Walker prelude vs. Audio Intelligent


I have read a number of favorable comments about both of these cleaning fluids including the latest Walker iteration with an additional final rinse. I am fairly convinced it's time to move beyond my disc doctor fluids, although I will continue to use the VPI 17F for vacuum purposes only. Who among you have made direct comparisons between the Walker and AI? If you prefer one over the other--why?
gpgr4blu
Agreed Rushton, I think life is too short, or full of other things, that would make us normal end users resort to such scientific testing.

And that's why we have these forums, to hear of other's findings, because perhaps in some instances, we might take then advertisement of "miracle claims" by manufacturers (for any product) with a grain of salt, believing "it is perhaps too good to be true".

I think there is one things we will all conclude to agree upon, is that with any cleaning product, a good rinse-rinses as a final step will increase the efficiency of "any" cleaner, be it L'Art Du Son, LAST, Disc Doctor, Nitty Gritty, VPI, etc etc.

I recall Doug Deacon stating that he, and Paul use two final rinses with AIVS, and at first I thought this might be a bit of overkill, but I myself am also doing this too now, with every record that goes on my 16.5.

More costly, and a little bit more time consuming, yes, but aren't our treaured LP's worth it!? :-)

I feel it insures that any remaining cleaning residues are "hopefully" whisked away in the process. If as Jtimothya says, that he noted an improvement with a final step 4 rinse, after the Prelude Cleaners, this "might" indicate that something was still left in the grooves that the step 4 finally removed?

As noted, this rinse, with the addition with an alcohol, is no doubt acting as a surfactant in a way, reducing water tension, enabling the rinse to perform better? Mark
Markd51, like you, I also do a double rinse with Ultra Pure water -- doing so made a difference and I continue doing so even with the addition of the Prelude Step 4 Rinse to my process.

As you surmise, the Step 4 rinse does have less surface tension than the Ultra Pure water and Lloyd tells me that this is the reason for the addition of that small amount of alcohol. He says the alcohol also acts as a drying agent. The nature of the additional secret ingredient is something Lloyd keeps to himself, other than to say it leaves absolutely no residue and aids in the final removal of anything remaining in the grooves.

For those who have experimented with steam cleaning, or are dedicated users of steam cleaning, you may be interested to know that experiments with steam cleaning are what pushed Lloyd to develop the Step 4 Final Rinse. A member of the local Philadelphia Area Audio Group used Prelude and added a steam cleaning step. Lloyd heard a further improvement by using that steam cleaning step, and Lloyd is ever pursuing any improvement in sonic results that may be possible to obtain. The Step 4 High Resolution Rinse is the result of his push to make the cleaning process even better. The audio group member has now adopted the Step 4 Rinse saying it provides an even greater improvement than the steam cleaning step without the risk of heat damage.
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OK. Thanks to all for the input. I'm impressed by Walkers fresh enzyme approach, but AI seems to present less of a problem in terms of what is left on the vinyl at the end of the process than step4 of Prelude (although there appears to be a method to Lloyds madness). Any chemists have an idea as to whether a small amount of alcohol in last application can lead to any dryout or breakdown of vinyl? After all, my approach to vinyl is like a doctor-patient. First, do no harm.
Gpgr4blu and all, there is no residue left on the vinyl after using the Walker Audio Step 4 Rinse and no risk to your vinyl from the minor amount of alcohol.

Disclaimer: I'm certainly not a chemist, just a dedicated vinyl lover who's used a lot of different cleaning fluids on my LPs over 30+ years.
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... but AI seems to present less of a problem in terms of what is left on the vinyl at the end of the process than step4 of Prelude (although there appears to be a method to Lloyds madness). Any chemists have an idea as to whether a small amount of alcohol in last application can lead to any dryout or breakdown of vinyl?

Please excuse, I don't mean to be contentious but I'm not following. What is it that AI leaves less of? I thought you had not tried either cleaner?

Tim