It was time and past to cull my LP collection; I don’t have any shelf space for the new stuff I’ve brought home from Half Price recently. To figure out what I might like to get rid of, I started pulling out some albums for audition that I’d never listened to before, mostly from Jaxon’s collection. I got through two or three when the records suddenly began sounding fuzzy and muffled, then started skipping (which should NOT have been happening). Finally it dawned on me that, after ten years, the diamond chip on the stylus (the needle, for you non-audiophiles) had finally worn out and broken off, and I needed to get a nerw one.
So all auditions are now on hold, while I wait for a new stylus to arrive from someplace in Nevada. And while I was about it, I went on and ordered a 78 RPM stylus too, so I can try playing some of Dad’s and Grandfather’s old square-dance and round-dance 78s, and see which of them might be worth keeping or ripping to CD.
