Record Cleaning Machines

@daveyf ,

If your read these two articles - Record -Groove Wear, J G. Woodward, HiFi Stereo Review Magazine, October 1968  HiFi-Stereo-Review-1968-10.pdf (worldradiohistory.com) and RCA Engineer Magazine, 1976, Issue
02-03, Development of Compound for Quadradiscs, by G.A. Bogantz S.K. Khanna  1976-02-03.pdf (worldradiohistory.com) it should give you some idea of how records wear.  

If the vinyl is decent quality, excessive wear from a conical or elliptical stylus will trench the groove, but an advanced  fine contact profile stylus like a Shibata will bridge the trench and the 'worn' record (if clean) can play fine.  

Now if the record is deeply scratched - all bets are off; why buy it.  I have successfully recovered some records that were very noisy - the constant background hiss/static by manually cleaning with a multistep process that first degreased the surface with an aggressive detergent and then use a mild-acid to dissolve embedded hard-water type scale particles followed by a final clean with a very mild nonionic surfactant and DIW rinse. I can manually use chemistry that you would not use with an ultrasomic tank because of excessive foam or corrosion.  

So, from my experience buying old records - used (no significant surface scratches)  or NOS (which can be worse than used - the paper sleeve has deteriorate into the grooves), I am seeing dirt, residue, debris, whatever as the primary problem.   I have surrendered a few records as beyond help and just bad,  But bad could be a bad-pressings using  bad vinyl composition which I can sometimes detect with UV light.  

@antinn  Having collected LP's for decades, I can tell you that the typical used jazz and rock album is going to have significant issues..primarily from scratching and groove damage ( VG-VG++). You damage the groove with pits and scratches ( your definition of deep?) and the LP will be noisy, no matter what you do with cleaning. Unfortunately, the typical rare Beatles LP, or the typical Blue Note Lex Ave or 47 W 63rd pressing will be groove damaged.( the vast majority being VG- to VG+)..and showing scratches. Some deeper than others ( but they will all sound, regardless of the stylus shape you are using.) Your definition of deeply scratched is a relative term. IME all groove damage is audible, regardless of the stylus shape..and no amount of cleaning will alleviate this. 

Massive thanks to everyone.
This thread is hugely informative and I have been following it closely.
Currently it appears the Degritter has the best recommendation ratio.
But goodness me, aren't there a lot of variables once you start analysing additions to plain distilled water!

@oldaudiophile- i use a very dense brush to clean my stylus maybe once a week with a slight amount of MFSL stylus cleaning fluid. That sometimes makes a difference in SQ when I can see some dust on the brush.

Sounds like youve got a good tracking system down. You must go through a lot of stickers! So you count the number of plays per cleaning, or does it very by time, or record condition? 

oldaudiophile

I use a carbon fiber brush, as well. I also use an Onzow stylus cleaner that I love. Using one of those shows you what kind of gunk or dirt a stylus picks up, even on a "clean" record after one play.

If you’re truly playing a clean LP there won’t be any visible dust on the stylus after one play.

There’s a lot of good information in this thread and I have a lot of respect for those who are willing to put so much time and energy into this. My protocol is simple compared to many here: I use a Klaudio US cleaner using nothing but distilled water. It’s an easy, convenient, one-button process, which means there’s never a reason to play anything but a clean record.

I still have my original Nitty-Gritty cleaner but I never used it much. It’s just too much trouble. I keep it on hand in case I ever get an LP the Klaudio can’t sufficiently clean, but that hasn’t happened yet in the years I’ve had the Klaudio.