whats the best way to clean vinyl records
Published on
June 3, 2015
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Stressed out by the idea of lathering your commencement editions in woods mucilage? Don't fancy spending a packet on a cleaning car? Paul Rigby offers eight piece of cake and affordable ways to go along your records in expert nick.
Words: Paul Rigby
"Oh, I tin can't stand up vinyl. All those clicks and hiss and dissonance and things." In the bulk of cases (not all, I grant you that) the source of this criticism is dirty vinyl, bunged upwardly with and then much rubbish that the poor stylus has to battle through the groove like a digitised hero in a beat'em-up computer game.
If you expect subsequently your vinyl, then there is no reason why your new, quiet record shouldn't stay quiet for many, many years. More than than that, giving second manus records a thorough cleaning will drastically reduce any dissonance that you hear.
Using a tape cleaning motorcar is the best style to clean a tape but they are often prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, there are plenty of cheaper, transmission methods of record cleaning that do a great task. What follows is a broad selection of the different types of cleaning gadgets that you can purchase.
Earlier we get to that, though, let me to remove a few myths. There are certain things that you should well-nigh definitely avoid when cleaning vinyl. The most contentious of the lot and i that will have a few readers and some hullo-fi journalists up in arms is pure, isopropyl alcohol (as opposed to the remnants of your final vodka and tonic). This stuff can be disastrous for vinyl. The problem is, it as well lies inside many commercial record cleaning products, so await carefully at the ingredients before you use them. Pure alcohol strips away much of the rubbish and gunge from grooves – which is keen – but it as well removes the protective coating that rests on the groove walls/floor. I don't mean the ofttimes talked about 'release agent' that a record pressing plant utilises and is often left to bung up vinyl grooves, either. Once that essential protective layer is gone, music sounds harsh and brittle. I've done a series of audio tests to bear witness this phenomenon. Initially, alcohol-cleaned records sound great. After the tertiary or fourth clean, they audio terrible. Past and so, though, it's likewise late and your record has been irretrievably scarred.
Some other no-no is commercial cleaning products (i.e. sprays, liquids and the like) hanging around your kitchen. They can often attack the vinyl itself or, at the very least, block your grooves with more rubbish than they remove.
Besides, practice not rinse vinyl under a tap. You risk damaging the fragile tape label. Tap water also includes plenty of impurities which re-infect record grooves.
Finally, new records need cleaning as well. They are normally infested with grit – even on a micro level – plus that oily pressing plant release agent I mentioned earlier.
Now, onto the good stuff.
Microfiber Cleaning Fabric
Price: around £five-£10
www.amazon.co.uk (plus many other outlets)
If a good quality castor is out of your budget range then accept a wait at a non-abrasive, microfibre cleaning cloth. A good quality example is offered by 3M simply there'due south plenty of others out in that location. This type of cloth is good at absorbing oils and hangs onto dust and crud.
AudioQuest Anti-Static Tape Cleaning Brush
Price: £13
www.audiovisualonline.co.uk
Equally an culling to a pad, the castor is useful for two reasons. Firstly, information technology has a better chance of entering the grooves to remove dirt that lies inside. 2d, because of the nature of the fibre blazon, it drains static electricity which attracts dust in the first place.
Cleaning Mat
Toll: £thirteen
world wide web.analogueseduction.cyberspace
Information technology's a good thing to clean your record away from your turntable then that whatsoever dust and grime removed will be away from the playing expanse. Otherwise, you risks recontaminating the record again.
Mobile Allegiance Record Cleaning Brush
Price: £20
www.russandrews.com
A common tool in terms of cleaning your records, this castor is very easy to use and, because information technology has a wide surface area, is table and covers more of your record. Place it on a rotating tape and see the dust build, sweep it off the record and the rest of the wide pad traps the muck. Unproblematic and like shooting fish in a barrel to use. Replacement pads are £8.50 for a pack of two.
Tonar Nostatic Tape Cleaning Arm
Cost: £twenty
www.analogueseduction.internet
The cleaning arm, and there's several models out in that location, purports to clean as y'all play. A small castor is fixed to the terminate that sits on the rotating record, removing dust before it hits the stylus equally well as removing static. 1 of the better models out there.
Milty Zerostat 3
Price: £52
world wide web.custom-cable.co.uk
This 'gun' cleans by removing static electricity that sits around your record: which, in plow, draws dust and grime to the grooves. When yous remove your record from its inner sleeve, if you hear the crackle of static as you lot do so or your sleeve clings to the vinyl then y'all are in real need of anti-static tools. Never needs replenishing, it's a one-off purchase.
Nagaoka CL-1000
Price: £81.50
www.divineaudio.co.uk
Uses a sticky roller which, when pulled across a tape, lifts dust and crud from the upper surface and the grooves. The roller should never lose its viscous action. It can also be washed to renew it. Although no longer fabricated, as well cheque out eBay for unused 'Pixall' Rollers which operate on the same principle merely uses sticky paper. The top layer is discarded when full of dust/grime, to reveal a fresh piece underneath. You lot tin frequently notice them for effectually £twenty-£thirty each.
Disco Antistat Record Cleaner
Toll: £42
www.amazon.co.uk
The all-time manual record cleaner out there. Y'all clamp a record betwixt ii plastic, screw-threaded discs featuring an beam of sorts, then hang the record in a thin 'bath' of cleaning liquid. You and then rotate the record manually 1 way for several turns and then in the contrary direction whereupon brushes, submerged in the bath, gently 'scrub' the record. The record is and so placed on a rack to baste-dry. A better blueprint than the competing Spin Clean.
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Source: https://thevinylfactory.com/features/8-easy-and-affordable-ways-to-clean-your-vinyl-records-by-hand/
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