I made a rookie mistake, don't do this

@elliottbnewcombjr 

A dust cover might be adequate (or not) keeping dust off the platter and plinth. It serves little useful purpose otherwise. It does nothing to help the life of a cartridge. The latter part falls under keeping your records and stylus clean.

I have a Clearaudio Innovation with two 12" Universal tonearms. There's not even a reasonable possibility of enclosing that in a dustcover. I use a goat hair cosmetic brush to dust off the POM platter, plinth and tonearms now and then, but that's all more for cosmetic satisfaction than functional worth. I clean my records and I clean my stylii with the proper tools.

FYI. I have not used a dust cover since 1990. I probably have put over 2,500 hours on my Frog (known to do about 2x normal play time). Then about 500 hours on my Koetsu Rosewood. Never any problems. I do a quick cleaning of the record before playing each side. Once every few years I check the cartridge with a magnifier. I have never observed anything requiring action.

If I remember correctly typical cartridges are good for around 1,200 to 1,500 hours.

Also, I do not own a tube tester. I do keep a backup set of tubes for my tube components. I have had to do a little trouble shooting twice in the last ten years. I think it lasted 10 minutes. I replaced the tubes on one of the audio circuits… 4 tubes… that fixed the problem… then swapped in the old 4 tubes until the problem recurred. Done.

I have never had a problem with an optical sensor on my CD or SACD, or DVD player. Although I lived in the dust bowel… Tucson for 25 years.

Just a question of how you approach life. I’d rather be listening to music.

Cleaning LP’s and the Styli is a discipline that will help keep things in reasonable fettle.

I have now evolved to the PAVCR Manual Cleaning Method for Vinyl with New Sleeves used Post Cleaning.

I also have the Yukimu AS-B1 Brush for general pre play cleaning.

The Styli is catered for as well with options for the Cleaning.

None of these are going to Stop Contaminant collecting on the Armature/ Damper / Coil Assembly and there is not a cleaning method typically used that will address this build up.

Once seen as a collected contaminant of the critical assembly needing a movement maintained as per the design. There is little that will convince the movement is not being effected once the build up on contaminant is witnessed.

The decision to be made, is how much do I want my Cart’ to be maintained at an optimised function during its replay life. The likelihood is optimised function has deteriorated at approx’ 300-400 hours of usage, and from this point on will be gradually moving further as the restriction to freedom of movement is further impeded by increased collection of contaminant.

The decision that comes with difficulty to be made is, am I willing to spend additionally to have the Cart’ professionally treated for the cleaning and assessed for overall condition.

Maybe an individual with an expensive Cart’ may see the Value in adopting such a approach.

Maybe an individual keen to have their Cart’ maintained as an attempt to keep it as close to optimised when used, will see the value in using the support of a professional.

I don’t have what I call an expensive Cart’ as a purchase Value, but do have a Cart’ that is Bespoke Produced, and has been proven to function quite similar to the Cart’ Brands more expensive Models. The Cart’ even as a result of the rarity of a certain part used on it, will go for the cleaning process in the not too distant future, approx’ 400ish hours of replay.

The added late in life to the system CD Source, has been a great method for reducing the usage of a Cart’. Actually much better than owning multiple Cart’s, as the CD is used regularly, and Cart’s remain stored, even though there are unused Tonearms that can be multiple mounted, allowing stored Cart’s to excel in use.

Amazon’s Alexa has done wonders for recollecting musical encounters has in the past, all at the command of a voice control. This is use in the Company of my Wife is now 50% of the music produced in the home, it is very enjoyable to share time and revisit music almost forgotten. I was reintroduced to Hawkwind - ’Hurry on a Sundown a few years ago, not heard since I was in my 30’s. That track is now one of quite a few that are heard a few times a month.

Alexa and the CD Source will certainly make the idea of being without a Cart’ for a few weeks be a non-concern.

Who knows I may even Manually Clean a few more Albums of my Wife’s and my own selection in anticipation of the Cart’s return.

The most important thing for myself, is that I do not feel I am selling myself short by adopting the usage of a Professions Service near the Cart’s mid usage life.

The Link in the following post may be an eyeopener and is certainly not a one off occurrence.

I know what Cart' I would like to have mounted on my Tonearm.