Abnormal amount of dust collecting on stylus - any ideas, please?

Hi and thank you for reading!

This could sound like an odd question but I promised a friend that I'd ask this on his behalf (so, it's NOT me - ok? Just wanted to clear that up...) I can't persuade him to join SH.tv sadly, as his dyslexia knocks his confidence quite a lot and he also lives 150 miles from me so I can't really call round to help him too easily!

He bought this deck... it's an Ariston RD 11, from Ebay a few years ago and it needed some work so I undertook this for him. This involved fitting new phono leads and mains cable - I also installed a different cartridge of his choosing... a Nagaoka mp 150 and the arm is an SME of some sort (he still has the box but says there must have been a label that has fallen off it.) Then I made all the necessary adjustments - set it all up. I don't know how much of this info might make a difference, but I thought I'd put it here just in case.

My friend's not used this TT for a while and tells me that this issue is the reason. It's been in storage for a time and now that he's moved house he has more room and wants to use it. Ever since he started to use it (after me fixing it up - please don't tell me it's my fault... ) it has picked up so much dust from records that it leads us to believe there is something causing this that will probably be easily dealt with and I've been there to witness this happening with it. He does use a carbon fibre brush and has a carbon fibre mat on the TT. So much dust is collecting that 9 times out of 10, you can't get to the end of an LP side without the sound deteriorating badly and finding a big ball of fluff on the stylus tip.

Any advice would be very much appreciated - thank you!

 

If there is that much dust on the needle at the end of a record, ie a big ball, then the vinyl needs cleaning properly....maybe on a cleaning machine or something.

Has he bought any new vinyl? If he is using records that are dirty and years old, only cleaning them will solve the issue. The needle may also be digging out more dirt of the grooves as it plays.

 

Three things to do. Use the tables dustcover; it's there for a reason. Clean the Lps with record cleaning fluid using an applicator / brush designed for that before playing any Lp which has not been wet cleaned. Clean the stylus with alcohol as it may have picked-up some gummy substance from a record and that is lodged on the stylus and is collecting dust. The stylus is almost impossible to see clearly and you cannot see that level of detail without serious magnification, so just assume it is contaminated and clean it. Basically, if you keep your records clean, your stylus should remain relatively dust bunny free.
-Bill

 

Hi and thanks for the reply.

He rarely buys new vinyl but just got a few of the Stones DSD remastered LPs fresh from HMV. So, I'll give him a call shortly and if he has played them all now then it probably won't be more than once - I'll suggest he tries one to see if it happens with that.

Also, he has two other TTs and doesn't get this problem with them. I was thinking that massive amounts of static is being 'produced' somehow but haven't heard obvious static clicks when I've been there.

 

And to add to what Bill said and fully agree with...make sure you do not brush the cantilever...only the stylus tip itself.

 

He uses the dust cover (or used to when I've been there.) I was thinking that the stylus may have picked something up out of a groove as well. And I've not known him to actually clean records; just a quick once-over with the brush.

 

Are you sure its not really your turntable?

 

Nooo - and I did have a feeling this would be asked.

Maybe I could have worded my disclaimer a bit better - it probably comes across like someone going to visit the doctor 'on the behalf' of an embarrassed 2nd person...