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


I used to brush the stylus before each side played but now I think that is excessive, so I check it with a jewelers loupe.  I also rotate between the brush and sometimes use Blue Tack instead of the brush.  

mojo771

Onzow zerodust works amazingly well for me and as far as I can tell it doesn’t leave residue behind which is the main culprit. It will always be a problem unless you live in a cleanroom or heaven forbid use your table with a dust cover on. Not so sure about magic sponge. They are cellular and use melamine as the a cleaning abrasive. Unless you’re dropping the stylus straight down and back up I would use extreme caution. It might be viable solution but with the zerodust you can see easily what is being removed.

I clean mine *most* of the time after playing both sides of an LP. I don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner for my records...only a "good" vacuum system. While I get them very clean, I find if I examine the stylus with a magnifying glass that yes, it does need a little brushing with a stylus brush. Not much. Once or twice through, back to front and I’m done. I use the brush sometimes with a drop of the cleaning liquid that came with it. Groove Washer I think it was. Seems to do the job and so far, has caused no damage. As someone noted, in the time it takes you to examine the stylus with a jeweler’s loupe or magnifying glass, you could have already brushed the thing and been done with it.

I clean my stylus with the DS Audio ST-50 at the end of each listening session.  At the end of each third session, I also clean the stylus with MOFI stylus cleaner and brush.  I dry brush each side of the record before I listen.  Always sounds great!

Before every side with a Henry & Tosh TS-60 gel cleaner followed by LAST stylus treatment.  LAST stylus cleaner once per week.  All records (including new) cleaned in a SpinClean.  Never had any issues.

Dropping it slowly up and down a handful of times on a majik eraser every few albums is the best trick I ever used. Once a great while I use a drop of the ultra expensive lyra cleaning tiny bottle at the end of a tiny brush and carefully clean the stylus form back to front, using care not to touch the cantilever too much.