Just bought a nitty gritty, hear no difference.

I had the NG 1.1 and I used to use a Sound GUard mat to scrub the record on before the vacuum stage. I found that the Sound Guard mat held the record in place and allowed me to really bear down with the brush to lossen all that would come off. I did upgrade to the VPI 16.5 and can do that scrubbing on the platter now. But one more thing is I bought the Needle Doctor Scrubbing brushes too. I found those worked much better than the NG Brush.
Good Luck!

that is hilarious!

All,

First of all, the solution to pollution is dilution. The more fluid you lay on the record, the lower the concentration dirt in the fluid and the cleaner your records will be ... to a point, of course.

One of the difficulties in learning how to use a Nitty Gritty based system is that the surface being cleaned is upside down. It's difficult to monitor the fluid amount you lay on the record.

When I owned one, I developed a technique of pumping several times, waiting for the fabric on the cleaning slot to saturate, in order to distribute more fluid on the record surface. I'd saturate the slot several times while rotating and stopping the record.

Now, to Porziob's uninformed comments ...

The better the vinyl rig, the quieter your records will sound. PERIOD! Much of the noise you hear on a low-resolution vinyl rig has to do with resonance - the ringing which occurs after of the initial "pop".

A first class turntable and tonearm will ring FAR LESS, and your records will sound quieter.

Certainly, noisy records will be noisy, but you'd be amazed at what a high mass turntable and a first-class tonearm can do to quiet down your record collection.

Now, I know several audiophiles who are dismayed to hear any noise on an LP surface. You have my sympathies, because you are tortured souls and are missing a wealth of our musical heritage in the process.

Last year, sales of new LP's surpassed the combined sales of both "high resolution" digital formats (DVDA and SACD). At present, analog remains the high resolution medium, and digital is the medium of convenience.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Nice points Thom. This is a lesson I've learned fist hand myself.

I have a disc doctor RCM and have used several record cleaning fluids. I buy used LPs at yard sales ebay etc. I win some and lose some. As previous posters have said if a record is damaged from over play or play on a bad mostly cheap setup (as a lot of used ones are) no amount of cleaning is going to get rid of all the pops and cracks. BUT, if a record is just dirty including mold release (even found on new records) there is hope as Audiofiel hath spoken. Here is the advice part, invest a few more bucks. First, go to the Audio Intelligent website and order the sample kit which contains small bottles of their enzymatic formula, their record cleaning fluid, and ultra pure water, all for $8 plus shipping. Second, invest in a Zerostat anti static gun, a carbon fiber brush and stylus cleaner (I use the Onzow which I think is hokey lowering my stylus into jelly but it works). Follow Audio Intelligent's procedure for record cleaning which is basically this: zap each side of the LP with the Zerostat, run the carbon fiber brush around the album to gather up loose dirt, dust etc. then vac dry. Apply the AA enzymatic formula and brush into grooves well allow it to dry for one minute then vac. Then apply their RCF rub into grooves with a SEPERATE brush and then vac again. For extra measure you can use the ultra pure water for a "rinse" then vac again. Frankly this last step did not seem to add anything for me on the few records I tried it with. There is no doubt the enzymatic formula is the best stuff I have used to get a record clean. Finally, if you will get some new album covers to keep these "cleaned" records in (don't put them back into old covers which are full of dust themselves)you will be able to take these albums out and play them with only occasional cleaning with rcf. I would highly recommend the AA enzymatic formula to anyone, especially those who are buying new audiophile pressings which are not really clean even new or those who are taking chances on used ones. I have no affiliation with Audio Intelligent, I am just a satified customer.