Is it possible to have vinyl nearly noise free?

@fleschler yes that sublime point when vinyl is almost as quiet as a CD.

That's what I think most fans of vinyl want. At that point, at least for me, its the music not the medium that counts.

@flescher
I wouldn't hesitate you use a Sugar Cube on an old 78. Or if you have a damaged LP that is rare and unobtainable (cost or availability) on the used market, it would be good to be able to listen to that LP. I think the device is meant for that. It would be a Godsend. I don't have any 78s. I have a Meet the Beatles that is like that.

I'll tolerate an LP that has a few ticks rather than sully the analogue with digital processing. Most of my LPs are as quiet as a CD after my cleaning process and the detail revealed is more than worth the effort.

Rollin

Rollintubes-exactly.  Although I do have some newer 78s, the HRS reissues exceptional vocal 78s on virgin vinyl from the original metal parts.  Those are tick and pop free surfaced 78s.  The rest of my 7,000 78s date from 1898 to early 1950s and are considered old by current standards.  I also consider purchasing the Kirmuss ultrasonic cleaning system for 78s where I just let the machine do all the cleaning and don't contaminate my VPI cleaning machine. 

I've tried cleaning some noisy valuable LPs, such as 50's EMI and Deccas worth $100-1000 new that turn out to be damaged by prior user (and cost me about $1/disc).  Those would also be worth digitizing   Due to my new home and listening room costs, I can't splurge on a Sugar Cube 2 for another year.  

The Kirmuss appears to do a better job than the Audio Desk or Clearaudio cleaners at less cost. If you have some really nasty vinyl or lacquer it will do nicely at a lower initial purchase price. The process is more painstaking than mine and I spent less than $500 on my system. Of course the Vacuum cleaner was more. It does most of the drying. He uses optician cloth. I use them all the time to wipe off records. I notice he just uses the cloth to dry. How long can you use the same cloth before it becomes saturated.

I don't agree with using distilled water though. There are still contaminants in it, that is why I use Regents water. There is nothing in it.

I think that the assumption is that the records were never cleaned or cleaned with a single liquid agent that leaves residue. Which is most likely for most of our records acquired before the 90s. Removing the vinyl release agents is paramount which is why I clean every new record before playing.

Once cleaned the record should stay that way unless mishandled. There is the issue of more micro-dust getting into the grooves while playing. At some point there will be a loss of detail that will require a cleaning. By rinsing every so often with the Regents water and conditioner I may stave of the micro-dust problem for a while.

Rollin

Isn’t the purpose of loading resistors to damp the primary resonance of the moving system in a phono cartridge?

In the case of a LOMC cartridge, no. The primary resonance is well outside of the audio band!

you will find others like Ralph, that do not clean their records and claim that guys like me are wasting time and money. You will also find guys like me. If we could actually get Chicago guys to get together, we could do some kind of A/B, shootout etc. The Chicago Audio Society is worthless. I have reached out to Chicago guys, to get together before and have had no responses. So, it is a lone endeavor to clean records or not. Your choice. IMO, I agree with slaw, that Ralphs take, is a bit of overreach.

I'm not saying you're wasting your money. I'm saying that if you have a stable preamp you get a lot less ticks and pops. In my case I found that far outweighed the benefit of cleaning. It true that we experience more oticks and pops at shows- our LPs there tend to get a bit more beat up and I've retired a few over the years on that account. At home I am used to hearing entire sides free of that sort of thing unless the album side has some damage.

The next obvious question...Do you ever/feel a need to clean your stylus?

Yes. I dust it before every album side. I also clean it with LAST.


I used to use a record cleaning machine as I mentioned before. But once I sorted out what the phono preamp's role was in surface noise, I did as much as I could to make sure that my preamp ticked all the boxes. At that point that made more difference than the cleaning. Of course I use a dust brush which probably does reduce ticks and pops by my goal there is simply to prevent dust buildup on the stylus.