Hi all,
Having moved house and settled in nicely with the TT on a lovely new Isoblue rack I decided it was time to get down to a bit of record cleaning as a few of the new slabs of vinyl I've bought in the last few months were sounding pretty ropey.
Now I have to say, I'm not new to record cleaning. I've previously owned a Moth MKII RCM. The main reason I never really got on with it and eventually ended up selling it was that it was just too damned noisy. But I have to say that the results I got from it always underwhelmed me.
The problem I have is the amount of pops I get having been as meticulous as I can be following the clean. Question number 1 here for the seasoned experts is 'Should I expect a fair few noisy pops and clicks for the first few plays after a cleaning session?'. I ask this because after getting down to work with my Disc Doctor brushes and fluid last night, what I got at the end was overall a much improved sound from the records I cleaned, but a pretty unacceptable level of clicks and pops once I'd sat down for a listen. Within 5 minutes I put the arm back to its resting position and ran a carbon fibre brush around the record a few times, which was a slight improvement but it was still pretty noisy - I guess that was just as likely to have been improved by playing as it was by the CF brush.
I guess question 2 is do I need to buy another RCM? I have to say that having owned the Disc Doctor brushes and fluid for about a year or so, I'm generally impressed by what it does apart from this infuriating level of clicking and popping after cleaning - but I got the same from my Moth. Is it just all in my technique, which last night was thus:
Two brushes - One for applying cleaning fluid, another for rinsing. both brushes had brand new cleaning pads applied to them last night.
DD cleaning fluid applied to first pad and worked into the record sat on a flat, clean table with a clean cotton cloth underneath. Brushes working around the record for around two minutes per side. Dried off with brand new micro-fibre cloth, then take second brush which has been dipped in distilled water and again work around the record for around 2 minutes and again dried off with a second brand new micro-fibre cloth, then left to air dry a bit further before playing.
It was quite frustrating having used all new pads and new cloths only to find that I'm STILL getting a lot of clicks and pops.
Am I doing it all wrong, do I just need to play or brush the records a bit more, or are my expectations too high?
Any insight muchly appreciated.