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Stylus Cleaning Schedule?

Ok, I have read in Robert Harley's "The Complete Guide to High End Audio", that you should clean your stylus every album side.

How many of you actually do that?

I like my albums and think I take care of them pretty well. I use a RCM to clean them. But I honestly don't clean my stylus that often. I pretty religiously clean my stylus before every listening session. Most sessions consist of listening to 2 to 6 album sides, usually on the lesser end of the scale unfortunately. (I use the Last stylus cleaning fluid. I put it onto the stylus cleaning brush and then clean the stylus to avoid getting too much cleaning fluid on the cantilever. Sound about right?)

(By the way, I like Harley's book and have gotten a fair amount of knowledge out of it, although I may not actually agree with absolutely everything in it. I recommend it to anyone interested in this hobby.)
kurt_tank

Showing 1 response by dougdeacon

dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
As Bombaywalla said, the best stylus cleaner is a clean LP.

Since I play only well-cleaned LP's my need for actual stylus cleaning is fairly low. I do dry brush it after each side with a corner of the CF brush before brushing the record.

Once in a while I give it swipe with my DIY stylus cleaner, described on this thread:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1079733653&read&keyw&zzstylus=cleaner

I've tried LP#9, zerodust, the xtremephono goop and a matchbook striker. The DIY is quicker to use than any of them except the match striker. It does a better job than any of them.

But to reiterate, clean LP's make stylus cleaning virtually unnecessary.
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