What is the best way to clean Vinyl?

@mijostyn My numero uno recommendation is to clean the stylus after every LP side is played. I’ve been doing that for 45 years with a brush, liquid every 25-50 plays and using a Magic Eraser occasionally now for 15 years. My Benz Ruby3 lasted nearly 2500 hours and tracked beautifully, but it lost all it’s dynamics at the end (on a modified SME IV arm).

I have 28,500 LPs. Most were purchased used. Most are very quiet. A scratch does sound. Pops and clicks sound (sometimes subtle, sometimes obtrusive).  Bad vinyl in my system and several friends systems has various levels of low noise but the music overwhelms the background noise that it is generally irrelevant (guests frequently comment is it a CD we are listening to).

I used to have considerable record noise prior to obtaining a high end analog system. Four friends own Dynavector cartridges and I went back to that company’s 20X2L which is a perfect match for my Zesto Allesso SUT as well as directly into my preamp’s 100 ohm input for MC.

I first recommend a less expensive alternative (not cheap) which I’ve used for 31 years, the VPI RCM 16.5 (upgraded from a 16). Now using Disc Doctor fluid, multi-step wash and dry (3 minimum). or

I purchased a Kirmuss Ultrasonic (but do not change the water daily. I over the unit and unless there is debris from dirty old LPs, I continue using it for about 25 LPs). I noticed that it also cleans out gunk in damaged grooves, exposing noisy damaged surfaces as well. It typically enhances the sonics, even when there is increased noise. However, the noise level of bad vinyl does not intrude on the music. Example-I have several jazz Metro (MGM cheap label) LPs which are pressed on crappy vinyl with noisy surfaces. In my system, the music is so present that the noise is confined to a low level, unobtrusive shhhh. You’ll known it’s not digital or a CD but it will sound great (just heard The Mitchells Red, Whitey, And Blue* With Guest Artist, Andre Previn* – Get Those Elephants Out’a Here).

So, my most important recommendation is keep your stylus spotlessly clean.

Next, clean your records without creating any residue which contaminates your stylus.

Then, choose what you can afford to clean them.

@ghdprentice I've sold/given away 18,000 records over the last 35 years.  I have a rule I made up, if I don't want to hear a record at least 3 times annually, out it goes.  I only have so much storage room.  I inherited from several friends and and two deceased listeners about 3,000 classical vocal and opera LPs.  When I go through them, I will eliminate duplicates.   Also, I have another 2,000 to hear once.  As to 7,000 CDs, 5,500 are stored in order in stacked Can-Am metal storage drawers.  The 78s occupy bottom shelving in my adjacent storage room and a storage building in the rear.  Better than IKEA Kallex, I had custom built 13" h X 22" w melamine finished MDF wall shelving for records  in both the rooms and some rolling metal racks behind the Can-Am units.  Like Steve Hoffman, I began collecting/listening at 3 years old and had 300 records by 5, 1,000s by 10 and probably 3,500 by 13.  Just as odd, when offered ice cream, candy, whatever while shopping with my parents until 5 years old, I would ask for a record (apparently annoyingly) so my parents stopped taking me shopping from 3 to 5.  They made up a story about my uncle bringing records to my mother when I asked from 5 to 10 (he had 300 and I loved going over to hear his Heathkit/AR/6 driver 5' X 5' mono speaker).  My mother would tell me she would call him and 5 or 10 minutes later she would open the bedroom door and present me with 1 to 3 records.   Even at 10 when I knew that was impossible (he lived 6 miles south), I made believe because I wanted the records.   After 13, I was purchasing my own records with money I made in the stock market from the $300 Bar Mitzvah money (I put it in the stock market because I received about 7X to 20X less than my friends-it was Hong Kong flu season in 69' and I had few friends and cheap relatives).   In the 1970s, I was haunting the local record distributors for cut-outs and returned LPs (especially the direct discs at $1 a piece).  That was the beginning of being known as a collector of records (and reseller of them as well).