White debris on front of cartridge

@viridian + 1 

The Clearaudio Maestro V2 sounds like a good groove cleaner, maybe play the LPs a few times & see if the scmutz goes away.

Schmutz, as opposed to Peruvian Marching Powder, does tend to accumulate deep in grooves, whereas the latter tends to get removed by nasal vacuum. Stylus shape and arm geometry also.play their part in digging out deeply lodged schmutz while the electrostatic properies of the cartridge body ensure once collected, it stays collected. The latter potentially accounts for the difference between the Clearaudio and the Hana.

Schmutz won't foul the operation of an optical cartridge?

My DS Audio DS003 also gets white "Schmutz" accumulation. I could give a Rat's Arse though..These Optical Cartridge Systems are the best thing to happen to the Audio Industry since the Birth of the CD 43 years ago !

So Dump all yer ancient tech MM's, MC, MI's, Strain Gauge Thingy's an just git yerself a DS Audio system of your budget.

Mold is an interesting hypothesis. I just assumed it was dried wet-cleaning agent that didn’t come off in the purified water rinse. I play a lot of vintage vinyl and god knows what the chain of custody these LPs had. I get the accumulation on the front of my retipped Supex SD 909. I would think the fine line stylus would create an environment ideal for breaking off deep groove debris 

Seriously (as opposed to my previous post), the difference you are seeing between the two cartridges accumulating white schmutz is probably only due to some difference or differences in the shape of the cartridge bodies such that one is more prone to accumulate debris where it is immediately visible. If you remove the cartridge that appears "clean" from its headshell and examine it in areas normally hidden from view when in use and under a low power microscope or even grossly, I would wager you will see white stuff there too. I have seen fine white particles on cantilevers mostly, using a microscope, but otherwise I have no idea where the residue might be coming from.

At my house it's coke.

Thanks all. I do use my VPI 16.5 to clean my records but I haven't looked for a correlation between recently cleaned and older vinyl and that debris accumulation. I'll keep my eye out on that.

+1 all the above

Your stylus could be contacting a differ part of the grove that may have mold in it or accumulated crud. try a good wet cleaning ie ultrasonic or vacuum. 

The technical term for that stuff is “Schmutz “.

I had a Clearaudio Charisma II MM cart in my Technics 1200G, and it would get that same residue you mention. I've replaced that with a Hana Umami Red, and that doesn't show, but it might be because of the shape and size of the Clearaudio cartridges are more conducive to picking that up from the surface.