To replace needles or not...can photos help?

Hi all,

I somewhat hijacked another post (sorry Brian) regarding needles for my M100C that has a Pickering 345-03D.

The tech that removed my amp yesterday for repair, said he thought the needles should be replaced.

After posting yesterday to ask for any recommendations on the after-market vendors, Ron kindly advised that "If you have the green ones, and the needle pressure/balance is set correctly, they last "forever"--If the support shank is good, have them re-tipped, if need be"

Ron, and others, is there anything obvious you can see from the photos below that would support the advice to replace? Or am I being ridiculous to think photos can help, and it needs a "trained ear" to actually listen to how they are performing?

Many thanks, as always, in advance for your advice.

Hi Max,
They look perfect to me ?? How do they sound ?
Ron Rich

Max, if the arm is properly balanced and tracking at no more than 3 gram with clean vinyl records, 5K-6K "A" side plays is about right.

One of the clues is the accumulation of black shavings from the records as the styli become chisels along with black deposits on the styli plastics.. Not good. Yours do not look bad and in home service it is unlikely that anywhere near 6000 plays have been reached.

If you have an amp or receiver with preamp for magnetic cart, plug the cart in and listen on decent speakers which will be more revealing them the juke amp and spks.

Rob

Along with tubes, needles/cartridges are often replaced as part of a "restoration". Many times they are perfectly fine before the replacement. This jukebox has been restored, so I'd be willing to bet they are relatively new. Only real way to tell if they are bad is under high magnification or "listen" to records, which is subjective.