Record-playing Rituals?

David: Recordings should be cleaned before playback. For years I used all the standard stuff;carbon brushes,wet cleanings,vacuum machines,etc. with mixed degrees of sucess.I experimented with most cleaning tweeks in print but none of them resulted in emotional nirvana. Of course that led to a sucession of changes:TTs,wires,pickups-my audio addiction was in fullswing.LPs had become a head problem and no one absolutely no one in print had the answer-at least for me. After the purchase of a Maplenoll air bearing TT in the early 1991, I became interested in air(that is forced air), as well as, inquiry into the nature of contaminates that maybe attracted to Lps. Over a lifetime, I amassed thousands of those black orbs that I now used as "experimental and control groups". My conclusion? Give Steam a try . Yes, you got it right STEAM. For years I have been pre-cleaning LPs with steam. The process is Simple and Safe and Effective. First, clean the record with a Lp cleaner of your choice , lightly scrub and vacuum with a VPI,etc. Next, take a handheld, household-type steamer with distilled H20--devoid of all attachments--build a full head of Clean Steam and let 'er rip gently over the groves followed by a second wet cleaning,scrubbing and vacuuming. Lastly, lightly steam again and vacumm dry.I strongly recommend using Lp cleaning liquids,such as Disc Doctor or Smart, but have found that homebrews can work just as well as the high priced spread. David 'an Thread Weavers ,Beware, do not use any other cleaning unit other than those hand held products easly purchased at BJs,Wal Mart or wherever for they do not create steam so hot as to damage a LP. And NO I can not assure you that every pop an click created at time of manufacture or thru use/abuse will go away. BUT I can say that after removal of all the gunk and molds you can extract more, much more information . The process also removes the "fingerprint" created by the use cleaning liquids. My steaming ideas were initially printed by Art Dudley in "Listner" and later Michael Fremer gave it a favorable recommendation in "Stereophile" - A blurb was also included in the year-end recommendations issue. So give it a try. Charlie

I clean each side with an Oracle Carbon fiber brush. I clean the stylus each session with a Denon ultrasonic cleaner. I neverlubricate the stylus. When I first purchase an album it gets cleaned with a homemade cleaning solution on a Nitty Gritty machine, I place them in new rice paper sleeves and place the whole package in a poly bag to form a dust seal.

I have read through this whole thread that appears to have been running for almost four years! What is fascinating to me is that no matter how long this discussion runs, nor how many people get involved there appears to be no ultimate solution to the record cleaning problem. Part of the problem may be that since the lp was introduced in the late 40s there appears to have been a number of formulations for the "vinyl" from which they are produced. It may be that each type needs its own ultimate cleaning formula.

I have been using an old Keith Monks machine for about twenty years to clean my records. It uses a brush to "scrub" the record (Parostatic if I remember correctly) and a vacuum nozzle with an ever advancing nylon thread. Over those years I have tried every commercial record cleaning compound (including Last's products, Genie in a Bottle, etc.) as well as numerous home formulas suggested by other collectors. In addition, like a mad scientist, I have concocted a number of solutions from various alcohols, esters and other stinky compounds. Surprisingly I have had few disasters, but I do have a few casualties from some of my more extreme experiments involving polyvinyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, dimethylbenzene, methyl salicylate, etc. Some of these substances are quite capable of washing away the grooves entirely! Naturally I keep a supply of totally uninteresting records for my more extreme experiments.

I have even had discussions with plastics manufacturers who have directed me toward some industrial products. One such product called Ultra Clear I still use occasionally for some of the more difficult cleaning problems I come across. Unfortunately since it is a proprietary product I do not know its contents. Ultra Clear was originally manufactured as a commercial plexi and vinyl cleaning product and it does remove some substances that are not caught by my usual cleaning method.

For the last couple of years I have been using the formulation published by M. St Laurent of the National Archives in Ottawa. This involves minute quantities of the two tergitols in distilled water. Problems that it can't handle are dealt with by using a solution of pure ethanol in distilled water (1:3). And if that still doesn't work I try the Ultra Clear. All of these formulations I ONLY use if there is clearly dirt or finger marks on the vinyl. Otherwise I limit cleaning to a simple distilled water wash, and even in the case of using one of the solutions I follow up with a final wash using distilled water, vacuuming after each solution and the wash.

There is a product I have recently come across that I believe may hold some promise. This is a fluid marketed as Optimax and I believe is based on cleaning with enzymes. It was developed for cleaning optical blanks and lenses, both glass and plastic. The manufacturer claims it can do no damage, will remove all foreign substances and will leave a residue no greater than one molecule thick. I have a sample bottle on order and will see what it does.

One wonders if there is a collector out there who is also an organic chemist with experience in vinyl manufacturing and pressing. It always seems to me that there must be some definitive solution that will lift everything off the record without touching the fundamental makeup of the vinyl itself.

Thanks to all of you for a very fun thread.

Harold Tichenor

Though I use an ultrasonic machine to clean the stylus now, I previously used the striker on a matchbook cover. I was shown this trick by a real Linnie who used a seriously modded Citation II driving Linn Isobariks. An amazing sound as I recall. Worked pretty damned well and I still use it from time to time.

What is with the Linn bashing?. I've compared mine to many tables from VPI and I still own the Linn. Not to say that it is perfect but the music came through more realistically for me. Set-up is critical and time consuming but when done right it removes most of the complaints I've read here.