I made a rookie mistake, don't do this

Cleaning LP’s and the Styli is a discipline that will help keep things in reasonable fettle.

I have now evolved to the PAVCR Manual Cleaning Method for Vinyl with New Sleeves used Post Cleaning.

I also have the Yukimu AS-B1 Brush for general pre play cleaning.

The Styli is catered for as well with options for the Cleaning.

None of these are going to Stop Contaminant collecting on the Armature/ Damper / Coil Assembly and there is not a cleaning method typically used that will address this build up.

Once seen as a collected contaminant of the critical assembly needing a movement maintained as per the design. There is little that will convince the movement is not being effected once the build up on contaminant is witnessed.

The decision to be made, is how much do I want my Cart’ to be maintained at an optimised function during its replay life. The likelihood is optimised function has deteriorated at approx’ 300-400 hours of usage, and from this point on will be gradually moving further as the restriction to freedom of movement is further impeded by increased collection of contaminant.

The decision that comes with difficulty to be made is, am I willing to spend additionally to have the Cart’ professionally treated for the cleaning and assessed for overall condition.

Maybe an individual with an expensive Cart’ may see the Value in adopting such a approach.

Maybe an individual keen to have their Cart’ maintained as an attempt to keep it as close to optimised when used, will see the value in using the support of a professional.

I don’t have what I call an expensive Cart’ as a purchase Value, but do have a Cart’ that is Bespoke Produced, and has been proven to function quite similar to the Cart’ Brands more expensive Models. The Cart’ even as a result of the rarity of a certain part used on it, will go for the cleaning process in the not too distant future, approx’ 400ish hours of replay.

The added late in life to the system CD Source, has been a great method for reducing the usage of a Cart’. Actually much better than owning multiple Cart’s, as the CD is used regularly, and Cart’s remain stored, even though there are unused Tonearms that can be multiple mounted, allowing stored Cart’s to excel in use.

Amazon’s Alexa has done wonders for recollecting musical encounters has in the past, all at the command of a voice control. This is use in the Company of my Wife is now 50% of the music produced in the home, it is very enjoyable to share time and revisit music almost forgotten. I was reintroduced to Hawkwind - ’Hurry on a Sundown a few years ago, not heard since I was in my 30’s. That track is now one of quite a few that are heard a few times a month.

Alexa and the CD Source will certainly make the idea of being without a Cart’ for a few weeks be a non-concern.

Who knows I may even Manually Clean a few more Albums of my Wife’s and my own selection in anticipation of the Cart’s return.

The most important thing for myself, is that I do not feel I am selling myself short by adopting the usage of a Professions Service near the Cart’s mid usage life.

The Link in the following post may be an eyeopener and is certainly not a one off occurrence.

I know what Cart' I would like to have mounted on my Tonearm.

I, I, I .....let's talk averages. we are just a speck of the world.

I am recommending ROUTINE maintenance and basic inexpensive tools. Ability for basic diagnostics, i.e. the tube tester, the lens cleaner. ability to rule something out easily find a problem before moving on.

Checking/verifying new tubes when purchased, single or matched sets .... A full system, a problem occurs, it might be a tube, it might not, lets do a basic check, oh, I can't, I spent more than a new car but was too (cheap, unwise) to get myself a helpful tool.

Lens/Movement: we read here about failure to read: sacd/cd player; transport; don't forget computer drives, video players we are not  reading about.

When problems occur, the 1st thing is to use your lens/mechanism cleaner, either to solve or rule out dust as the problem:

prior to moving on to step two, which would be: cover off, watch mechanism, belt broken? lubricant turned to mud? again, check the fundamental mechanisms, prior to the difficult to diagnose issues.

yet, here we go: guessing, jumping to conclusions, I did this, you should get this player ... all without performing the fundamental routine maintenance.

I have to wonder how much money has been spent transporting 2 ways, paying experts, and all that is needed, all that they do and bill you for: is the routine prevention/cleaning I have mentioned.

ROUTINE:

Maintenance: cleaning dust off any sensitive and transport mechanism, heads and tape paths, vcr cleaning heads and capstans of vcrs, 8 track, cassette and reel to reel. 

Prevention: block/reduce the path of airborne dust you cannot see until it accumulates. If it's on the surface, more than likely dust has gotten inside.

TT DUST COVER: I prefer removable, especially when playing LPs. It's not just appearance, it's not just the platter (where dust gets transferred to the LPs; not just cracks in the plinth, where dust gets inside; dust from the bottom: the most important is the tonearm, which, if you have gone for better, best, fantastic costs a small fortune: dust on/in pivots, down inside, on the precious jewels, one of the reasons I'm going to roll over in my urn,

IMO, you must be insane to think invisible airborne dust (particulate) is magically not accumulating within ANYTHING. and: the cartridge: yes junk accumulates on/in the suspension, on the cantilever, transfers with gigantic force from lp surface to stylus.

It drives me crazy to see fantastic TT designs without dust cover options. Huge TTs, tall ones especially: solutions need to be found, perhaps a base that stays in place (except for setup/maintenance), and a lighter top section easily removed and set aside. If they can engineer those fantastic TTs, surely they can solve dust prevention!

Other than that I have no opinion on the matter.

OH, Yeah, simple inexpensive tools

to check/align tonearm placement, cartridge overhang, two null points, azimuth, arm heights/vta, true tracking force, true anti-skate.

The skills: give yourself a gift for life, try, practice, observe others, learn how to do this for yourself.

I, and I think we all should periodically re-test/verify tracking force/anti-skate, perhaps every 3 months. You will be surprised how small variations inexplicitly occur.