Did anybody ever had issues with Nagaoka stylus cleaner?

I have an Ortofon 2M Black, which isn't my favorite, but I've always adhered to Ortofon's advice about avoiding liquid stylus cleaners. I've always suspected it's no big deal if not overdone . . . I use an Onzow pad to clean my stylus every two sides of play. I'll probably clean with liquid once a week (or month) now. If a stylus is dirty, you can hear it.

 

Sounds more like your records are dirty! Every two sides?? Yikes.

 

I mainly use an Onzow for daily cleaning but about once every two weeks I use an alcohol/ammonia free eyeglass cleaner on my stylus.

https://www.amazon.com/Lens-Cleaner...l+free+eyeglass+cleaner&qid=1595195190&sr=8-5

Spary a bit on my stylus brush, a few back to front sweeps and I am all set.

 

I have an off-brand zero-dust and have never seen the need to buy anything else. Play clean records and use the zero-dust every couple of sides and you won't have any problems. Well worth the 40 bucks, or yo can get the off brand one I have for about half that. The important part though is clean records. Preferably wet or vacuum cleaned, and make sure you also are using a static brush before you drop the stylus on each side. If you're playing nasty dirty records, you'll always have problems.

 

[Maybe] I'm just obsessive. I doubt my records are dirtier than most. I use a VPI Cyclone and Audio Intelligent fluids.

To be clear, when I said "if your stylus is dirty, you can hear it," I meant a cruddy stylus, much dirtier than what most of us probably live with. I remember wondering what was up with my FR MC201 once when something sounded "off." Turned out it was giving a tiny thread a ride.

 

I used to use Last to clean my stylus, and I did it regularly. I had a Grado Reference cartridge and the stylus got bent by a stray sleeve. I sent the cartridge in to Grado to have them straighten the stylus. I talked to the person at Grado who fixed the cartridge. It was an older man who did it for free, and I got the impression he was running the place. He said, "By the way, don't use any of that junk to clean your stylus. They're made of hard diamond that easily brushes clean. Dust comes right off of it. All those cleaners just collect and gunk up your needle."

I threw away the bottle of Last and never bought another bottle of stylus cleaner. Now I use the Clearaudio short-haired carbon fiber brush that came with my Clearaudio cartridge. I won't use another stylus cleaner until somebody can guarantee me that it won't "gunk up" my stylus.

 

The Garrott Brothers (RIP) recommended using no stylus cleaning fluids, as they had seen plenty of damage when rebuilding cartridges - stylus tips falling off and damping being affected by repeated wicking up the cantilever of the cleaning fluid.

 

Never had a problem with Nagaoka Hi clean 801 in something like 30 years. From the smell of it it must be something like 70% alcohol. I don't use it very often, a carbon fibre brush is sufficient to get ordinary dust off. And just to be on the safe side I use Lyra SPT for my most expensive cartridge. SPT is 98% water, must be the most expensive water on the planet

 

This makes a lot of sense, but I recently ended up with a stubborn ball of gunk on my ClearAudio Maestro cart (as per ‘DIY cleaning solution for stylus’ thread), and tried my Onzow, moongel, magic eraser, nothing would shift it until I tried a stylus brush with a drop of L’Art Du Son on and very gentle coaxing. I first tried the brush dry, and that got some off, to start with.

 

Minimal fluid, said Brian and John Garrott, and only if you absolutely have to. Just like you have done. The old Discwasher SC1 brush was a good one.