Cartridge cleaning

Yes, this is a topic that has been debated a lot on A'gon! I'm sure the other experts will chime in shortly.

Meanwhile I have the Discwasher fluid & brush. I use the fluid very, very, very sparingly (for the fear of having the fluid run up the cantilever into the coils & magnet system). I have found that most of the time several gentle brushes with *only* the Discwasher brush gets the stylus clean. I shine a flashlight on the stylus & observe if I can see light thru the stylus. If affirmative, the stylus is clean. If not, I use a stingy drop of Discwasher fluid & repeat the cleaning process. With a bit of fluid I can get the stylus clean to my satisfaction.
I do not have personal experience w/ the Zerodust product but my friend uses it. I personally do not think that it scrubs the stylus clean enough. It seems to be good for in-between LP plays but not for getting off the black stuff that sticks to the stylus over several LP plays. Of course, JMHO. FWIW. YMMV.

Hey Doug,

That's right! The light passing thru my stylus is also amber coloured rather than white.
The point I was trying to make is that when the stylus is clean, then it will appear translucent (with whatever colour it is supposed to be as each manuf. is different). However, when the stylus is dirty, no light will pass thru it & it should signal the user to clean the stylus.
Best would be to look @ the colour of a brand new cart. before mounting it just so that you have a colour ref. If not possible or too late, then as long as light passes thru it, you should be fine. FWIW.

Doug,

I was thinking about the colour of the stylus after posting a reply to you.

The stylus is a diamond tip. We all know that the more colourless & clear it is, the more the price of it increases exponentially. Thus, it is highly unlikely that a clear, white diamond tip will be used for the job of tracking a LP groove. The most plentiful & natural occuring colour of diamond in nature is in the yellow/amber/beige family. So, I think that this colour will more than likely be used to make stylii for cartridges. I'm sure that if we polled others on this forum many others would report an amber coloured stylii. FWIW.