On 3/27/2014 3:37 PM, Kurt Nauck wrote:

> I've been contacted by an individual wishing to digitize a number of aluminum
> Remsen home recording discs. Any ideas what sort of size & shape of stylus he
> should use?

A few IF's...

If these are bare aluminum, they are probably embossed grooves.

If they were ever played, the grooves probably show some wear.

If so, the position of the wear will be determined by the condition of the 
playback stylus

Thus, it is not a slam-dunk to suggest a stylus for best playback results.

Ideally, you should test a few sizes and shapes.

A conical stylus may not do well because the embossed groove may have more of a 
concave profile than the "V" shape of a cut groove and the conical tip will 
rattle around the groove bottom producing a lot of noise in the process.

A truncated elliptical stylus may produce the best results by remaining in 
contact with two points on the groove edge, PROVIDED those groove edges have 
not suffered damage from the previously used playback stylus.

A few sizes of truncated elliptical styli would likely produce the best 
results, starting with a 2.0 mil and going up in 1/2 mil increments to a 4 mil 
if the embossing was deep.  One or more of these will probably produce better 
results than the others.



... Graham Newton

-- 
Audio Restoration by Graham Newton, http://www.audio-restoration.com
World class professional services applied to tape or phonograph records for
consumers and re-releases, featuring CEDAR's CAMBRIDGE processes.