Viva™ Paper Towels—The Magic Eraser™ of LP cleaning?

This was an experiment on an LP that I found in a thrift store for 95¢ divided by 2*. This is a mono copy of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, Bruno Walter leading the "Columbia Symphony Orchestra"°. Examination under strong light showed little wear but a few nicks here and there, plus greasy smudges and stains. I rinsed the LP in the kitchen sink, carefully avoiding the center label, then sprayed with new formula windex, then scrubbed with a fat, wide make-up brush. I rinsed again. Then I used fresh Viva paper towels and polished the records, concentric to the grooves.

The joining together of the surfaces of the Viva towel and the LP is reminiscent of the Magic Eraser's interface with the stylus of a phono cartridge—After rubbing and firmly pressing the paper towel on the LP, there is no scuffing or scratching of the LP. None. The dead wax is polished like a mirror. I gave this LP three passes in this fashion. Each pass yeilded a quieter playback. Initially, there was a gravely quality to the LP's surface noise. By the third cleaning, there were only the pops of the visible scars on the LP's surface remaining.

I don't know if anyone else has tried this out, but in my case, it works better than my VPI 16 did when it was still working, and about as good as the Keith Monks cleaner I used to use over at db audio, Berkeley, back in the 80's. Try it for yourself, let me know if I'm crazy or what. I swear this really works.

*The Other LP was Hank Williams, Luke the Drifter.

° Studio musicians on Columbia's tab plus ringers from the L. A. Phil.

 

Viva (and the commercial equivalent, KimWipes) are the best. They're not the cheapest. I've used them for about five years, for all final polish/fluid drying.

Some, though not all, of the competition don't work as well and/or leaver more marks. Nothing is better overall.

 

Yeah, but you're from Berkeley, where all the audiophile whack jobs hang out.
But seriously folks, Berkeley always was a real hotbed of the High-End, full of mad professors doing weird science in their garages.

 

Also for CDs.

Viva paper towels are recommended by Lloyd Walker (of Proscenium Diamond turntable fame) as replacements for the cleaning towels that come with his CD treatment / enhancement package called Vivid.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/vivid.htm

When one runs out of the towels, get Vivid because they are just as good. I started buying Vivid paper towels 5 or 6 years ago, and now they are the only paper towels I buy. Even though they are a bit expensive for daily use, Vivid is the only brand I buy - get them in packs of 10 to keep the cost down. So now I always have the right sort of paper towel to clean my CDs.

 

And of course, there's a lot of Audio Fruitcakes in San Jose as well, the East Bay is a hotbed of audio heresy.

Good to know, thanks for your confirmations.

Any recommended cleaning solutions? I have to assume that Windex is not quite ideal, but I'm open to being proven wrong.

 

Windex does a great job on the bathroom mirror - that's all.

 

I guess these are different Viva paper towels to which we get in New Zealand. The ones here are just slightly thicker than a regular paper town and would probably leave lint all over vinyl.

 

Viva is a Kimberley-Clark (Kleenex) product - is that what you have?

http://www.vivatowels.com/

 

May have to give this cleaning technique a try. Any recommendation on a make up brush? Did I just ask that?

 

Viva? Hmm? I didnt know they were any different from other paper towels. Softer fibers?

 

I LOVE using Viva paper towels. The big point for them is they do not scratch, and they really soak up the water well.
I have used Viva paper towels for polishing CDs for many years.
And to dry washed LPs.
The nice thing is the Viva paper towels can be reused about ten times over (just let them dry), So I get about 20 LPs from one narrow tear of Viva.
In the past, at times, some Viva have not been made as well, but usually Viva is the best paper towel for LP and CDs. Viva really is as good or better than cotton cloth.
This madness comes to you from the sane Midwest.

I usually rinse off the dusty LPs in the sink, no brush action. And then Viva, the vacuum final with my floor vac and a brush I use only for LPs. Most of the time that is sufficient.

 

They are absolutely totally different and much more expensive. But worth it as ElizabethH says.

 

So what fluid would you recommend?

 

sorry, I don't have any LPs here in the US.

 

I've got a lot of brushes, I'm a painter, an artist. My wife gave me the brush I'm using. The bristles are very soft, probably camel hair. They fluff outward about an inch and an half from the center. Mine flares out more than this one, but this would work just as well:

 

Hope's glass cleaner is much better.

 

For LPs or mirrors?

 

Mirrors.

 

OK, I'll look out for it.

 

I always use Bounty paper towels to dry the LPs after washing. I only use them for blotting the excess water. I have a brush to do the actual washing/scrubbing part. The very small amount of lint and fibers remaining from the paper towels are quickly blown off the LP with an air can. My goal is to get the beaded water off the vinyl as quickly as possible to reduce the water absorbtion into the plastic.

 

Could somebody suggest an appropriate liquid cleaner for LPs? I've used a number of cleaners manufactured by companies that sell through audio boutiques, heard that discwasher fluid was a tiny bit surfactant/detergent in de-ionized water and bought the basic ingredients from chemical supply shops, tried various types of alcohol, etc. Right now, windex is working for me, but I'm sure people on this forum have experimented with various different cleaning formulas. And we all know how hinky the 'search' function is 'round these parts these days, right?

 

I recommend you try the Viva - blotting works just fine for me when I clean CDs.

 

Sorry... but if one had to use something like Windex on a vinyl record....here, the disc would go in the rubbish bin. People using such 'far -out' solvent cleaning formulas, have no way of knowing the whole chemical formula of what is in it. For that 'clean transparent shine'....silicone as an additive is most likely. No wonder more polishing - would duch treated things 'apparently more shiny' I shudder thinking of traces of silicone being annealed onto a stylus, passing through 'window formula' cleaned grooves.
People already surely know what happens to LCD and Plasma screens when they carelessly spray them with such general household -use formulas. The damage is not apparent straight away : but over a certain period of time....

Here's an example of where one can run into trouble trying to improve things. Luckily it worked...finally. I had a couple of boxed record sets where the plastic coating of the covers was bubbled and crazy cracked. So I went and got a aerosol tin of painter -artist's vanish from an Art shop, normally used on finished painter's canvas' to repair and smooth out the 'cracked vansh' on the record covers. Once sprayed , the original vanish skin on the covers became soupy instead, like 'wet sloppy blistering skin ' nor did it show any tendency to dry. The mess was "reacting". So I gor a pair of fine tweezers and carefully peeled the entire protective 'shin' off... the illustrative paints beneath were soft & malleable - if I had wanted to actually touch or play with them. Then I reapplied a fresh coating of the artists' vanish.....it took 3 hours to dry! Now I had perfect record covers..........BUT the fuss, the waste of time...........looking back NOT worth it.

 

Here, no so much.

In any case, a simple response of "Use substance X, that's what I use" would be appreciated.

 

No silicone

"Traditional" blue-colored windows cleaners contain stuff like:
1) water, at least 90%
2) ammonia, low amount
3) other source of alkalinity, sometimes diethanolamine
4) alcohols
5) glycol ethers, alcohol-like solvent
6) surfactant, very low levels

Windex classic
water
Isopropyl Alcohol
Propylene Glycol
2-Hexoxyethanol
Ammonium Hydroxide
Mirapol® Surf S-210
Videt EGM
Wetting Agent Sodium C14-17 Sec-Alkyl Sulfonate
Fragrance
Dye Liquitint® Sky Blue Dye

Windex Crystal Rain
Water
Isopropyl Alcohol
Propylene Glycol
2-Hexoxyethanol
Ethanolamine
Ethoxylated Alcohol
Polyquart® Ampho 149
Wetting Agent Disodium Cocoamphodipropionate
Fragrance
Dye Liquitint® Blue HP Dye
Liquitint® Red ST Dye