do record cleaning fluids soften the treble?

As I mentioned earlier, if a record does not seem to need cleaning, I leave it alone. Salectric's ears tell him "...the 'uncleaned' record usually sounds better..." Time and again, my ears tell me the same thing.

If I may, can I then ask, and perhaps make a few conclusions-assumptions about these different viewpoints-opinions mentioned here?

What I have normally noted, when there was a rare, past time of playing any uncleaned records, was usually a higher degree of crud accumilation on the Stylus?

So, one question to the original poster, have you noted this as well? Why I ask, and my thoughts, are, if such is occurring, wouldn;t this then be a certain sign, that the Stylus is trying to plow a path through the groove?

Wouldn't this then have a greater degree of degradation, versus a cleaner groove?

Another thought is, can we then lump all makes-types of cleaning fluids, and rinses into the same boat, in that all that is made, can then cause these degrading qualities that some claim to note?

That even to a highly trained eye, that the uncleaned, brand spankin new record appears to be perfectly fine to play, wouldn't a certain degree of Stearates, and Mold Release products on the record's surface, and within the groove then be a benefit, or?

Just curious about this, because generally, most would no doubt find the exact opposite set of results with cleaning versus not cleaning.

Lastly, could it be a partciular cleaner-rinse, or a specific process that is being used, to cause less than optimal results? Mark

You see. No wonder that as much as I like tape I hate vinyl. I just have to deal with it. But it's a big pain in the backside and also very expensive.
Generally speaking, I too try to do as little cleaning as possible - I let the stylus do the work.

Just for the simple fact that your stylus will last longer when tracking cleaned vinyl than uncleaned is cause enough for me to clean every record I play. That and every one I've cleaned has noticeably sounded better without question.

I've yet to hear a negative impact after a cleaning. Perhaps I've just lucked into a effective methodology.

Stanwal and Notec, just to be clear, I am not recommending that anybody play dirty records. If a record is dirty, it needs to be cleaned. Period. My comments are directed to records that are already clean (both visually and in listening) but haven't gone through a cleaning fluid/vacuum process. In my experience, a record that is already clean does not sound as good after the fluid/vacuum cleaning, so I don't do that type of cleaning routinely. I only do it where it is needed.

Also, I use a carbon fiber brush to wipe off the surface of each record before I play it, and I wipe the stylus with a dry brush before I play each record.