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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 5 responses by rebbi

rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Actusreus,
Thanks for your thoughts. I'd thought that the cleaning might have uncovered some damage, too. It reminded me of another thread on cleaning regarding Gruv Glide spray (which I also own). Some suggest that Gruv Glide makes records sound quieter by smoothing over damage in the groove walls, while at the same time "smoothing over" musical detail, as well.
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Wow, very useful thread, folks, thanks. I did hear back from the Spin Clean folks with a nice email. They said that the usual culprits for what I'm hearing are residue on the cleaning pads from a really dirty record (and they suggested cleaning the pads), too much cleaning solution in the water mix (so try a bath with only distilled water and no cleaning solution) and a record that was still somewhat damp when played (in which case the record should now sound quieter when replayed. I should mention that the records I cleaned were a mix of old favorites from my collection and a few recently acquired used records which may have been quite dirty, so the "residue on the brushes" theory might be on to something.
I'll look into all of this and report back.
Thanks again.
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Well, I went back and listened to some of the records I'd cleaned and there's definitely increased surface noise in quieter passages, so it's not a matter of the records having been wet when I played them.
I was looking at the enzymatic cleaners to see if that might be the missing piece. The audio intelligent stuff is reasonably priced, How would I use it in combination with the Spin Clean?
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Sunnyboy1956:
Okay, I ordered the AI Enzymatic solution yesterday, along with a dedicated record brush. I'm going to try your method to see if it makes a difference. I noticed on the Needle Doctor web site by the way, in a review of the AI Enzymatic Cleaner, that the reviewer found that the AI fluid gets rid of the noise that Spin Clean can't seem to get rid of. So we'll see...
Thanks!
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Valinar,
Do you a before and after comparison? In other words, did you play the disc before cleaning it?
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