Stylus cleaners
I used to use Onzo ZeroDust with my first few cartridges years ago. With the last two cartridges, Hana ML, I have only been using the included Hana brush for every side of LP and the MoFi LP-9 liquid stylus cleaner (I get as much fluid out of the brush by pressing it against the neck of the bottle before I clean stylus) every 3-4 records.
Onzo is collecting dust especially since the Fremer’s The Tracking Angle article.
I’ve been looking at DS Audio ST-50 but at $80 I’m not sure it will do anything better than my current cleaning methods.
What’s your stylus cleaning routine?
Reading Lamps, especially ones that emit a little heat, are great left on near the Headshell for 30+ minutes in advance of a Vinyl Replay session. The ambient heat local to the Cartridge does wonders for the Damper / Armature /Tension Wire interface A Cartridge will be heard at its very best, and better than what a few hours uszge can muster in a room with a lesser ambient heat. The Local light makes cueing a pleasure as well.
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That's a pity. Incidentally my incandescent bulbs strobe enough to allow me to set the speed on my Garrard 301, which has big strobe marks on the rim of the platter. My workshop LED lamps strobe beautifully. I joke about IKEA, and they deliberately design the layout to keep you meandering for as long as possible. I had to refit my partner's bathroom / laundry and we fronted up to IKEA with our sketches. In what felt like under two hours, we had professional drawings, a full bill-of-materials, and everything picked at their nearby warehouse waiting to be loaded. I mean everything! Impressed? You bet! |
I think I have decoded this correctly! Yes, stylus cleaning's main value is an audible improvement in sound quality. Accumulated gunk increases the tip mass, reduces trackability and eventually produces obvious distortions. At this point, one wonders how much damage is being done to the record? |
@pindac mentioned jeweller's putty. The best of all these is watchmaker's putty, such as Rodico made by Burgeon. It's super clean, being made for removing gunk from the inside of mechanical watches, and for the same reason is made to leave no residue. |
