Results from Beta Testers of New Formulas

Excellent, Jphii! That's good, thorough work, fair within the practical constraints of such a test. Right on.

Paul, I am in the process of moving to Florida early next week and could not take up your offer to test your product. I have been, however, paying attention on your test and what exactly the Record Research products, which rely on ultrapure water, do. Professionally, I hold a degree in Aquatic Science, so I can get pretty technical, except when someone like Raoul ticks my nerves...and then I start giving my "prescriptions".

The subject of resin chemistry can get complicated and demands time and thorough thinking to understand. When I went through corporate training everybody had BS degrees and was having a hard time (except the chemists). What goes on is that as a resin begins to exhaust, the heavier ions ( SiO2, Ca+2, etc, ) are released in favor of the smaller, lighter ones. This is a broad generalization, as an anion resin will exhibit a Silica dip before actually breaking through--just to get a broad picture. Final polishing stages should be devoid of bivalent atoms and ions in order to assure the highest purity. The system I used to run would have gas transfer membranes followed by activated carbon + hydrazine to remove CO2 + O2 past the reverse osmosis unit, which delivered the water @ 8 to 9 uSiemens. A softener followed the degassing units and then on to electrodeionization stacks which mainly removed monovalent ions. After that were two mixed bed polishers in series which brought the water to specs (0.055 uSiemens conductivity, TOC < 20 ppb, SiO2 < 5ppb, DO < 5ppb). Why am I saying all this?

1) Because the water coming out was as pure as the laboratory reagent water and I could clean my glasses of all grease with just a Kim-wipe and ultrapure water. I think ultrapure water has applications to remove stuff from records AFTER initial cleansing and perhaps might benefit being the mixing agent for concentrated solution.

2) Because ultrapure can be made relatively inexpensively in the home if distilled water is available. Considering the price (or pricelessness) of a record collection, this deionization cartridge is more than affordable and simple to use:

Deionization filter

I think it would make ideal rinse/mixing water for the hobbyist.

If anybody is interested I can compile a bibliography of scientific articles on the subject of resin chemistry and demineralized water (after I move & get settled).

With psychic power and primal intensity,

Jphii,

Thank you for your thoughtful, detailed and careful review. Using small sample bottles was one of those things which seemed like a good idea at the time. I should have realized this technically-inclined group would want to do more testing than the small samples permitted. Hence, my sending more (and larger) samples upon request. Sorry about that, Jphii!

I have not encountered accumulation upon my stylus. These different results may be due to: (1) your use of test LPs which were more heavily soiled then mine; (2) frugal use of the cleaner formula -- understandable in light of the small samples sent; (3) the VPI's suction power compared to my self-designed RCM with 1 hp. of suction power. But I would think that (3) would be overcome by addressing (2), and making more liberal use of the cleaner formula. Your larger samples are on their way, and I'll be interested in seeing if more liberal use of the cleaner formula does, as anticipated, reduce accumulation on the stylus.

Thanks again for your very thorough testing and review.

Best regards,
Paul Frumkin

Somebody please remind me never to get into a water chemistry debate with psychicanimal ... with whom I hope to be speaking soon.

Psychic,

I think you said "clean water is better" but damn if I can tell!!! Thanks for the compliment, too.

Paul,

I hope you know I was kidding about the bottles (sorta!). I think the frugal use may be the culprit. I am using more RRL, just because I have more. I think I've got enough left to finish the sonics test. I've been listening all day today, and finally got through the first 9 albums.

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but I do have a definite opinion on one of the albums. I bought the CBS Mastersound Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here new in 1980. I paid $14.95 for it, the sticker is still there. I can honestly say that the album has never sounded as good as it does now. I tend to dislike most of the adjectives used to describe sound. But here, I guess the one I would use is, it just sounds more right. For the rest of my opinions, wait and see....

Joe

Just talked to Paul Frumkin on the phone, courtesy of MCI's The Neighborhood program...

From our conversation (and posted results) I can tell that Paul is definitely on the right track on how to achieve proper record cleaning. Making ultrapure water is a specialty subject indeed, but I convinced him that using it in the mixing of his #2 solution would improve results by no small margin. Clean water IS better, Jphii. The thing is that ultrapure water does not behave like reverse osmosis nor distilled water. There comes a point in purity where the water turns into a powerful solvent (that's why it's used in steam blows in plants). Just ultrapure water in steam form is a powerful cleaner. Maybe in a cleaner future you can Beta test two batches of #2 mixed w/ distilled water and ultrapure water, respectively. We'll see, things look good.

Where's Raoul?

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