Last stylus preservative...anyone still use it?

I recently repurchased new bottles of Last Stylus Cleaner and Last Stylus Preservative. I use them religiously in conjunction with a Magic Eraser.

I can only remark on my experience...

For years, I read the positive reviews of SPT..could not for the life of me believe that a stylus cleaner could actually make one’s lps sound better...

Fast forward to now...I got my first (bottle) in the other day. For years I’ve been mostly an ONZOW after each side and occasionally a Record Research stylus cleaner. Throw in an occasional use of the Magic Eraser. I’m still going the ONZOW way but having now used this SPT for several lp sides, I can say the sound is smoother, more relaxed and somewhat quieter. Even after my normal cleaning methods, I noticed some black stuff on the supplied brush that came with the SPT. A sign to me that my previous methods weren’t good enough.

I can steam of the brush. BTW, the supplied brush is miles away better than the other stylus fluid brushes. It allows an easier, more accurate way of getting to just the stylus.

I have used both the Last Stylus Preservative and Last Record Preservative since they came out.  I use Last Stylus Cleaner perhaps every three times I play a disk.  Have been doing this since the products were introduced (I am an OLD audiophile) with results as described above .... same cartridge with no stylus wear (Accuphase AC-2) and records that often sound like new.  The products are expensive but I recommend them.

daveyf. I'm not telling anyone not to buy this product. Just a problem I had. If you or the other posters use it regularly with no problems, by all means, keep using it. Did I put too much on my stylus or use it too often? Possibly. For me it was a costly situation. I just responded to the OP with a cautionary statement. I use Last's stylus cleaner religiously.A fine product to remove the crud off your stylus tip. It too, has a cautionary tale from cartridge makers warning against its use because it MAY soften the cement that holds the diamond to the cantilever causing the diamond to fall out. I never had this happen and have used it for years. Of course, I brush the stylus from back to front. no quicker way to destroy a fixed stylus cartridge than to brush it the wrong way....

I have used the Lyra SPT for a few years now- excellent product imo!

mr_m, this is such an odd situation......not that we are not believing you, but so many of us have used Stylast for years/decades and had no such problem. Yet, there are similar reports such as yours all over the web??
Personally, I now use Onzow followed by the Stylast and am pretty sure that the Stylast ( which I have used for more than two decades) is a big factor in the continued life of my cartridge. OTOH, my single swipe of the applicator brush doesn’t immerse the tip of the cantilever and the stylus in enough fluid to coat the whole affair...far from it. I would therefore question if you applied far too much of the liquid??? Plus, you were applying the brush just once from back to front of the stylus and only at the tip??...as related in the Stylast instructions.

A single swipe of the applicator brush has enough fluid on it to submerse the tip of the cantilever and stylus tip. I used a stylus magnifier to examine the tip to confirm this. The cartridge was broken apart to examine the inside. There were dried traces of Stylast on the coils.

Mr. M, was the Last migration confirmed as the cause of the coils going bad, or just assumed? A single swipe of the Last applicator brush doesn't contain much liquid, not enough to migrate all the way up the cantilever to the coils, I would think. Last creator Walter Davies did a lot of research before bringing the product to market. Knowing Walt as a hi-fi retailer before he started Last, that doesn't seem like a thing he would not have discovered.

I use Onzow followed by Stylast before each side.  Never had any issues with cantilever creep.

I used Stylast preservative back in the early 80's. I don't disagree that it can help preserve a stylus, but what happened to me was the stuff migrated up the boron tube cantilever and gummed up the fragile coils in my high output moving coil cartridge, causing one channel to go dead completely. This equaled one dead cartridge and a lot of expense. Not saying this will happen to everyone, but I had heard similar stories back then.

I only use Stylast before every side of every record played and have been doing this since the mid-1980s.  Stylii last about 25OO hours.  Ortofon warns against this practice, which I have steadfastly ignored.  I also use LAST record preservative, a VPI HW17 rcm with a 25% alcohol cleaning solution, and since it came on the market an ONZOW.  Some of my records, which number in the thousands, have been with me since the 1950s and are none the worse for wear. 

  I was thinking about putting lube on the stylus, then thought that it's a minute layer between the groove and the stylus, and wondered if it takes a minute amount of signal away.  Kind of like putting a thin piece of plastic wrap around a microphone, as an extreme analogy.

some liquid cleaners can do damage Abucktwoeighty but when cartridge manufactures tell you to use a lubricant, I believe it. I don't think the OP was talking about cleaners as yes some chemical cleaners can do harm but a lubricant can save your stylist over time.  

I bought a bottle of Stylast, Last Stylus Treatment, System Formula 5 a couple (?) years back and haven't used one drop after I read this thread:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/i-got-a-stylus-cleaning-kit-for-but

Don't think I'll ever use it.  Don't know why I keep it.

Excellent products across the board. I use stylast and the record preservative.

testpilot, I’m talking about the Stylast..or the Lyra SPT; not about the Last stylus cleaner ( although I use this too). The cleaner is pretty good, but IMHO the Onzow is better.

I have a Van Den Hul cart and it says right in the manual to use a lubricant on every play. I also use stylast.

I religiously use both the cleaner and preservative with outstanding results.  25 years out of my last DV MR23RS and 6 on my "new" XX2 MkII.  I've also found their vinyl cleaners and preservative excellent products.  LPs I purchased new and used their stuff on right out of the shrink wrap sound as good now as they did then.

Are talking about Last Stylast which is a stylus treatment or are we talking about Last Stylus which is a cleaner?  I only use the later.

I have used Stylast since the 80's and it works great.

I get very long life out of my cartridges.

Prefer it to Onzow or Magic Eraser.

I use it on my 20+ year old Benz Glider on every record side since it was new.