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Best Record Cleaning Fluid

Greetings All,

I’ve spend the last few days searching and reading about record cleaning fluids for my cleaning machine (Okki Nikki).  Wow - there are a lot of options out there.  Many more than I originally thought.  Some real esoteric stuff that costs a pretty penny.  I’m currently going through my entire collection, cleaning it, listening to it and adding it to a Discogs DB.  Want to finally know how many I have and have a list of them.  But doing this has resulted in me going through cleaning fluid rather quickly.

So many options, so many perspectives on what are the best fluids.  What do you all say.  I understand that alcohol is a no-no for fluids, but I can’t find out if some of them include alcohol or not.  Currently using up the fluid that came with the machine, but no where can I read it if has bad ingredients.

The 2-stage or 3-stage cleaning systems are not going to happen.  I did get a bottle of Revolv that I was told was good, and use if for new high quality pressings (as opposed to those I bought in high school).

Anyway, would appreciate some perspectives on good quality record cleaning fluids that don’t bust the bank.  Thanks for keeping the sarcasm in check.

Happy Listening,

pgaulke60
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voiceofvinyl's avatar
voiceofvinyl
93 posts
 
Indeed, some labels tout their own unique formulation, so I'm inclined to agree with you.
Yes. Remember “Quiex II”, “Quiex SV” and JVC’s Super Vinyl among others? They play very quietly. It takes more than minimizing re-grind to get records to play black quiet.

I would mention that the Dynaflex pvc was (allegedly) formulated to play quietly, and generally they do, but my source is unreliable. To my knowledge RCA has never gone public with the use of an additive for those pressings.

As far as patents including claims or embodiments that never get implemented....it’s smart (defensive) Intellectual Property strategy- claim as much land around your preferred embodiment as you can afford to defend.
hifimusicman's avatar
hifimusicman
5 posts
 
I am still using a Nitty Gritty cleaning machine that I have owned for many years with the cleaning solution from Nitty Gritty. It seems to do the job pretty well I think. I haven't had any reason to upgrade this to a different machine or use a different cleaning solution. If anyone out there uses a Nitty Gritty machine but knows of a better cleaning solution to use with it then I would be interested to know about it.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Voiceofvinyl, there have been many approaches to making records mostly adjusting gain, various compression schemes and adjusting the weight of the puck. Wickipedia has a long article on this and it does talk about all of RCA's meanderings. Columbia was another company that tried various approaches in competition with RCA. I have several JVC Super Vinyl records, excuse me they are JVC Direct Discs, the three Lee Ritenour records, Gentle Thoughts, Sugar Loaf Express and Friendship.
They are great records. I terms of quality they used a thicker puck and the Japanese are a lot more fastidious about their pressing technique and cleanliness so their pressings are very quiet. You will notice that all the highest quality discs are done on black plastic. The carbon black does have lead in it and if you have ever handled raw lead it is slippery and feels sort of greasy. Other colored discs are noisier. My own experience backs this up. Having said all this the absolute quietest discs I have are British! Older EMIs , Decca and Mercury pressings are just wonderful. Only Analog Productions comes close to that level of quality. I suspect it is due to things like cleanliness, less or no recycled vinyl and changing the stampers more frequently. 
ttrulis
8 posts
 
I like the Audio Intelligent #6. 
Spreads great. LP ‘s are dead silent after cleaning. 
I use the MOFI brush with Record Doctor rcm. 
Follow the directions for best results. 
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