do record cleaning fluids soften the treble?

Interesting comments above because my experience is different. Many of the fluids I have tried change the tonal balance by thinning the bass and accentuating the treble, making the overall sound brighter and thinner than the LP was to begin with. This varies in degree but has been true for me with all of the AI fluids, the Mint LP and some others whose names I am forgetting right now. The "super pure" water rinses have the same effect even when used without a cleaner.

The exceptions to this thinner/brighter change are Disc Doctor and (my current favorite) L'Art du Son.

The same results were obtained on my Nitty Gritty 2.5Fi and Loricraft vac machines.

Dave

Doug, Your logic appears reasonable but the results don't agree with what I hear with my own ears.

Fortunately, everyone is free to make their own conclusions about record cleaning. What works for me is very simple---I only clean records that need cleaning. To my ears the "uncleaned" record usually sounds better, so why subject a record to cleaning if it doesn't need it?

The very word "cleaning" implies that cleaning is an improvement. But maybe other things are going on than just cleaning. People get hung up on whether cleaning fluids leave a residue behind. Maybe the concern is whether they remove something from the record surface that actually contributes to the sound quality.

The why behind all this is really not terribly important to me. I have no interest in exploring the chemistry of records or cleaning solutions. All I want to do is enjoy the music on my records, and if someone wants to call this distortion, that's ok. After all, I listen to records on an all-tube system; maybe I like distortion.

Dave

Stanwal and Notec, just to be clear, I am not recommending that anybody play dirty records. If a record is dirty, it needs to be cleaned. Period. My comments are directed to records that are already clean (both visually and in listening) but haven't gone through a cleaning fluid/vacuum process. In my experience, a record that is already clean does not sound as good after the fluid/vacuum cleaning, so I don't do that type of cleaning routinely. I only do it where it is needed.

Also, I use a carbon fiber brush to wipe off the surface of each record before I play it, and I wipe the stylus with a dry brush before I play each record.

Opus88, You are clearly a man of discriminating good taste.

Dave