Does the Step 4 final rinse for Walker Prelude help?

HDM and Mark,

My local materials scientist tells me that certain alchohols will decrease the surface tension of very pure water relative to a PVC surface. This may allow Step 4 to flow more readily deep into groove bottoms and tiny modulations than pure water would do. That might explain the results Tbg and Rushton have heard, which I trust to be real. Neither of these gentlemen has ever posted anything that wasn't honest and helpful for as long as I've known them.

My question was based on the fact that the lower the surface tension of a fluid, the more difficult it becomes to remove a thin film of that fluid from a surface. Any combination of fluid, wetted surface and RCM involves a conflict between the surface tension between fluid and surface and the air velocities produced by the RCM. For any given air velocity, the lower the surface tension, the more fluid will be left behind.

Tbg and Rushton's results and Walker's explanation all make perfect sense. I only wondered (perhaps somewhat academically, as Rushton suggested) about the risks of alchohol traces and the possibility that an alchohol step immediately following the enzymes might be useful. Those questions remain, but it's beyond my knowledge to do more than pose them for anyone who's interested to consider.

Doug

P.S. to Mark, neither Paul nor I had anything to do with designing the AI fluids. They were in the finished form we know today several months before we first saw them. Jim gets 100% credit for the redesign. We're just satisfied users like you or anyone, with no other interest.

Lloyd responded to my email saying the following: "No, using ultra-pure water after the Step 4 would not be better." I would have liked more elaboration, but hey, it is his product.

 
I was gonna make some comments about facts, evidence, and alcohol in record cleaners, but instead I am reminded of a delightful James Blish short story entitled 'Surface Tension'. Wherein breaking through that effect was likened unto gravitational escape velocity for a tiny vessel built by a band of rotifers leaving their current droplet for the next. Entertaining writer, Blish.

I spoke with Lloyd today about the Step 4 final rinse and was told it is composed of ultra-pure water, a teeny bit of alcohol, and 1% of a secret ingredient. It replaces the second pure water rinse in the Prelude regimen and Lloyd suggested it made a 10%-15% improvement. Everything I've tried from Walker Audio works pretty much as claimed - I'm gonna try the Step 4. Thank you, Tbg and Rushton, for sharing your experiences with it.
 
Tim

Jtimothya, thanks for the further clarification. Lloyd has always been into percentage improvement. It is big. I strongly suspect that it is not the alcohol.

Using the laboratory grade water from the Prelude kit as you know pools onto the Lp.
It almost seams it rides or floats on top of the Lp until you work it around the surface with the brush.

Thinking about it, this Step 4 must pick up where the lab water leaves off, or just simply saturates the Lp more effectively.

My question, how does the Step 4 spread over an Lp, is it more uniform then the lab water?

Tbg,we have similar tastes in music,all that you mentioned. Harry Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall, great music by all and yes the sub way and that one truck going through the gears.
It's much more evident now with my new turntable.
Do you have the 45 rpm box set of Belafonte Live at Carnegie Hall?
Been enjoying that one since I was a very young child,thanks to me dear old Mom for introducing me to a wide verity of truly great music of her ara.

Anyway ,I certainly plan on buying some Step 4.

Rushton did mention the product in another thread, it just didn't click at the time that it was a new product.

Looking forward to it.