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Stylus Cleaning Schedule?

Ok, I have read in Robert Harley's "The Complete Guide to High End Audio", that you should clean your stylus every album side.

How many of you actually do that?

I like my albums and think I take care of them pretty well. I use a RCM to clean them. But I honestly don't clean my stylus that often. I pretty religiously clean my stylus before every listening session. Most sessions consist of listening to 2 to 6 album sides, usually on the lesser end of the scale unfortunately. (I use the Last stylus cleaning fluid. I put it onto the stylus cleaning brush and then clean the stylus to avoid getting too much cleaning fluid on the cantilever. Sound about right?)

(By the way, I like Harley's book and have gotten a fair amount of knowledge out of it, although I may not actually agree with absolutely everything in it. I recommend it to anyone interested in this hobby.)
kurt_tank

Showing 1 response by bombaywalla

bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
Take a flashlight & shine it on the stylus. If it is clean, you should see light passing thru it ('cuz the stylus is translucent). If no light passes thru it, then the stylus is dirty & needs cleaning.

Depending upon how well you clean your LPs you might need to clean the stylus with a cleaner every LP or every few LPs. Dry brushing the stylus each side is very helpful to get the dust bunnies off. However, these dust bunnies do not always blacken the stylus hence a mere dry brushing is sufficient.

The key to keeping a stylus cleaning is to enact a thorough LP clean regimen. The less casual you are about cleaning your LPs the better off you are & the cleaner your stylus will be & the less frequently you will need to clean it. Cleaning LPs is pretty anal, as you know, but vital, I'm afraid!
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