I do not use LAST myself, so I have no opinion as to whether it produces sonic improvements or not. However, I am curious as to how this stuff is supposed to work. According to a post above, the LAST people say it alters the chemical composition of the vinyl surface. I do not see what relevance this is. A stylus picks up vibrations from the record grooves. This is a mechanical process. What does the chemical composition of the vinyl surface have to do with this? The undulation in the record groove is there or it's not, no matter what the chemical composition of the surface is. The only thing I can think of is that it may harden the surface, therefore reducing wear or making light scratches less likely. Another possibility is that it fills in gaps caused by scratches, thereby reducing pops. But it can't do this since LAST says it does not coat the record. So does anybody know how this product is supposed to work?
LAST - then and now?
Have been enjoying hauling records out of storage and listening to stuff I haven't heard in years. One thing I have noticed is that the records treated with LAST (probably a good 15 years or more ago) have held up really well.I know part of this is the cleaning on a Keith Monks machine they got before applying LAST - and possibly more importantly - I only went to the trouble with stuff I really liked.
At any rate - my question is this - has the base of the LAST product changed over the years? So many cleaning products were Freon based and are no longer made or made with different chemicals - does anyone know if LAST today is chemically identical to what it was 15 years ago?
At any rate - my question is this - has the base of the LAST product changed over the years? So many cleaning products were Freon based and are no longer made or made with different chemicals - does anyone know if LAST today is chemically identical to what it was 15 years ago?