How often should you clean vinyl?

Did a search and couldn't find a thing, so ...

I bought a starter turntable earlier this week, an Audio Technica ATLP120, and am loving everything about the experience, my first with vinyl.

I don't mind cleaning records one bit, and the ticks/pops don't annoy me nearly as much as I thought they would. The sound is also quite nice -- I don't know if warm is the right word, but it certainly sounds more, um, authentic than some remastered CD.

My question, though, isn't in regard to cleaning methods; it's how often I should be cleaning. Lately, I been cleaning my record before each play and that's it. Is that enough or should I be cleaning it before tucking it away, too?

Thanks.

 

What do you mean by cleaning?

I tend to clean my records (i.e. wet & vacuum method) only once when I first buy them. After that usually a carbon fiber brush before each play is all that is needed. I always have a look before playing even after I cleaned them in case there's something there that was missed or happened to get stuck on to the record. I also give them a static gun shot.

If you clean them properly once and keep them stored properly you should be ok.

But I don't wet & vac clean before each and every play.

Eddie

 

I assume by cleaning before each play, you mean using a record cleaning brush to "dust" the LP. That's usually enough.

 

That's what I meant. I'm just curious if that thorough of a cleaning is needed all the time. I guess not.

 

What brand of record cleaning brush would you recommend?

 

Clean them when the clock strikes midnight and do the special chant. Voila, clean records!

 

I have to admit to recently rediscovering my vinyl collection and bit the bullet to buy a record cleaning machine that has a vacuum (Nitty Gritty III).

I have to say the difference is sonically amazing to really clean a record - not that you get esoteric claims of greater depth or improvements in soundstage, etc blah blah - just that a really good cleaning makes a good LP practically dead quiet as if you are listening to a CD.

Oh sure - there is the inevitable tick or pop, but by and large a good cleaning can do wonders to dramatically reducing surface noise.

I've given my old vinyl a really good cleaning - then just use a dry soft record brush before playing.

FWIW...YMMV....

 

Hey, if it works, more power to ya. I basically let the stylus clean the record. If the record gets too dusty and starts getting noisy. It goes to the sink.

 

Once is enough for me (usually).

 

There's the initial 'thorough' cleaning. (Vinyl ...but also the inner sleeve + cover pocket.

After that? Just a dry carbon fiber dust brush before dropping the needle.

Is the pre-play dry brush really needed every single time? Probably not. But I do.

 

Honestly?

As often as the relationship between when you should do, and how often you like to balances.

 

Once. And put it in a new clean sleeve. Vinyl does'nt get dirty after you clean it once, so why would you have to clean it again? Jeez...

 

Once after opening, and don't forget to keep the stylus clean too.

 

Pretty much so..however...the best answer is: where do you live? Near a busy street or a factory? in a humid climate?

Think of your house windows and what happens to them - the inside surface that is. After five maybe ten years they'll have a subtle (or not subtle) buildup from home heating, cooking, human activity, dissolved petroleum products in urban air, general decaying dust /dirt and so on. If someone smokes in your house add that factor.

Since LPs are not airtight the vinyl slowly gets exposed to it all. I occasionally find a minty album I've had for thirty years since new and spot clean it to find a little hint of light tan color on the snow white tissue. This is a non smoking house. Thats not a big deal maybe, but I might consider cleaning an LP that hasn't in 10 years or more.

 

Before and after every single playing.
Your record is not in a perfectly clean environment in any sleeve. Also be reminded that the temperature in the groove during playback is over a 1000 degree's! Any dirt dust is being welded in your grooves!

 

According to one or more theories. Its a myth. The longevity and quietness of old well played records stands as the simplest refutation of this old vinyl tale.

 

Only when it's dirty.

 

Not even then.

With my Linn system I followed, for a while, the Tiefenbrun/Vereker method of vinyl care .. not touching it much, but also not wiping, scraping, etc. any disk while nevertheless making sure everything came off the stylus after each side.

It works surprisingly well.

You end up with a lot of loose crap on the disc if it's in any way dirty, and a CF brush deals with that. You end up with a lot of dust and dirt inside your MC cartridge and that really doesn't seem good for it.

However, records definitely got cleaner and quieter each play even when quite fingermarked and dusty to start with. It generally took many plays before the audible noise was gone, but it did go.

It's just faster to bathe your discs and suck the muck off.

I'm inclined to believe that a stylus exerts a lot of pressure on a disc, and that this distorts the groove (one of the causes of the myriad ''vinyl distortion' mechanisms) but the jury is definitely out on the instantaneous temperature (most quoted ones would simply burn the disc surface and the stylus tip ). It may be that the pressure causes a 'liquid' deformation a few molecules deep, like a skate on ice, but basically no-one's really looked at this.

Call the AES, and get a student on it.

Experience suggests that

a) they stylus wear mechanism is friction, since the wear is at the contact points (this doesn't discount instantaneous heat though)

b) vinyl compounds do build up on the stylus surface. Maybe by scraping but possibly by vaporisation, again not discounting the heat. Some good stylus cleaners are vinyl solvents (discwasher, Stanton). IPA is not a vinyl solvent.

but both these are normal and we know how to deal with them.

 

There's a difference between dusty and dirty. Dust can be vacuumed off or blown off, no physical contact needed.

 

Nah, that's too much. You will wash the vinyl off the record, you idiot.

 

Where in vinyl blazes did you pull that 1000 degree number from?

 

Maybe a "hot stamper"?

 

Does sound like the temperature on another planet.

 

Yep, and that doesn't happen much. If the vinyl is new, sometimes once before playing and hardly ever after that. If I want to pick up a little loose dust, I still use the ol' Discwasher brush. Other than that, no cleaning needed under normal circumstances.

 

Yes, applies only to discs on the Mercury label.