My experience cleaning a Stylus

[Made in 1968]

Exactly why i dont spend silly money on Cartridges & a vey good reason not to use MC's not that i like them anyway.. ffks it will cost me £60 for a spare styli for the Cartridge i have now which will indeed break my heart hence i seldom listen to records, not missing much anyway so you know. If i just use it once every month fot an hour or so that wil be cool..

[Audio Al]

I dont suffer those problems as all my LP's are cleaned 1st in a ultrasonic tank , Then on the PRC4 RCM ,

I also have a VP Dust Buster that I lower the stylus onto if I see a bit of fluff

[RobbieGong]

I dont suffer those problems as all my LP's are cleaned 1st in a ultrasonic tank , Then on the PRC4 RCM ,

I also have a VP Dust Buster that I lower the stylus onto if I see a bit of fluff

Never tried it but meant to be good stuf the VP Dust buster, (wish it was a bit cheaper though)

[ReggieB]

As with others, I find the primary essential is keeping the records clean. As well as a cleaning machine (I have a Nitty Gritty), I find using good record sleeves stops static build up, which greatly eases keeping the records clean. I swear by the Mobile Fidelity Record Inner Sleeves.

When I do need to clean the stylus, I uses one of the gummy pads that you drop the stylus onto, and the dirty adheres to it leaving the stylus clean when you lift it away. I've tried a variety of different types, but my current favourite is the DS Audio ST50 Stylus Cleaner, which though more expensive than some, is very easy to use and effective.

[Audio Al]

Never tried it but meant to be good stuf the VP Dust buster, (wish it was a bit cheaper though)

Robbie , as with all low production items it pushes the manufacturing price up , It is good though , Just lower the TT arm onto the black sticky stuff , then raise the arm and lower onto your record

[Audio Al]

As with others, I find the primary essential is keeping the records clean. As well as a cleaning machine (I have a Nitty Gritty), I find using good record sleeves stops static build up, which greatly eases keeping the records clean. I swear by the Mobile Fidelity Record Inner Sleeves.

When I do need to clean the stylus, I uses one of the gummy pads that you drop the stylus onto, and the dirty adheres to it leaving the stylus clean when you lift it away. I've tried a variety of different types, but my current favourite is the DS Audio ST50 Stylus Cleaner, which though more expensive than some, is very easy to use and effective.

Bolldy hell £80

[Clive197]

Bolldy hell £80

Wouldn’t be without mine. Expensive but very well worth it. Had mine for over a year now and my styli are all pristine.

[Mike Reed]

Hi Mike, You caught me out, I am an uneducated grammar school boy who scraped a D in English O-Level and D in English Literature, but got a A in mathematics. Speaking and writing properly is not my forté I'm afraid. No offence taken; I am open to constructive criticism even at my age.




I would recommend the LP-S greatly and I know a very helpful supplier who can offer an extremely good price if you are interested, but need to do so before the EU and the VAT thing gets sorted out.

Cheers

Luckily for me, maths is not a great skill for communication, but I was also a lowly B class grammar school boy and it sounds like we might be both in the senile citizen category ! Thanks for the comment, but my ulterior motive is to practise my hard-learnt skills now that the old brain cells are withering.

[AJSki2fly]

I dont suffer those problems as all my LP's are cleaned 1st in a ultrasonic tank , Then on the PRC4 RCM ,

I also have a VP Dust Buster that I lower the stylus onto if I see a bit of fluff

Yes the more you clean them the longer it will take for the black stuff to build up, but from what I have read just having the record on the turntable whilst playing dust and dirt will get into the groove and will get turned into the black goo.

Maybe this is why some advocate cleaning a record immediately before playing it.

[scotty38]

I stopped using my dustbuster as I wasn't quite sure about how it pulled the cantilever as it was lifted off plus I am convinced it introduced some gunk (may have been what had been previously deposited). Since I started only playing cleaned records (Project RCM) my stylus has never been visibly dirty. I do have a USB and a real microscope so should perhaps have a look at some point.