I have a zerostat that is still functional; it can reduce the magnetic attraction in a feather duster picking up 1/2" squares of plastic bag, but has never given me much sonic benefit. I did try it instead of the Mapleshade brush before vacuum cleaning, but the effect was no great shakes. Subsequent cleaning of the same side after brushing removed a significant amount of noise while subsequent use of the Zerostat after a clean cycle with the brush was just wasted effort.
I have some thoughts about why it works better. I think the design of the bristles gives them a better chance to actually touch tiny - even microscopic - particles and sludge that has attached itself to various areas of the groove walls through a combination of electro-magnetic attraction and the extremely high temperatures caused by friction at the tip of the stylus. These particles are likely a mix of molecules of vinyl scraped or melted during play and a collection of dust particles that are caught in the powerful magnetic pull that static charges in vinyl surfaces cause. These air-borne molecules easily attach themselves to records even when stored in good sleeves and jackets, unless they are vapor sealed. Some of it is organic such as pollen and micro-spores. Some is normal household dust. Some is chemicals dispersed into the air, some of which interact chemically with vinyl. When I was a teenager, most of my income from after-school and summer jobs went for records, and I loved them and took good care of them. But, after a while I noticed that some of my records picked up a lot of noise after a few plays, but always on just one side. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, figuring my cartridge was probably the culprit. Experiments with trying to replicate it by replaying the same side dozens of times got me nowhere. A real head-scratcher for a budding audiophile. It came to me when a brand new album that I had only played once went bad on me the very next day after it sounded fine and had been left on the platter overnight. Ticks and pops had arrived overnight on a brand new rec. This time, I got out a magnifying glass and flashlight and looked at the grooves themselves. They had developed hundreds of tiny bubbles that were hard to see even with the glass. I figured out immediately that I was the general that caused this airborne attack on my record collection. I was in the habit spraying room deodorizer around my bedroom to disguise my illicit smoking, and little molecules of this garbage was settling on any record that was on the platter at the time, and degrading the groove wall surfaces. All this crap is routinely gets into the groove walls and causes the stylus to waste its energy tracking them as well as the undulations we know and love.
One way to reduce this sludge may be by reducing friction at the point of stylus/groove interaction to reduce the heat build-up and lower its effect in creating the environment that keeps dust on the vinyl surfaces. This is where the last products for record preservation and stylus protection may help. The other way to reduce the amount of dust in the grooves is to eliminate the static charge so the vinyl no longer pulls the particles to itself. In this area, the design of the Mapleshade brush is far more effective than other products designed for the same role. For example, proper use of the zerostat gun was a controversial topic way back in the 80's and 90's when they firat came to prominence. whether they worked at all was an occasional topic for the trolls of the day in the Absolute Sound and Stereophile reader letters pages, and even the elite reviewers piped in from time to time. The general consensus was that it may or may not help, but seemed to do no harm so go ahead and buy one. Or not. I vaguely remember some of the discussion concerned how to use it properly. How many squeezes? Short or long duration squeezing. How far from the record surface should the nozzle be? Maybe I never go it right, but could today. Basically, these questions are all variations of "when should I stop if I really want to make my records sound better?" The brush is designed to make it fast and easy to use to positively (pardon the pun) discharge everyhing any one of its tiny steel bristles touches immediately to ground. These bristles are so tiny and soft that it is hard to believe that they are actually steel. They are so soft that I use it to clean the dust (and charges) from my stylus before every play as well. These little guys get down deep into the grooves when brushing radially around the records playing surface, and every molecule they touch sends its charge to ground. Followed immediately by wet-washing then gets this mixture of pollen, dust, spores, chemicals and accelerants,and vinyl scrapings cleaned up before the vinyl gets recharged by normal handling to attract more.
Personally, i don't think even Pierre at Mapleshade knows how good this thing works when used in conjunction with a good cleaning machine. Before trying it out his way, I had already decided to keep the brush rather than return it for its $40 price, but I had made that decision based only on its usefulness as a record brush, but had not heard any sonic improvement over any other record brush. For me, a good record brush was essential to get rid of the plague of tiny dog hairs that rains indoors chez Mcbuddah. Its stiff, yet soft bristles and simultaneous static discharge properties make routine dusting of all the nooks and crannies of my set-up a lot easier and safer around delicate wiring, cantilevers, anti-skate strings, etc on my table. Pierre himself probably thinks of it like I did - that it is a very good and useful tool that does its job very well. This is reflected in his choice of a product name, which I think is so lame that I have not yet mentioned it, The Phonophile Brush. The first time I saw it in a catalog, I misread it as "pedophile." If he knew what an improvement it can make to so many older records used in tandem with serious immediate record cleaning, he would have at least mentioned it in his product descriptions, instruction sheets and newsletters, which are also of unusually high quality and well-worth the read for any audiophile. I definitely do not want to disparage Pierre, and plan to draw his attention to these postings as I have done before for many vendors, but anyone who has ever looked at his products or purchased any knows, he is not known for humility.
I am not recommending this brush per se. I am recommending a procedure that includes effective static discharge of as much of the vinyl surface - including the groove wall and undulation surfaces, as possible performed immediately before robust record cleaning that has, for me, restored nearly every record I have tried to near-new condition, provided no other imperfections such as scratches also occur. Many of the records I have loved long and often have come back to life after I had given up on them. Fortunately, I never throw records away.
