By the time it gets to the platter it is ready to play.
It is fun however to imagine someone trying to figure this all out. What would they do? Clean, then play immediately. Clean again, wait 5 minutes. Clean again wait an hour. Clean again wait two hours. Clean again wait 24 hours. Why stop there? Clean again, wait a week! We are running a test now, currently up to a year seems to sound the best. Of course it may be the new turntable bought while waiting for the dang record to be ready to play.....
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I clean / vacuum, apply Last preservative and play. I haven’t noticed any gunk on my stylist. I’ve never done a study. I’ve never noticed a correlation with better sound and when I have cleaned and not gotten to -laying the next day. But it would have to be a big difference for me to notice. |
@Orthomead- I doubt it was studied during the heyday of vinyl because wet cleaning (apart from the Monks/Loricraft) wasn’t common. I wonder if Neil @Antinn has any thoughts from a materials science perspective?
I usually clean in batches, largely to sort out condition more closely, evaluate for warps (which then go into the flattener and those aren’t getting played quickly) and so I can go into the next listening session without having to clean first. So there's usually some time interval between clean and play. I have, on occasion, done a quick clean up on a previously cleaned album by a quick dunk in the ultrasonic w/ forced air drying-- not necessarily optimal, but a choice between the concern you described (which I hadn’t really thought much about) and playing a record with surface detritus.
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If it is a great old record find, good on you. Clean it ... then how long can YOU wait to listen to it?? Let's say, I am a good friend, you call me of your great LP find and to come over. I arrive, so you suggest, "let's clean it" Agreed. Upon cleaning accomplished (and it looks' GOOD (!), you say "come back tomorrow so we can play it"?? WHAT???? |
After 10-15 mins in the ultrasonic tank and a rinse in the SpinClean, drying with a lint-free cloth, I let it air dry for a few minutes. That's it.
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Thanks to everyone for their interest. Like @whart, I typically clean in batches and don't usually listen while cleaning. Millercarbon hit it on the head, though. A tough study for sure. @isochromism-I will usually have the disc cleaned before inviting someone over to listen. After all, who wants to invite someone over to listen to a dog of a recording if it turns out that way. In actual practice, this isn't terribly limiting to me-I'm just curious what practices others employ. After all, its only 24 hours at most. I don't sit with the timer running waiting for the appointed hour to play the disc. Lol. I am interested in @antinn's perspective based on the materials aspect, though.
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well, i am glad somebody took the class in Design of Experiments, and statistics.
Ya need a series of sequential pressings, MoFi will get ya there. Inspect them under black light for a uniform level of “ dirt “, Pick your time interval Here i would look at materials science for evap rates, solvent flash points, dry time An issue is inspecting the stylus…think that thru, thats the big $, Sonics count, so blind, double blind ?…. What does the LAST guru say ? |
"I once read that it takes over 24 hours for all the moisture in the grooves to be completely absent following a wet clean, even if on gross visual inspection the vinyl surface appears totally dry. As a corollary, I have also read that the record sounds better if the record isn't played for 24 hours after cleaning."
I get it, othomead.
Specific chemicals used have a drying time. Waiting 24 hours to hear a bin find I have been wanting for years, would drive me nuts.
After a Spin Clean, pat dry(no wiping) a minute or two fanning the LP, it's ready to drop on the table.
"I typically sleeve all my freshly cleaned records and wait at least a day to play them, based on my previous reading, but am wondering if this is at all necessary."
After 4 minutes of spellbinding music from an LP I put on an exhibitors setup, he discovered it was housed in the original, beat up paper sleeve. I got an A- for an otherwise good demo request.
At some point, I will end procrastinating purchase of a proper RCM and sleeves. Until then, low tech Spin Clean for me. |
just clean the record with whatever method and then listen . no need to overthink this. |
Cleaning one, play it, never worked very well for me, I have vastly better results by using a kit with a drying rack and cleaning batches of 10 lps while listening to previously cleaned or new LPs. After vigorous manual scrub, good rinse, thorough dry, they sound awesome, extremely quiet if LP surface is not damaged. see 11th photo: my manual cleaning setup, in my system photos here https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/9511 |
Millercarbon hit it on the head, though. A tough study for sure. Not the head. The navel. When performing your listening tests be sure to record and standardize relative humidity. If the record is to be air dried for 24 hours then ideally the relative humidity must remain constant throughout in order to avoid altering the findings. Needless to say if the record is stored in the sleeve then the micro-environment created within the record jacket must be monitored. Otherwise if the record is damp it increases humidity in the sleeve thereby creating a false positive situation. We can go on and on like this for freaking ever. Or we can play em and get on with it. Being audiophiles the only approved course is to keep anal-izing it to death. Especially since playing records is the most OCD of all. The only real way to enjoy a record is after cleaning it 15 different ways, drying it 35 different ways, placing it on a platter with/without a mat/clamp/weight and then after carefully confirming level spend the next $5k and 5 years using every jig and geometry imaginable to second-guess alignment. Only once this is all done can you run the motor a week to be sure it is warmed up and even then there will still be 15 different things to worry about. Which version of the record are you talking about anyway? No not that one! Start over..... |
"We can go on and on like this for freaking ever."
I thought that was a central tenet of the audiophile's code. I'm just trying to do my part.
@Riley We all have our routines. Rest assured this doesn't keep me up much a night, lol. Just wondering if there is any scientific validation for what I had read. It just turns out that I have so many LP's to choose from, that it isn't an inconvenience to wait a day to play a recently cleaned LP.
@Elliott I have a similar approach, but finish with a degritter which has a fan dryer.
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@orthomead Just wondering if there is any scientific validation for what I had read. only if you believe there is. |
"finish with a degritter which has a fan dryer."
orthrmed-You're set and forget. IMO.
If I were spinning a $500 Pretrzel Logic on my Tech Das Zero, that's another thread.
The degritter and a couple other setups are the way to go. |
Just clean it dry it and play it. Then clean the stylus as well at the end of each side. |
sometimes we get some stuff out of the groove, but not all, and then I find the advanced stylus shape digging out very fine dust first play, clean the stylus, never debris again. most of the time, a very quiet and clean play, no residue on the stylus.
I don’t wet before play, I don’t brush before play, I do have a large cloth, like a giant eyeglass cleaner, and I simply manually spin 1 revolution, letting the cloth pick up the surface paper lint from the sleeve, or air-borne dust before play.
snap the cloth clean, play. |
@mapman That's dedication. What do you use?
@elliot Similarly, I don't use a brush, but rather a Kinetronics Tiger cloth that works much better IMO. Kudos to @Antinn for the recommendation. $9.69 at Amazon.
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To get dirty/noisy records clean and silent initially, if needed, I give them a good bathusing a very low cost but effective procedure that has worked for me for 20 years and my good vinyl still sounds like new. This is a procedure that should only need to be performed once initially per record side if needed.
First I spray them down with a very dilute solution of Shaklee Basic H cleaner in distilled water. I then run my old Discwasher brush around the record while on the turntableto loosen up the dirt. Then I fold a soft and absorbent paper towel to form an absorbent edge to remove the moisture from the record and repeatedly run the edge across the record while turning, re-folding to create a new dry edge as needed, until the record is dry to avoid unwanted dirt deposits accumulating on the stylus.
I bought a Spin Clean Machine a while back to do things faster in bulk. Still working to master using that for same quality results. |
