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?

audphile1

I long ago had a Van den Hull Grasshopper. I tried a number of stylist liquid cleaners. All of which said apply only to the stylist not the cantilever. So they have a brush about 100 times the size of the stylist... and pretty viscous "cleaner". The proposition was so crazy that you could actually only touch the stylist. After a few times I gave up and concluded this liquid stuff can’ t possibly do anything but gunk things up. I went to a brush and then more recently the drop it in gel. I do not have problems with wear or dust. 

I was using Last cleaner for my stylus before Joe Grado said, "Stop using that stuff. It leaves gunk on the stylus." He said he cleaned off the gunk. I use nothing but brushes now to clean my stylus. It made sense when Joe Grado talked about how diamonds are so hard that dust can just be brushed off. I've been doing that for probably twenty years or more. When I had my cartridge retipped, the guy who retipped it did not say I had all this dust destroying my stylus. It makes perfect sense to me that a diamond does not need any fluid to brush off the dust.

Neil - you and I both know “ clean rooms.. aren’t “ in a previous life I ran some that built things like F-22 wings and the metering truss for the Hubble optics. I ordered the Orbit. Will advise on that as it arrives and is put into my process

@audio-b-dog thank you for your response. My approach is as follows:

  • new records are cleaned in Himonguru Nova using only distilled water on normal cycle 
  • used records are thoroughly washed in Knosti Antistat with Tergikleen, rinsed with distilled water, finished in the Humminguru on normal cycle 
  • fresh inner sleeves (MoFi or similar)
  • record brush before playing 
  • stylus cleaned with proper stylus brush (MoFi or the original cartridge included brush)
  • liquid clean stylus every 5-6 records (which is unlikely with clean records) or when I hear degradation in sound quality which with clean records will be about once a month with regular listening 
  • liquid clean AND treat with Stylast once every few months

When I use liquid stylus cleaner or treatment I run the brush against the inside of the neck of the bottle 2-3 times to get all access liquid out. I’m fairly confident that this careful approach will not result in creating any issues or permanent accumulation of debris on the stylus. That’s my theory. 

I use a Degritter to clean all my records new and old. I put clean records on my turntable. I love the Degritter. Anyone who can afford one, should have one.