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Thread: What's your favourite stylus cleaner?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

    Posts: 110,012
    I'm AudioAl'sArbiterForPISHANTO.

    Default What's your favourite stylus cleaner?

    It's a bit of an anal subject, I know, but I've been through loads of different kinds, and most recently I've been using the Audio Technica AT-607 stuff in the bottle with the little brush, which seemed to do the job ok.

    However I recently ordered some Record Research Lab stuff from Cool Gales shown here:

    http://www.coolgales.com/store/cart....category_id=39

    And when used it seems to quite noticeably improve sound quality. I guess it must clean better and leave less of a deposit on the stylus. The effect is not massive but there is definitely more detail and clarity in the sound after use compared to other types I've had.

    So what kinds of stylus cleaners do others use, and have you found it to noticeably improve sound quality?

    Marco.
    Main System

    Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

    Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.

    Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

    CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

    Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

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    Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

    Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.


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  2. #2
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: North East UK

    Posts: 6,358
    I'm InSpace.

    Default

    Audio Technica AT-637.

    Best thing in the world for this job. Don't care what anyone else thinks either!

    Just like this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/audio-technica...QQcmdZViewItem
    Shian7
    --------------------------------------------------------

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    kudakutemo

    ari mizu-no tsuki

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    broken again - still it's there:
    the moon on the water.

    - Choshu.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Newport

    Posts: 391
    I'm Simon.

    Default

    I use either an Onzow Zerodust or the rather nice and very effective brush I got with the Lyra Dorian.

    I avoid using any fluids after hearing a few horror stories of them going up the cantilever and causing damage to the rubbers and other workings in the cart itself.

    I have battery operated Audio Technic vibrating cleaner but I bought that more of the fact I wanted one and it was a good price rather than to use it

  4. #4
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Ayrshire

    Posts: 1,359
    I'm OneOfTheSevenModsWhoToldMarcoNotToLiftHarry'sBan.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Shian7 View Post
    Audio Technica AT-637.

    Best thing in the world for this job. Don't care what anyone else thinks either!

    Just like this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/audio-technica...QQcmdZViewItem


    Snap.

    Been using one for over twenty years.

    I don't use fluids,have heard from too many people they can damage the cart.
    ATB

    David

  5. #5
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Lancaster(-ish), UK

    Posts: 16,937
    I'm ChrisB.

    Default

    I've got an AT electronic cleaner, but I'm buggered if I can find it since the last house move - it's in one of those boxes, but which? I've got a carbon fibre brush for quick use but before each listening session I use one or both of the following.

    I read a lot about the trick with the Magic Eraser. I was a bit wary about the ME because of stories of it being so aggressive it removed styli from cantilevers if not used correctly. It's made of melamine foam. I bought one anyway - about 3 quid for 2 which is more than you would ever need in your lifetime - even if you were the curator of the National Stylus Museum!

    Seems to work well, but I'm still very, very careful. I cut a small square out & glued it onto a 2p piece. Wedge the platter to stop it turning, put it on the platter & lower the stylus into the ME, then straight up again. Use the lift/lower mech so there's no sideways movement at all because this is how people have lost their stylus. I only use it for heavy duty work - every now & then I get one of those fine hairs/fibres stuck on there with gunk & a quick brush or the Sticky Hands alone just will not shift it. So I give it a dip into the ME then a quick fondle with the sticky hands!!

    As for the Sticky Hands:
    Works the same way as the £30 Zerodust - but I got 24 of them for under a fiver! You have to keep it in an airtight container or it will dry out. Works really well. Once again you dip the stylus in with the lift/lower mech.

    The URL's below are not necessarily where I got my bits & bobs from but are purely to let folks see what I'm talking about.

    Magic Eraser: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/product.aspx/!9009

    Sticky Hands: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wholesale-Lot-...dZp1638Q2em122

    Best of all though, is of course the record cleaning machine - if the records are clean then so's the stylus for the most part. Since I bought my Moth RCM, I'm cleaning the stylus less & less, but I haven't got even a fifth of the way through cleaning them all yet.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Norwich

    Posts: 1,064
    I'm Mike.

    Default

    TGW Bet Lakeland never thought of that function! Interesting idea, though; would have cost a small fortune if marketed by a hifi company.

    I've been using an AT 637 for yonks, both wet and dry. However, a few months ago I became aware of the necessity to remove my Lyra Helikon and give it a good manual go with isopropryl as the build-up on the stylus had rendered it invisible under a hand-held x 60 microscope.

    Shows that even this revered cleaning device is not foolproof. Or maybe there were other factors at work. I also have a record-cleaning machine.

    Yes, I've heard the stories of cleaning fluid or alcohol travelling up the cantilever, but believe that may be more prevalent in hollow tubed cantilevers. Certainly I've not experienced any degradation as a result; in fact, that thorough clean transformed the sound of my Helikon.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: South West England

    Posts: 958
    I'm Guy.

    Default

    I was told by a cartridge manufacturer never to use an alcohol based liquid for cleaning the stylus.

    Simply because the diamond is fixed into the cantilever with glue that the alcohol will soften.

  8. #8
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK

    Posts: 59
    I'm Leigh.

    Default

    I've used these types:

    The AT637 vibrator - which is good for fluff and dust but no good for vinyl deposits/grease.

    AT607 fluid which is great for vinyl deposits/grease but I'm also a bit wary of using on expensive cartridges though I have done this and never knowingly had problems.

    Zerodust - a semi-solid sticky gel that the stylus sinks into. It deals with all types of dirt but probably less effectively than the above methods.

    Linn sandpaper. This never seemed right so I stopped years ago.

  9. #9
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: DERBY

    Posts: 80
    I'm DAVE.

    Default

    I've had a AT637 for over 20 years but hardly touched it for the last 19!

    I've got a few brushes, those you get when you buy a cartridge...I do a scrape back to front now and again. I've at the moment got 3 record decks which get fairly regular use.....I don't seem to get dirty stylii....dunno what's up with me.....perhaps i need therapy of some sort Any offers of help gratefully accepted.

    Cheers......Dave

  10. #10
    Join Date: Jun 2008

    Location: Oakland, California, USA

    Posts: 19

    Default

    I've had the battery-powered vibrating brush for almost 20 years. Just changed the battery for the first time!!!

    The only other thing that touches my stylus (NO FLUIDS!) is Silly Putty. Yes, seriously.
    My boss from the first hifi shop I ever worked in had done a lot of experimenting with old styli that were traded in by customers - doing all kinds of crazy things to them and then examining them under the microscope (it was a requirement to have one back in the day - we're talking about 25 years ago). One day on the bench, he had a woofer that had been melted by some hammerhead. The rubber surround had become a goopy mess. Just for fun he took a dead cart and stuck the stylus in the sticky goop. He then stuck it under the microscope, expecting to see some black, tarry yuckum.

    Instead he saw a clean, shining, stylus that looked cleaner than he was used to seeing new styli.

    I don't remember how this stepped from melted speaker surround glop to Silly-Putty, but everybody whose been through that shop has been using this method for years, and while it's always seemed like a logical chance, nobody has yet had a stylus ripped from the cantilever by doing this.

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