a paragraph or two on it, he'd have covered that very obvious point. I tend to have great respect for the pioneers — which doesn't mean unquestioning respect.

Also, I've varying results from supposedly identical cartridges from a single manufacturer, when it comes to suspensions. Of course different treatment and environmental exposures over the years can account for it, but maybe they changed suspension materials without notice — if a supplier ran out, or went out of business, or a "new improved" variant appeared. They usually recommended a new stylus every 400–500 hours — they were thinking of diamond life not suspension life, and they surely weren't thinking of us 30–40 years in the future.
 
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If not properly sealed, it probably would cause too dry of a condition? Like freezer “burned” meat? Another thought, if the suspension is made from a petrolium product, freezing might cause it to break down more quickly. I live in Alaska and experience some of these issues with rubber car parts......and speaker foam.
 
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