LAST Record Preservative: Thumbs up or thumbs down
Rosstaman, if you check the archives using "Search" you'll find lots of prior discussion. The most recent discussion can be found at: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1016909843&openfrom&1&4#1 |
Sorry for the broken link. Let me try one more time to see if I can make this work... Last Preservative |
It appears that (after much research) everyone likes and recommends LAST Record Preservative. The analog shop I visited took 3 hours to drive to from my home. When I arrived, all three people in the store were smoking large cigars. I couldn't even hang around and browse through their albums for more than 15 minutes before the cigar smoke began to make my eyes burn. Knowing what tobacco smoke can do to electronics and that it also embeds into the grooves of lps, it now doesn't surprise me that they didn't recommend using LAST Record Preservative (even though they sold it) because they felt it took away from the detail of the music. Perhaps they perfer the sound of lp's treated with cigar smoke?! |
I just bought some to try out and give it a resounding thumbs down. The high frequencies seem damped and oddly enough there seems to be more surface noise. The records I tried it on have all been Disc Doctored and put in Nitty Gritty sleeves. The stylus also seems to be getting cloged with alot more dust picked up from the record surface. I've got 50 year old records that have never been "preserved" and still sound great. To quote the old addage "if it aint broke..." |
Blackie, one possibility you might explore is that the LAST preservative has actually broken loose contaminant in the grooves. As I understand the process (and I admit I may not have the details right), the LAST preservative actually penetrates the molecular surface of the vinyl. In the process, it can cause surface contaminant (dirt) to come loose that has not previously been removed. On the first play, the stylus picks this up. When I see this happen, I simply re-clean and rinse with great results. [In making this comment, I offer no disrespect to the Disc Doctor product, which has received high praise from many users whose opinions I respect.] Other people who post here have previously noted this same experience. For example, see the post from Albert Porter at: http://audiogo5.iserver.net/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&989893521&openflup&17&4#17 |
During further research I found out that the LAST Preservative actually softens the vinyl, preventing (they claim) parts of the groove walls from possibly chipping off. I have also heard that the pressure from applying the Preservative in conjunction with the softening of the vinyl can actually deform the grooves. I'll try cleaning the records again because I really liked the way the Classic Records "Time Out" sounded before the "treatment". |
I will give a thumbs up for the Last Preservative. I use the Last cleaner first, then clean with a Nitty Gritty Vac. Machine, then treat with Last Preserv. Into a rice paper sleeve, (VRP, VPI etc.) and vinyl nevere sounded so good. Surface noise is all but gone, and stays gone. On the noisey record, I would Vac. clean again to get the loosened up grunge and then eval. the highs. Jallen |
