Maintenance and audio adjustment questions

Hello everyone,

So, I just got into the hobby of owning and playing vinyl records (I got into this about a week or so ago) and boy do I have quite a few questions. Now before I get started, please keep in mind that I’m new and some of the questions are probably going to be super dumb and I apologize for that upfront.

Q1: So I have just gotten my first turn table, a Fluance RT83 and being the expensive piece of equipment it is, I’m trying to take exceptional care of it. After I played my first record, I noticed a mini dust ball had already collected on the stylus. It didn’t seem to impact the sound quality but I removed it anyway using a ONZOW ZeroDust. My question is, how often should I clean the stylus and is it bad if I do so after every record play to get rid of any and all debris on the stylus.

Q2: Now, I know the basics of record care and keeping things clean and working properly but I was wondering if there are any traps for newcomers that I should look out for. After all, I’ve just spent a lot of money and I’d hate to unnecessarily spend more on cleaning tools that don’t work or that’s I don’t need. Currently I have a record brush, a ZeroDust, a DiscWasher and a microfiber cloth. Is there anything I’m missing or am I all set to keep my records and turn table in tip top shape.

Q3: Lastly, in addition to receiving my first record player, I also received my first custom record. Now, admittedly I should have done some research before having the files sent off to be made into a record. To my surprise the record didn’t sound bad at all and I was quite pleased with the “mastering” job that they did. But, I did notice that when any of my songs got particularly loud or had very high notes in them, there was a noticeable distortion. As soon as the music got quieter this went away and it sounded pretty fantastic. The files I sent were 24-bit 96Khz WAV files so I’m pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with the quality of the music I sent them. My question is, what adjustments should I make to the audio before having it cut into vinyl? Should I lover the volume, add any equalization to it etc. And would it help any to have someone professionally master it and if so how much would that cost?

Alright, that’s all the questions I have for now. Hopefully everything was clear. I greatly appreciate any and all helpful responses and most importantly,

Have a good one!

 

Clean stylus when dirty.
Check after each played record.
My records are clean
So fluff not a problem.
As you progress you will amass
Plenty of cleaning kit.

 

Thanks for the reply, seems like I've been doing the right thing then. Now I just need to learn how to master a record or find someone to do it and I'll be all set!

 

Hey that's not considered an ¨expensive¨ TT. But of course it all depends on everyone's budget; I should know; I paid U$ 250 for my third and final Pioneer vintage TT in '93. I didn't think of it as fortune but it was a good chunk of money back then. Your Fluance is a very handsome TT BTW; congrats ! What's the rest of your rig ? Please fill your profile.

And my advice to you is : only buy new records; chances are used ones will be ridden with parasitic noises. Plus you won't need to clean them provided you play, handle and store it properly.

 

Yep....if it's dirty clean it....if it's not just enjoy it....cleaning will become less of an issue as you work through your records.

 

Thanks! It's super cool to be part of the vinyl community. The rest of my rig goes as follows: Pro-Ject Phono Box for the pre amp and a Schiit Valhalla 2 headphone amp. It's nothing fancy but for me its more than enough for my 17 year old ears. I'll be sure to fill that in on my profile! Also, how do I change my profile picture?

 

Also, is there any way to not need a mod to approve my messages? Or is this mandatory for all members?

[Mod: It is mandatory for all new members. You just need to make a few posts in the main forums (Music, audio, video) and then if all is well you will be un-moderated]

 

Answer 1) The dust ball on the stylus is what the record brush did not get. Inspect the stylus after every play and clean if necessary. The stylus should not collect a dust ball from a clean record (see answer 2)

Answer 2) The cleaning cloth is useless on a record, in fact deposits lint in the groove. The cleaning brush may appear to make the record cleaner, however let the stylus tell the truth. More often than not we believe our eyes, but not the stylus. If the background noise remains the same, or changes from "ticks" to lower level background "crackle", the brush has pushed most of the dust around and around, and pulverized it into micro-dust (which produces continuous lower level background crackle) The most effective cleaning regimen is no regimen at all. Invest in a record cleaning machine, or spin clean. (affordable and a great investment) Allow to air dry and store your clean records in a new audiophile sleeve. Just play the record straight out of the sleeve. Any loose dust can be blown off with a can of compressed air.

Answer 3) is best for a mastering engineer. Perhaps the mastering engineer had the levels too high and clipped the amplifiers? I can only speculate why the record distorts.

The old methods of record cleaning are out-dated and inferior, abandon them. Record background noise was always an issue. None of the older methods worked. (regressive record care) Less is more.

 

Thanks for the extensive reply Fringe! Unfortunately for me, I've spent most of my allowance money on the cleaning stuff I have and my new audio equipment (seems like a mistake now lol). So getting a record cleaning machine or spin clean is out of the question. However, I saw these label clamps that seal the label and allow you to wet clean the record in the sink. They are pretty cheap so they seem like a good option, what do you think?. Luckily most of my records are already very clean, its just the one record that has a bit of background noise. Other than that, all of my records are spotless and are in Mobile Fidelity sleeves already.

Amazon link to label clamp: https://amzn.to/349m7th

 

I have label protectors similar to those. They work very nicely. I have pre-cleaned some dirty records from thrift finds, then follow up on my spin clean. The sink method works, but probably not any better than a carbon fiber brush.. maybe worse if the water isn't soft. The cleaning brush does not make a record noisy on one cleaning. It's the repeated cleanings that begin to regress into a noticeable difference. Certainly some of the dust gets picked up by the brush, but some of it doesn't. It's the dust that remains in the groove that the stylus 1) kicks aside, or 2) relocates the particle on the stylus where it "sticks" and does no harm to the groove, or 3) grinds the dust particle into the groove, abrading it, and a permanent "tick" where the dust particle was.

The conventional cleaning kits are always visually appealing, the fluid, brushes, cloths, and always the included technical info on why they are effective. I have been there, and felt assured I was caring for my records properly.

Your clean records in mo-fi sleeves, you may want to consider blowing off any loose dust with compressed air. The carbon brush will be tempting (difficult to resist) and by the way the anti-static claim does not remove static from a record. The brush simply doesn't add any more static. The cleaning kits are among the most misleading products in the world, and for some odd reason, for lack of a better system (other than a record cleaning machine) we always fall for it.

The spin clean is $79.99
https://www.amazon.com/Spin-Clean-R...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

Well it definitely is tempting. Maybe for Christmas I'll ask for one. As of right now, I don't have any records that are dirty enough to warrant getting one but I'll certainly keep it in mind. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Unlike most on this thread, I clean my records manually with liquid and microfibre cloth (I have several in rotation! Pun unintended )

Works really well for second/third hand albums. After a clean and one play (clean stylus after), surface noise etc is greatly reduced/ pretty much gone.

And au contraire, why only buy new records??? There's a wealth of great, great music on LP that has not been reissued/messed about with....not all remasters are better than the original, but of course, some are*....and without buying used, you're either not going to hear this music or have to go back to CDs for them.
There's a lot of joy in used records!


*especially look up for remasters/cuts by the greats:
Steve Hoffman, Bernie Grundman, Kevin Gray etc....

 

Bought my spin clean for $45 on ebay. Just gotta be vigilant.

 

My first TT wasn't nearly as fancy as your Fluance, as it was an all plastic, used Sansui P50, hollow Al platter with Sansui cart , so indeed, very nice for a young fella, and certainly ¨expensive¨

 

Your gear is much better than what the average 17 year old has access to.

 

Yea, I'm extremely fortunate to have the funds for such a fancy start and so far, I'm having a blast. A am worried though, now that I have a record player, I have a tendency to want to purchase every and any record I lay my eyes on. So I just need to be strong and resist the urge to empty my bank account on records lol

Oh and one other thing. I know that static is a big thing to consider with records and after receiving a few new ones today I noticed that they had a lot of static on them and I didn't know of any good way to get rid of it. Do you guys know of a good way to remove static from a record without needing to pay $100 for one of those ridiculous Milty ZeroStat's?

 

You can look for an NOS or lightly used Zerostat on eBay for around half or less of the cost of a new one. Not sure how often they pop up lately. Some folks will use washed dryer sheets on their records by lightly rubbing them, but I've never been a fan of that. The other thing you can do is wet clean the record if you have a Spin Clean or RCM.

 

Note: it's a turntable, not a record player (if ya really wanna be cool)...

 

Wet clean and anti-static sleeves. Welcome to the wonderful, crazy world of vinyl.

 

Man.... I really should have just gotten a spin clean instead of the $60 of useless "cleaning" supplies I have now. Those carbon fiber brushes are straight GARBAGE! All they do is leave impossible to remove fibers all over my record that get stuck in the grooves.

 

Live and learn. A cheap alternative to the ONZOW are Moongel resonance pads. There’s a thread about them I think. Save your pennies for some sort of record cleaning machine.