How often clean stylus and which product?

[Otherchuck]

Greetings all,

I haven't played much vinyl in the last 30 years, but I got back into it a few months ago and so got a new Ortofon Super 5e cartridge to replace my worn Ortofon LM20. I am very much enjoying reconnecting with my old vinyl! I have two stylus cleaning products: (1) My old Discwasher carbon fiber brush that I wet with Groovewasher SC1 fluid, and (2) Audio-Technica AT607a Cartridge Stylus Cleaner that I apply with the flexible brush under the cap. I probably use the carbon brush once per 8-10 albums, and I use the AT fluid much less frequently (I think I have only used it once in the last couple months). I see there are gel products that you can dip the stylus into, but I don't have that product.

Is that stylus cleaning policy acceptable? I usually clean my stylus just as kind of a matter routine maintenance, as opposed to me waiting until I hear distortion from accumulated crud. I clean my vinyl every time I play a side, and the lounge where my turntable is is pretty clean, so I really almost never hear crud-related distortion. I worry a little about cleaning the stylus more often than necessary because I worry about inflicting unnecessary wear (though maybe I needn't worry too much about that). And what about those gel cleaners? Do they tend to be preferred to other stylus cleaning products? If so, is there a particular brand that is recommended?

Thanks for any stylus hygiene advice!

Otherchuck

 

[tima]

Is that stylus cleaning policy acceptable? I usually clean my stylus just as kind of a matter routine maintenance, as opposed to me waiting until I hear distortion from accumulated crud. I clean my vinyl every time I play a side, and the lounge where my turntable is is pretty clean, so I really almost never hear crud-related distortion. I worry a little about cleaning the stylus more often than necessary because I worry about inflicting unnecessary wear (though maybe I needn't worry too much about that). And what about those gel cleaners? Do they tend to be preferred to other stylus cleaning products? If so, is there a particular brand that is recommended?

Imo that stylus cleaning protocol is definitely old school -- stylus cleaning has moved on.

A critical element in stylus cleaning is stylus inspection. You want to inspect your stylus before and after cleaning. A 10X jewelers loupe should work well with a small LED flashlight. I inspect the stylus before each record and clean it if it is dirty. That often depends on the record previously played. If you start with a clean record you may not need to clean the stylus for the next play. Clean record + clean stylus is a complementary relation.

Another useful tool is a soft 00 size artist brush, either with stiff bristles or cut off to give the bristles some stiffness. Upon inspection with magnification you can often simply brush off any accumulation on the stylus without using fluid. I try to avoid cleaning liquids on the stylus.

I tried a few gel cleaners (Oznow, etc.) and do not recommend them.

There is a lot of discussion here about stylus cleaning. You can find much of it by searching this forum using the search terms "stylus cleaning", in parentheses.

There are descriptions of my tools and methods at the two links below. Feel free to follow up if you have questions.

How do you clean your stylus?

I recently acquired a new cartridge. In the past I have been using a few different methods to clean my stylus, including the Last stylus cleaner fluid, the Onzow Zerodust bubble cleaner, a Flux HiFi electronic ultrasonic cleaner, and now SPT treatment. I was told by my dealer NOT to use the...

www.whatsbestforum.com

How do you clean your stylus?

I also use the Magic Eraser, but I very gently rub the stylus sides from back to front once or twice and occasionally dip the stylus before each play. I follow this with a dip into the Onzow to remove any residue or white dust from the ME. Stylus looks brand new and I've never had a problem...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[Another Johnson]

Peter Ledermann (Soundsmith) suggested letting the stylus cue into a pancake of bluetack pressed onto a quarter. I’ve used this technique and have had good results.

Probably the best strategy is to play clean records. I have been using RCMs for years (dating back to my original HW17 around 1985), including VPI, Nitty Gritty, Kirmus…

I am presently using a Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic on its auto cycle just before playing, and I have never had such clean records. The stylus is absolutely free of any detritus when it comes up out of the groove.

 

[mtemur]

I tried blutack as well as onzow and other gel cleaners. They all seem to leave some residue on stylus so I quit using them. Magic eraser and frequent brushing works very good.

 

[tony22]

I tried blutack as well as onzow and other gel cleaners. They all seem to leave some residue on stylus so I quit using them. Magic eraser and frequent brushing works very good.

I’ve been hesitant to use Magic Eraser. It seems too easy for the stylus to snag the MR material, whatever that stuff is.

 

[tony22]

New brush I just received today, and so far, so good https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/74078/index.html. The broad fan brush is good for dusting the table while the white tip appears stiff enough for stylus cleaning and around the stylus. The term PBT Resin is Polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) which is a stiff type of polyester. From the literature the (below), the fan brush is conductive acrylic (likely Thunderon) with PBT fibers for stiffness while the small white chisel-point brush is pure PBT. Otherwise, as they say, its chrome plated brass and it's made in Japan and quite inexpensive https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-Model-Cleaning-Brush-Static/dp/B01LZC0A3Q/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1332608664119026&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KQ9q3z0tzAPgHl5_0qKZKZqFZM3ciEJbHgD8lpkhZ-9mxgeKFEufiwaQctvhTIp9OZSo4QWKK2XrksWVCYpp3NPhZj_-i6_IzFBo1fgo4pMn51MzK5V4CmQpuGeQVkLaNdPlvzWFG3m8PKCFXFwyDbsKfe9Ab5qrb7s-gH3M1EBrpZ42jMIFnEwBeCrZdHfjY3XUR6ZPPKjTDSclBNJEo7RVWVXv8jn8QknkUdsqGLxXOOJHriZGJup9yShbJJzdhFVvYhp8LczrrxW4i0takBPOfv_GAo5hypjUBcalSi4.Rq3Ul0ppf8bKujZCo2h3vuoWMdSY0-A7v7ApQc4Kmp4&dib_tag=se&hvadid=83288255958796&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=91504&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83288398978614:loc-190&hydadcr=2146_13433918&keywords=tamiya+model+cleaning+brush&qid=1730670243&sr=8-1.

Magic Eraser is melamine foam - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_foam. It has very good acoustic properties; its contribution to microplastics notwithstanding,

But how does one use it to clean a stylus without pulling the cantilever off?

 

[Tangram]

I use the Hifi Flux Ultrasonic (it isn’t anywhere near ultrasonic) every 10 or so records and a little MoFi brush in between. They recommend using a drop of liquid cleaner, but I use that very sparingly, as it may not be great for the glue holding the diamond to the cantilever. Seems to work fine but it’s been a long time since I’ve looked at it with my (crappy) USB microscope so who really knows.

 

[Neil.Antin]

But how does one use it to clean a stylus without pulling the cantilever off?

Disregard the post - I have deleted my original post and there is no reason to discuss further.

 

[mtemur]

I’ve been hesitant to use Magic Eraser. It seems too easy for the stylus to snag the MR material, whatever that stuff is.

You can cut a small piece of Magic Eraser and dip the stylus onto it a couple of times using the arm lift. The trick is to cut the piece light enough that, if the stylus gets stuck in the eraser, it won’t strain the suspension and can easily be blown away.

 

[tony22]

Your Benz SM body is prettier than my Benz LP-S body!

 

[tima]

But how does one use it to clean a stylus without pulling the cantilever off?

I urge you look at the two illustrated WBF posts I referenced in my message (#2) above.

Short answer: you do it with care.

Iow you need to focus on the task and not just swipe the ME at the underside of the cartridge. Use a bright light and a magnifier. Stylii are very tiny; with a magnifier you can see the sliver of diamond go into the ME.

I use a different technique than @mtemur's. I do not rely on using the tonearm. I have the arm fixed in its holder then raise up a piece of ME mounted on a stick while holding a magnifier. Typically 2-3 up-dips do the job. Next you inspect the stylus with higher magnification -- using a 10x loupe you can see if the stylus is clean -- a bright shiny diamond. Then I use a short sable brush to lightly touch the stylus. That assures removal of any ME (melamine foam) that may have been cut off by the stylus; that rarely happens but it is a precaution I take.

Using a dipping technique the ME does not snag the stylus. **Do not drag the ME across the stylus.**

Not saying this is better is mtemur's, it's the method I developed for myself. I've tried many different stylus cleaning methods and the Magic Eraser is the most effective one.

 

[Another Johnson]

Many years ago Linn suggested using the striking strip on a pack of matches. Someone actually produced match packets that said (loosely remembered)

“Linn stylus cleaning and review response kit.”

When the Linn Krystal was released, around 2016, several failed in service (by collapsed cantilever) after just a few months. Linn blamed the use of liquid cleaners and/or treatments. They claimed the liquid traveled up the hollow cantilever by capillary action and corroded the fixing. They issued a service bulletin to inform dealers and customers not to use liquids around the Krystal’s stylus. They did not offer any relief to the unhappy customers, some of whom had not used liquid cleaners. They suggested the abrasive cleaning technique using “abrasive paper” available through Linn.

So … I suppose the best advice on stylus cleaning might be to consult the manufacturer and follow their recommendations.

 

[jeromelang]

My favourite stylus cleaning tool is the one from dynavector. It used to come supplied with dynavector cartridges. But now it's no longer made and you can't even find its image on Google.

It is probably under the radar for most people because it is perceived as less effective cleaning stylus due to its rather long and soft bristles. However, what is unknown to most people is that it has magical static neutralising properties and just a couple of swipes on stylus and subsequently one can hear soundstaging bloom when playing the vinyl record. So for that reason I used to swipe it on my needle after every track, so beguiling is the sonic differences before and after swiping.

Another example of its magic:

I once had itchy finger, went and touched the various chips on the motherboard of my SCD-XA9000ES SACD player, and then later found that the sound became horrible. So I tried touching them again with various materials like carbon brushes, thunderon brushes, panther cloths, and cd jewel cases of various colours (for some unexplainable reasons they make the same CD disc sound different, so why not the processing chips on a circuit board, eh?) in an attempt to restore the player back to its original sound. Each of those materials, once they touch the chips, made the player sound different, but still the player didn't went back to sound the way it was before.

Then it suddenly dawned on me to try the dynavector brush, and yes, it worked! The player got back its original sound, which I assumed meant that the dynavector brush had done its job - of neutralising whatever sh1tty thing my fingers had passed on to the chips on the player's motherboard. I still continue to use the dynavector brush if I have to use needle playback player.

 

[A-Line]

Lyra provides a small stylus brush and a little bottle cleaner fluid with my Kleos MC pickup.
I only use the brush every so often or when visible debris is present. I never use a liquid contact cleaner.