Ultrasonic cleaning before and after


I used a track on side B of Helen Humes and the All Stars. (Muse MR5217). My Old Flame. $1.99 record store.

Before cleaning, the vinyl was fairly dirty with some fingerprints and a lot of dust. Vinyl was greyish from dirt.

I cleaned the single record in my China-made US tank and a motor driven rotator for 5 mins. 80/20 distilled water/isopropyl alcohol with a few drops of Triton X100 surfactant.

Before: A fair amount of surface noise with crackling in right channel from fingerprint marks. It sounded pretty decent as the recording is fine.

After SpinClean pre-rinse: Reduction in surface noise but fingerprint scratch was still as pronounced. Recording sounded better with somewhat blacker silences and improved dynamics.

After US and SC rinse: Much quieter. Surface noise practically gone. Fingerprints noise reduced by 70%. However what I was not expecting was much better music. The acoustic bass line appeared literally for the first time. Piano notes came together in a melody where before they seemed random and disjointed. Brass became three dimensional coming forward in the mix. Vocals centered and became more nuanced like she was singing to you with an increase in sibilance where called for.

Summary: I am genuinely surprised by the improvement wrought by the second cleaning. I can’t say for certain if it was due to the US or simply to playing it three times! I cleaned the stylus before each play.
128x128noromance
Been playing around with ultrasonic cleaning for over a year. I have found that all surfactants do contribute to the sound of the LP washed with it. Currently I use a less than 2.5% isopropyl solution in the ultrasonic bath. Spin 3 LPs spaces 1.25” apart at 35 deg C for 15 minutes. No surfactants used. The isopropyl does somewhat lower the surface tension of the water. 

Rinse and vac off with a clearaudio double matrix sonic machine with a minimal isopropyl mixed with distilled water. This So far yields the best results. The alcohol in the final rinse does make a an appreciable benefit.
"never draws dust to itself"

This is impossible. I can't think of how many ways that statement is wrong.
I drank the coolaide and now have a vinyl stack and 10 L ultrasonic unit. Dumb question, I do not see any bubbles when the it is on, it this normal? Thanks
Not dumb at all. It means that the cleaning chemistry has been purged of air, as it should be. You should see only small ripples on the surface.