Sound deterioration..... Opinions please

[The Black Adder]

I am still regretting using the Knosti. When I was considering getting rid of the vinyl, I 'cleaned' them before transferring them all to CD. Quite a few of them were played wet. Now I am using the records again, most of them need a good clean because of the residue. Its obvious as soon as you take it out of the sleeve - if it will come out as it sticks to plastic ones - and makes a considerable amount of noise when played.

Very frustrating. At some stage I will make a proper RCM or try and find an affordable one second hand.

How important is the amount of suction?? Provided the record is protected with a felt pad, how can there be too much? (on the assumption it doesn't grip too hard to move of course)

I think air flow consistency needs to be a good factor as well as the cleaning pads themselves in regards to the material used to absorb some of the fluid but not all of it so it wouldn't make nasty run out stains on the vinyl.

[chris@panteg]

I have a Knosti and have to agree with negative comments made about it, especially the fluid.

[MCRU]

Good try! How about £7 including free Royal Mail Special Delivery?

as long as you take the fluid out otherwise it weighs over 2kg and will cost you £20+ to send RMSD

having sold 300+ Knostis with not 1 single complainant I suspect there is nothing wrong with the basic system, if knosti had 100's of people complaining their fluid is not good
I suspect being a german company they would have done something about it a long time ago

for audiophiles who don't like the knosti fluid simply buy some fluid off Paul Stewart (I now use it and its the biz) and you have a decent RCM system, use 2 for better results with a distilled water rinser in the 2nd system

the knosti is marketed at the occasional record user I think, not committed audiophiles with TT's costing £1000's, for that purpose it does a good job hence the 100's of 10000's sold worldwide
as confirmed by Tonar International who distribute them (may be a million by now!)

[NRG]

Better eat dung, after all, Trillions of flies can't be wrong... The occasional record user is better off with a good carbon brush. Anybody seriously looking at wet cleaning (presumably because they have a large collection or buy from second hand stores etc) would be better served with a RCM.

[struth]

There is no point in bathing a record and softening up the gunk in the grooves then leaving it there to set harder than before imo. sure the Knosti would work fine if you used suction at the end to remove it all, otherwise youd do better to leave it alone.

[Andrei]

There is no point in bathing a record and softening up the gunk in the grooves then leaving it there to set harder than before imo. sure the Knosti would work fine if you used suction at the end to remove it all, otherwise youd do better to leave it alone.

I use the Spin Clean (same idea as Knosti). Surely the thing to do after cleaning an LP is to give a rinse.

[Gordon Steadman]

I use the Spin Clean (same idea as Knosti). Surely the thing to do after cleaning an LP is to give a rinse.

Undoubtedly so.

However, when I was using the thing, it was stressed that the gunk would be left in the bottom of the bath and the liquid would magically evaporate and leave the LP spotless with no residue.

It was cheap though.

[twotone]

I have a spin clean and it works fine, you can buy them SH for about £50 or £80 new with cleaning fluid and cloths.

[Andrei]

Undoubtedly so.
However, when I was using the thing, it was stressed that the gunk would be left in the bottom of the bath and the liquid would magically evaporate and leave the LP spotless with no residue.
It was cheap though.

I hold no grudges, but what Spin Clean, do is to tell you that 'It is easy' - 'couple of spins and you're done'. It's like 'You are one one click away from a holiday in the Caribbean'. First you have to give about 25 spins, and not the five they say and after a few LPs (8 max for me), and not the zillion they say you can see gunk at the bottom of the water. But the water itself is not clear so rinsing is obvious and mandatory. Luckily we have very good water where I am - aquifers I understand, and a rinse under a tap of water finishes it off. I am still surprised how much difference it makes. About the same as a tonearm upgrade! As an aside the Spin clean does not come with a drying rack so a bought a Knosti rack for a few bob.

[AlfaGTV]

Whatever you use, i'd like to offer a tip on a good cheap cleaning agent:
Tarkett Bioclean
Tarkett is a swedish manufacturer of floor tiles, what we call "click floors".
This BioClean is their agent for cleaning their floors, aka vinyl flooring!
I have recently bought a 1L bottle at £4 at my local building material supplier and have tried on a couple of records.
First, it's extremely concentrated. I did 1mL into 0,5L of chemically clean water from the pharmacy. It was a little too much, the foaming is just over the top when using a suitable brush.
Second, it does not require rinsing or so. And it seems to evaporate rather quickly (Contains a small portion of Ethanol, which is derived from Isopropanol)

The result? It leaves a result which i must say is nearly as good as the one from L'Art Du Son, at about 1000 x the cost.
The surface may appear a bit dryer though, more like youve only used water/iso-based cleaning agent. I know this is why some people dont like l'Art, it leaves a 'shine', which i belive is the reason it still sounds the very best to me.

Anyway, give it a try and tell me what you think? If you're not happy, use it on the floors!