How often, and how, do you clean your stylus?

My own microscope reveals tiny white flakes , more on cantilever than on stylus, left behind by ME. It was easy to remove with a brush.

Humminguru s-duo. For the man with cojones. Never heard of it before now.

Of course the electronic stylus cleaners do not work through cavitation and could not possibly do so. You need a liquid medium in which to generate the bubbles.  There is no claim that I ever saw that they operate by cavitation or that they are even truly ultrasonic.  Somehow, that descriptor got attached to those gadgets, maybe because ultrasonic record cleaners are so in vogue. The Audioquest is said to operate at 480Hz, but I am sure there is quite a lot of variation in frequency from unit to unit, which is why I originally wrote "400-500Hz".  My guess is they literally shake the dirt off the stylus and cantilever.  The first time I used mine, to clean a well used Koetsu Urushi, a big gob of dust came out of the workings of the cartridge.  Which made me think that one conceivable advantage of the electronic cleaners is that they may do a decent job of shaking out dust that is on the "top side" of the cantilever, the side closest to the cartridge body, which is normally not accessible for direct cleaning, unless you're working under magnification and with fine tools.

You suggest that Audioquest mentions using their electronic cleaner "wet". Where did you see that, and how would that work? (I'll look in the owners manual, which I have here somewhere.) I am not fearful of damage from the Audioquest; the cartridge structure is well designed to deal with the frequency range of its operation, which is audible as a 400-500Hz tone.  And I use it for no more than 10-15 seconds at a time. I WOULD be hesitant to expose a cartridge to anywhere near the frequencies at which ultrasonic cleaners operate, which would probably be ineffective anyway without an aqueous bath.

Not necessary, in my opinion, but not wrong either. If you are referring to microscopic exam of the stylus.  Maybe a little lax, if you are referring to cleaning the stylus tip at least perfunctorily.

That eMag thing looks like a re-branded version of what I bought in Tokyo last May but have not used because it scares me a bit in that I fear it might loosen the bond between stylus and cantilever.  Or the Onzow.

Here's why I wrote that waiting until the stylus "sounds like" it needs cleaning (which will be a different threshold for each of us) is whistling in the dark.  Because if you wait that long, it is possible that your stylus has been permanently damaged (assymetrically worn) by junk accumulated on it that you did not sense was there. I realized this when I started using a lab grade microscope to examine styli on various cartridges, none of which "sounded like" they needed cleaning.  Many of them were gunked up, not so much on the stylus tip as at the base of the stylus and along the cantilever, which cannot be good for maximizing the capacity of the cartridge to trace the groove accurately.  So I recommend periodic inspection using a decent magnifier of some sort, which I would do every few months, depending upon use, but not after every LP by any means. If you do that, you can monitor the effectiveness of any cleaning method you routinely use, and alter the method if you see problems.

That’s not common sense. That’s whistling in the dark.

Johnny, all directions on using ME to clean a stylus say to just drop the cartridge on to the ME. Back and forth motion is verboten. So don’t worry about ME users like me occasionally. But microscopic examination of styli does reveal that ME can leave tiny white particles on the cantilever. These are easily removed with a brush using an acceptable liquid. Also, I hope all these claims of effectiveness are verified by microscopic exam.

Forgot to mention I also own an Audioquest “ultrasonic” cleaner. The same cleaner has been sold under different brand names for decades. I don’t use it routinely but I’ve found it to be very effective. And it’s not ultrasonic. It vibrates at around 400 to 500 Hz.

It’s as much or more of a bother to look at the stylus with a magnifier as it is to just routinely clean it without inspection. I do so with a Stylast brush (no fluid; just the dry brush) or with Magic Eraser or with a brush and fluid I bought in Tokyo. Once a year or so I inspect using an Olympus lab microscope.