Stylus cleaner

Rodman,

I have seen cartridges with mysterious goo up near the cartridge body end of the cantilever. I don't know how that happened, so I was relating what one cartridge manufacturer said. I never have a problem myself, but then again, I don't apply much Stylast or any other stuff to my cartridge.

I am sort of amazed at how many people clean their stylus with every play. I hardly ever need to clean the stylus. I keep my records clean and that seems to be good enough so that I only bother to clean the stylus once every ten or so sides.

Hi Larry- I don't doubt that(mysterious goo) a bit, and have seen it myself! There have been a number of, "groove lubrication" products, over the years, that could be over-applied, dredged out of the groove by the stylus and flipped up onto the cantilever/cart, over a period of time. Not to mention; there are people out there that actually play their records wet. Some radio DJs used to use glycerin, to quiet noisy records. Again, another possibility; those ham-fisted few and who-knows-what-product?

I am sort of amazed at how many people clean their stylus with every play. I hardly ever need to clean the stylus. I keep my records clean and that seems to be good enough so that I only bother to clean the stylus once every ten or so sides.

I used to think the same, until Jcarr explained why more frequent cleaning is beneficial.

Even if one's LP grooves are perfectly clean, the stylus collects molecular-sized bits of vinyl as it plays. These get burnished onto the stylus surface by heat and pressure at the contact points.

Cleaning every ten sides or so allows this layer to accumulate. The degradation in sound is gradual and subtle, but it occurs (slighly muffled HFs, loss of lowest level detail, diminution of micro-dynamic "snap"). The color of the stylus will also go slightly yellow, compared to the pure white it would be if perfectly clean.

ME after each side prevents this buildup. I've seen and heard the difference on styli that are cleaned less often. Thus my recommendation for more frequent cleaning, based on guidance from one of the world's best and most helpful cartridge designers.

i blow dust away first. if not out, i'll use stylus brush, if not clean, i'll use stanton liquid, but last almost never happens.
most of the time blowing's good nuf.

The SoundSmith recommends dipping the stylus into FunTak.