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Spin Clean seems to add noise to records?

Hi,
On the strength of good reviews and enthusiastic forum comments, I recently purchased a Spin Clean record cleaning system and cleaned around 20 records with it. I'm a little perplexed.
On the positive side, music sounds great: clearer, more "alive" and more dynamic. On the negative, I'd swear that quiet parts of the record, e.g., the lead in groove and and pauses between songs, sound noisier: more clicks and pops. This doesn't seem to be what a cleaner record should sound like!
Could I be doing something wrong? I've followed the directions carefully. And I could certainly see blackish crud settling to the bottom of the chamber.
The only ambiguous part is how to hold the record when you dry it off with the drying cloths. I tried holding it upright and gently wiping both sides, but that seemed to risk stressing and bending the vinyl disc. I also tried laying it on a table on top of a clean towel or a couple of the drying cloths and then wiping the top surface dry.
Let me also mention that I am using distilled water, and that I have read the "noisy records" item in Spin Clean's FAQ, here:

http://www.spincleanrecordwasher.com/faq.html#15
Eager for your thoughts and advice.
rebbi

Showing 1 response by iopscrl

iopscrl
192 posts
 
Pops and clicks at lead in grooves could be water residue left after the surface has dried.

My process:

Blow off surface debris using canned air
Spin Clean, using SC fluid
Nitty Gritty Vac dry

Result is clean records with great dynamics.  In my case pops clics and background noise are reduced in amount and volume, but still present.   

I am thinking of changing to an enzyme cleaner, and adding a rinse step before vac dry.

The SC definitely works as intended, but may need additional steps to effectively clean all records.  The SC is probably best used as a scrubber, rather than an all-in-one device.
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