cleaning gritty surface noise on LPs

OP,

Oops, I did not read carefully enough. I still use VPI cleaning fluid… non alcoholic. Long ago I did a ridiculously deep dive into cleaning fluids. One rule was no alcohol. I have tried a few fluids. My take is that if you have a really good table and cartrige and a good vacuum cleaning doesn’t do it… then nothing is going to change that. Toss it.

I mention the table, because when I got my first audiophile table the noise level dropped dramatically, particularly in my ancient heavily played albums. I believe because the stylist is a fraction of the size of the ones I used way back when… so they drop down to pristine vinyl. So, a cleaning and a really good cartridge can eliminate the noise.

Ethanol and isopropanol (one or the other, ethanol preferred) are beneficial additives to an LP cleaning solution along with a nonionic detergent. If you’re using pure water alone, your solution cannot dissolve oils or lift and solubilize dirt deeply in grooves. This has been discussed here ad nauseam.

What about Ultrasound cleaners for the OPs issue?

ghdprentice, Better be careful, when my hair stylus found out about my cartridge stylist, all hell broke loose! 😁

I'm afraid you will not be able to fix these records. Cleaning, as you have already noted, does nothing. Somewhere down the line something happened to them, maybe played with a bad stylus. In a last ditch effort, incase somebody sprayed them with contact cement, you can spray them off with brake cleaning fluid. It will not damage the record, I have done it to prove a point.

The best approach will be to buy new copies of the music you cherish.

Ultrasonic cleaning is a fad and the process has extreme limitations.