record cleaning question

I've used both. To my ears, the AIVS fluids and pure water rinse produced cleaner LP grooves. For my listening preferences and with my cleaning protocols, AIVS are my RCM fluids of choice.

I agree - those AIVS products are great.

I really don't know how one can compare one good fluid with another. Every record has a unique buildup of grunge on it and there's no way to really tell which cleaner is going to be able to best deal with it. Also, if you clean with one fluid and the record is still dirty, but the other fluid cleans it up, how do you know that it just wasn't a second cleaning that did it? All this aside, I've used AI#15 and it's very good stuff. I also like the other AI fluids, but I'm not nuts about 3 and 4-step processes. Frankly, if a record is not too dirty, I have no problems with Nitty Gritty Pure2, which is a 1-step fluid. Works fine, IMO.

The No. 15 is excellent for washing off pressing scum and oily finger prints. It is meant as a prescrub and needs to be rinsed off, not just vacuum off and your done. I use it for my first step and scrub with a brush prior to drying with a micro towel and inserting it into my KL Audio ultrasonic for final clean/rinse/dry process. I only do the pre scrub for my first cleaning on a new or used record.