I made a rookie mistake, don't do this

I don’t get the obsession with a dustcover. It’s not going to help with dust accumulating on/in the cartridge. That happens while playing records, and brushing the stylus after every side or two can help mitigate that.

I gave up using a dustcover on my last turntable. It was expensive, a PITA to set aside in a practical place, and did little to help mitigate dust on the plinth and arm. Now I just use a large goat hair cosmetic brush to dust my tonearms, platter and plinth from time to time. Otherwise, I keep my records clean and my stylus brushed.

Using a dustcover on my current turntable isn't even possible.

the photos pindac found from VAS

I made a Joke about dust mite crap, have a look at this short video

pindac,

"The images were quite something, almost extraterrestrial, the Crud and range of Colour in the particulate, was akin to viewing a terrain not seen on Earth."

you get a literature prize for that one!

OH, OH, Yeah, Yeah: The most important, the Sound Received

Check your speakers and their placement in your specific space. Find best placement, toe-in, alternate toe-ins, and, if needed, electronic adjustment

a simple sound pressure meter; tripod; test tones (cd not lp)

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.

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.

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

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.

FYI. I have not used a dust cover since 1990. I probably have put over 2,500 hours on my Frog (known to do about 2x normal play time). Then about 500 hours on my Koetsu Rosewood. Never any problems. I do a quick cleaning of the record before playing each side. Once every few years I check the cartridge with a magnifier. I have never observed anything requiring action.

If I remember correctly typical cartridges are good for around 1,200 to 1,500 hours.

Also, I do not own a tube tester. I do keep a backup set of tubes for my tube components. I have had to do a little trouble shooting twice in the last ten years. I think it lasted 10 minutes. I replaced the tubes on one of the audio circuits… 4 tubes… that fixed the problem… then swapped in the old 4 tubes until the problem recurred. Done.

I have never had a problem with an optical sensor on my CD or SACD, or DVD player. Although I lived in the dust bowel… Tucson for 25 years.

Just a question of how you approach life. I’d rather be listening to music.

@elliottbnewcombjr 

A dust cover might be adequate (or not) keeping dust off the platter and plinth. It serves little useful purpose otherwise. It does nothing to help the life of a cartridge. The latter part falls under keeping your records and stylus clean.

I have a Clearaudio Innovation with two 12" Universal tonearms. There's not even a reasonable possibility of enclosing that in a dustcover. I use a goat hair cosmetic brush to dust off the POM platter, plinth and tonearms now and then, but that's all more for cosmetic satisfaction than functional worth. I clean my records and I clean my stylii with the proper tools.

@elliottbnewcombjr I am no where near a perfectionist, but I do take my leads from those in the know and adopt what makes a lot of sense.

My first sent in Donor Model nearly 8 years ago was described as filthy by the Technician, I had no idea of what was meant by that until a later date and a curiosity got to me. 

I do Photography and occasionally produce images that would be referred to as Macro, but not conventional, as I do the reverse lens technique.

I set up another Cart' to be Macro Recorded, that was a Cart' bought in to be a donor model, to undergo a rebuild, this Cart' was claimed to have approx' 300ish hours of usage.

The images focus point was the point where the Armature could be seen inside the Housing.

The images were quite something, almost extraterrestrial, the Crud and range of Colour in the particulate, was akin to viewing a terrain not seen on Earth.

The Cantilever also had Particulate attached that was almost the same thickness. 

To make it easier to understand the inners were caked in filth of what origin who knows, the Cantilever was certainly carrying plenty of Hitchhiker Particulate.

Combine such a visual experience, with description offered through publicly showing photo records of a Cart' received by a Third Party Refurbishment Service.

It does not take much sleuthing to make a plan for ensuring a Cart' is in a much improved condition as it approaches the Mid to Later hours of recommended Cart' Life.

Cart' costs £XXXs - £XXXXs.

Cart' is functioning fine for a period and then the environmental impact has taken ahold. 

Does one let the last 400 - 600 hours of usage, be substantially compromised, or does an additional cost be incurred to thoroughly clean and have the Cart' condition checked?

A conjecture can be, that a filthy Cart' with a £xxxx's price tag might not be much better at producing an end sound, than a Clean Cart' costing substantially less.

Any unwanted reports from a Service if about a bought as new Cart', will most likely be as a result of the way one is using the Cart'.

Surely a knowledge being made known of something being present, is a detriment or a set up for the cart', is being a detriment. Is well worth receiving, even if there is a cost to acquire the Valuable knowledge.

A Cart' condition is not life or death, whereas my home Boiler receives an annual check.  As well my Homes Chimney and the owned Vehicle's. A friend electrician gives the owned homes electrics a once over every 3-5 years apart, when I was letting property the same checks were annual on let property.

Having items checked out that play a very important role is not unusual, skimping and avoiding such practices, now that is each to their own. 

More important, I can't find anything in my suggestion on Cart' maintenance as being askew or incorrect, when the idea of keeping it as a optimised part is the consideration.

pindac

You take things to perfection, ultimate solutions, that’s great, for you and others.

I go so far, then stop, not enjoying pursuing perfection any more.

Three fundamentals I simply do not understand people not having.

1. TT, Have a Dust Cover. Expensive/Precise Equipment exposed to airborne .... no way.

2. Tubes: Have a Tube Tester (basic, not advanced unless desired). Uninformed, blindly searching/thinking perhaps a bad tube .... no way. Members and yourself wildly guessing, jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof, no no no.

******Driving along, trash, driveway sale, thrift store: see a discarded thingy with tubes, yank em, the tubes are very likely good, you can test them when you get home or later if you need one. Using a used tube gets the music playing while you look for new ones at a good price.**** Don’t forget: many tubes last 10,000 hours, so a used one that tests good ....

i.e. I just tested all my tubes friday (I test them 2-3 times a year). matched sets still matched? anything weak?

my mx110z tube tuner/preamp: found a 6au6 with a short. Had none in my collection of new/used tubes. Checked/yanked good tested used one out of a Fisher 500c I will be selling.

mx110z has 17 tubes, I don’t know what it was doing, I didn’t hear anything wrong, or different after I replaced it, but it does something. I very rarely use the Tuner, I suspect it is in the tuner section, who knows? My Fisher 500C uses 1; this uses 3, They are not expensive (now) I am going to buy 4 now for the future. And: test them when I receive them! Test any tube you buy, especially ’matched’ sets.

3. SACD/CD/DVD Player: Have a Lens Cleaner, try it 1st! I have ’fixed’ many of my and friend’s players over the years. Same thing in the VCR/Cassette era, have a head cleaner., it’s the 1st thing to check.

.........................................

there’s others, but these always leap out of my brain when members have related problems and lack/skip the fundamentals.

@elliottbnewcombjr The search to discover exactly what I am referring to is extremely easy to discover.

How about the even stranger phenomenon of Dampers looking like one half has been gnawed away, with the description of a cause being UV Damage.

Cart's are extremely Fragile, certain Parts used are requiring the conditions encountered in the real world to be very sympathetic to their needs.

Once a Cart' is released into the real World, the Cart' is met with a whole new frontier to perform in.

A Dust Cover in many cases is a Band Aid on a Gaping Wound, some in the know, would suggest a dehumidifier is the very basic of preparations to be in place for a space where a Cart' is to be used.

We are all bound by our experiences, and even more bound by our surmising creating deficiency in attaining knowledge through experience.

pindac

I simply cannot understand any TT, especially an expensive one with a precise tonearm and pricey cartridge being sold without, and between use hanging around without a dust cover.

Makes absolutely no sense to me.

I have strongly suggested in posts made. 

That a Cart' will become very contaminated with Airborne Particulate and it would be best to have the Cart' professionally cleaned at least once during its usage life to keep the Cart's function close to optimised. 

A Styli Condition check  and thorough clean, will be part of such a Cleaning Service being carried out.

My observation is that 200 Hours is a point where contaminant becomes visible by the eye, as a mass collection, by 400 Hours, there is substantial collection that is built up on the critical interfaces, that can only be described as impeding to the parts needing total freedom of movement as per the design.

Metal Particulate is known to collect on a  Coil Winding and  successfully short the coil. causing a channel to fail. 

In Good Form Styli and Cleanliness within the Cart',

are conditions that reward the user substantially.