Dry vacume cleaning lps: any point?

Hi all,
I have a pro-ject vc-s and a bit of a dilemma
I'm totally blind and in order to know what a record is and/or if it's in decent enough condition to keep, playing it is my only option. I've just got hold of a large lot of mixed lps (£20 for 500 of them you don't say no) but some of them are absolutely filthy, while others just need a basic clean.
I realise wet cleanin is always going to be better than dry, but is giving them a quick dry clean going to improve sound quality or make it harder to get to all the crud that will eventually need wet cleaning out if I decide to keep them?
Does anyone dry clean their records and if so what are your opinions?

 

That is a dilemma. How do you dry clean in the first place? I guess I always use some sort of solvent, so wet clean. 500 albums at once is quite a haul! Are they cataloged or organized in some fashion? I might separate the into groups and do 25 at a time or something. Do you have someone who can help you? I would still probably use a good RCM and cleaner, and just go through a bunch at a time, I would think dry cleaning could make things worse if you can’t tell how dirty they are beforehand.

 

Well there are going to be some I just don't want in here, in fact there have already been some, but yeah it's a lot of very mixed records in every way!

 

Dry cleaning LPs usually ends up pushing a lot of grit along the grooves and aggravating their condition. I think patience is a virtue, especially when dealing with the acquisition of a large collection. It will take weeks, or longer, to clean and catalogue everything, but the VC-S is up to the task. What’s the point of acquiring a collection only to initially treat them poorly by attempting to dry clean each LP?

Wet cleaning removes dirt and finger oils and all manner of other sorts of accumulations and mistreatment. A dirty LP can sound terrible enough that whatever good music (or just good production or worthwhile production or worthwhile music) is obscured. Wer clean everything and discover the new albums gradually. No matter what happens, the keepers will be clean and the ones you sell on will be in better shape than you got them and possibly worth a bit more which makes it all worthwhile too.

 

Your point about aggravating their condition by pushing dirt along the grooves is exactly what I was wondering. I haven't dry cleaned anything yet!
So far, the stuff I don't want has had no resale value. There are some very nice classical items here though, monos especially which is what pushed me into buying the lot. I collect decca lxt, columbia 33cx etc and there are enough upgrades for my personal collection here that I'm on cloud 9 just thinking about it, but I do wish dry cleaning them was an option, and it seems from your post it isn't a good idea.

and yes I am still looking for a good mono cartridge, even more so now. I had a couple of variable reluctance carts but one of them basicly fell to bits on me and the other needs new stylie which seem unobtanium.

 

dry anything's not good

 

My favorite mono cartridge, bar none, is the Soundsmith Aida mono. It is a true mono in that the output is not strapped - it’s what Soundsmith calls a dual-coil mono design and has a line contact stylus. At US$1999 it is eye-wateringly expensive as mono cartridges go but it is one of the best carts I’ve heard at any price. In a dedicated mono system I send the output from the Aida to a Graham Slee Revelation M (mono switchable) phono preamp. The Aida output is high at 2.12 millivolts, so a step-up transformer is not needed. The musical results are stellar. Sending the output of a dual-coil true mono cartridge to a stereo phono preamp is a bad idea because, basically, it sounds weird.

For notably less money, the Ortofon Quintet White Mono is also surprisingly good. It is a strapped output pin design with an nude elliptical stylus. As usual, Ortofon does a wonderfully musical job and the cartridge seems, to my ears, to be a bit of a bargain. The strapped output pin method that Ortofon uses for the cartridge means that it can feed a regular stereo phono preamp properly.

Enjoy the new LPs (after they’ve been cleaned).

 

I don't get it. How much faster do you think "dry" cleaning will be over a wet cleaning? You'd be skipping the scrubbing, right? That's like saving 30 seconds. It takes you 30 seconds to get the record. I usually do rinse, after the scrub. You could opt not to add the rinse. And for this kind of project, I wouldn't rinse either.

 

I'm not blind so please forgive for perhaps being naive, but why not stick braille stickers on all sleeves to help you identify them quicker. You would need someone to help you but once it's done you're happy.

I usually use a fibre brush to clean before each play, unless there's some bad dirt that's all it needs.

 

I believe dry vacuuming a record can damage it. I read this somewhere many years ago. By mistake I dry vacuumed one side of an lp and ruined it. I'd not do it if I were you.

 

I find that Orbitrac pads -- one for cleaning by squirting some alcohol-based (like 5% or 10%) solution (because the alcohol dries quickly) along the front part of the pad and then using it to clean the record, and then another for drying-- work very well when I just want a sort quick cleaning of a normal-play kind of record that's just gotten a big dusty and maybe as a recent fingerpring smudge or something. That process takes a only seconds, and delivering results pretty much as good deep cleaning will in the case of records that really aren't very soiled records. The Orbitrac pads can shed, so a quick pass with a carbon fiber or similar dust brush before playing or sleeving is usually essential, but I've had better success actually cleaning with them than with other pads, so I just clean up the sheddings.

But if you're acquiring a lot of older, used records that were owned not by audiophile types, even the ones that just need a "basic clean" might need more cleaning than you realize.

 

Just for fun I tried dry cleaning a record with a brush I've been making that uses the flat, white, edging paint pads. This particular record had the usual appearance of one that had not been abused but had the usual assortment of crusty fingerprints and a good amount of dust. A brief play beforehand revealed clusters of clicks and pops that intruded on the enjoyment of the music. I then brushed the record following the grooves using a back and forth motion as though I was attempting to erase the fingerprints, which in fact I was. After a minute or so on each side I proceeded to play the record without any further cleaning, just the usual dust bug that sweeps the record as it plays.

Result was that the clicks and pops were largely removed and the record was quite listenable, however there was kind of slight, fuzzy sheen - the faintest of sibilances - that accompanied everything, especially noticeable on the high frequency transients sounds that were blurred or stretched slightly. Certainly the sound lacked the kind of crisp clarity that only a thorough wet wash can bring about.

On reflection, I don't think this experiment actually resulted in a cleaner record, nor is it likely to extend stylus life as a properly cleaned record would. What it did do was to break apart and distribute the larger particles and scatter them evenly across the record. I'm not sure if this has any practical purpose but it might if I had taken the dry cleaning process further by use of sticky roller and carbon fibre brush to pick up the scattered particles.

Overall it was an interesting experiment but in future when I come across a record in dire need of a proper wet cleaning I will do so, as I have in the past. There are no real shortcuts to getting a record clean....well... maybe the glue method applies as a shortcut, but that's another discussion.

 

You can just dust them by hand to determine what they are, and I'm sure you'll be able to tell if it's just dirt or scratches. But this is just a place to start your culling of what could be a keeper.

If you dry vacuum it will add a bunch of static to the record so I don't see that as an improvement over just dusting by hand. Lots of static can make a record sound really bad, even more so than just being dusty. You don't have to play the whole record to test what it is, then you can wet clean the ones that could be keepers, to be evaluated further.

You don't have your location but maybe someone local could help you flip through the boxes to speed up what actually looks good. I'd help if your close to me so I'm sure other would also.

 

Robert, one option might be - and I stress might because of cost - to have the vinyls you really want to keep and listen to professionally cleaned.
I'm sure that there are quite a few Hi-Fi shops offering this service, I just stumbled upon this one but I know nothing about them, except for the fact that they seem to stock really cool (and expensive) stuff:
MCRU LP Cleaning Service - MCRU

 

What I would do in this specific case is get or install a very cheap conical cartridge (at vm95c or something else) and just play the records first, without any cleaning. Just so you can get an idea of the albums you want to keep and then just do a wet cleaning of those albums. This will probably save you a lot of time.

 

I use a mini wet/dry vac . Works great and will suck the chrome off a trailer hitch

 

That is what I do, I braille onto the inner sleeves.

 

This is currently the direction I am going in as well. Old shure m44 might be relligated to that job!

 

It might help with some records but I think you should avoid it, Filthy records should not be used with your cartridge or you will have problems sooner rather than later. I think it'll be best if you are able to get someone to help you sort out the really bad ones and either have them cleaned for you or get rid of those.

 

Some just went into the bin emediately as the inner sleeves and discs had mould (actual mould!) on them, hopefully no more of those!

 

You do need to be very strict with what you keep otherwise you'll damage the stylus and eventually the good records.
I would have thought that despite being blind you could work out some way to moist the record at least with a heavily soaked cloth to have results close enough to a proper wet cleaning cycle on the project, have you tried?