While record grooves have been studied by transmission electron microscopy with replica techniques, and by optical microscopy, the former are cumbersome and restricted and the latter limited by lack of depth of focus and resolution at higher magnification. With its great depth of focus and ease in specimen manipulation, the scanning electron microscope is admirably suited for record wear studies.A special RCA sweep frequency test record was used with both lateral and vertical modulation bands. The signal is a repetitive, constant-velocity sweep from 2 to 20 kHz having a duration and repetitive rate of approximately 0.1 sec. and a peak velocity of 5.5 cm/s.A series of different pickups and numbers of plays were used on vinyl records. One centimeter discs were then cut out, mounted and coated with 200 Å of gold to prevent charging during examination. Wear studies were made by taking micrographs of record grooves having 1, 10 and 50 plays with each stylus and comparing with typical “no-play” grooves. Fig. 1 shows unplayed grooves in a vinyl pressing with sweep-frequency modulation in the lateral mode.
