Liquid Stylus Cleaners


I know that some of the cartridge makers, including Soundsmith, say not to use liquids and many of you don’t. From a manufacturer’s standpoint, I can definitely understand why - god only knows what some of us dopes (including myself) will be swabbing on there. I have used LP#9 after every side since 2005 when I returned to vinyl, and never had a problem. And I haven’t been surgically careful either. I do use a lighted magnifier to see what I’m doing, but I’ve brushed crap off the cantilever and never had anything migrate into the cartridge or experienced any of these horror stories I hear. So IMO at least, these warnings about liquids are somewhat exaggerated. Do you use them?

 

chayro

Perfectly safe imo, if used with care. It’s not necessary to use after every side. And just hit the Diamond stylus with liquid; obviously it’s not good to douse the cantilever or undercarriage. If the glue dissolves from a quality stylus cleaner then it wasn’t going to be an effective bond anyways. 

I've got a veritable circus of stylus/cartridge paraphernalia at my disposal. Depending on my mood, I might give the stylus a single back-to-front brush with a rather stiff Last Brush, or brush it with an unbranded soft brush I got with a stylus cleaning kit sometime in the distant past. I might lower the stylus onto a "Professional" battery-powered stylus cleaner, either with or without first wetting its brush with a bit of  one of the stylus-cleaning juices I keep nearby. I occasionally put a bit of StyLast lubricant on the needle. Sometimes I'll use an artists' brush to clean the detritus that collects on the cartridge body. I'll occasionally dust the turntable's platter with a soft cloth. I just don't want to embed a grain of dust or sand in the record when I clamp it down with my Belex Audio record clamp.

Usually i do dry cleaning, with manufacturer's brush (mostly), or Last's stylus cleaner brush, or onzow zerodust, what mood indicates. An artist's small brush is always good for cleaning cartridges body. Last stylus cleaner is mostly the fluid that i use after some lp sides. Clearaudio elixir of sound rarely.

 

 

 

I've personally found that the Last stylus cleaner really does improve the tracking.  I tried the Magic Eraser bit, but it left the stylus sounding flat, until I cleaned it with the Last stylus cleaner.