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Hi Tom,

It has been repeatedly demonstrated by users over the past 25 years, that with adequately designed applicators, carefully formulated cleaning solutions, & useful instructions that there is no difference in the playback of a properly cleaned phonograph record regardless of whether manual & vacuum-assisted fluid removal was employed.  High density, small loop, pure cotton terry cloth has worked well for years.  

It’s really just a user choice.

Regards,

Duane Goldman

H D Goldman Lagniappe Chemicals Ltd. 
PO Box 37066 St. Louis, MO 63141 USA
v/f 314 205 1388  [log in to unmask]





> On Jan 14, 2016, at 7:02 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Hi Lou:
> 
> There is a lower-cost machine from VPI where you clean the record and the machine does the vacuuming, in other words it doesn't have a brush-arm to do the scrubbing. That is as low as I would go on cleaning records, I don't see an alternative to the vacuum. There are DIY guides to making a vacuum cleaning system using a shopvac, but I would never use those contraptions on my records.
> 
> Bottom line, if you don't clean out the grooves, you'll get more pops and ticks and distortion than you should, you won't get the best sound out of the record. Plus, you'll wear down your stylus and grind that grime into what's left of the grooves, thus destroying any potential sale value of the records. I don't see an alternative to a vacuum removal of cleaning fluid and grime.
> 
> -- Tom Fine
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 7:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cleaning stylus
> 
> 
> Tom, my record cleaning and playing is almost exclusively just making personal digital copies of my own Lps - what would you suggest for routine cleaning of casual transfers? Anyone else can chime in as well.
> 
> Investing in an expensive machine for cleaning my old records is just not feasible. I only want to hear them again! :-)
> <L>
> Lou Judson
> Intuitive Audio
> 415-883-2689
> 
> On Jan 14, 2016, at 4:19 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> By the way, I am NOT a fan of the Discwasher or similar "record cleaning brushes." They just don't clean out the grooves, in my experience. Only a wet cleaner with vacuum finish like a VPI or similar really cleans out the grooves. There is now an ultrasonic wet cleaning machine that the audiophile mags have raved about. I'd want to see some science (ie scanning microscope photos) to prove that it really cleans out a groove better than a VPI. The exception might be caked on grime, it's very possible that ultrasonic would blast out the grime whereas a brush and vacuum wouldn't. But this is not something typically found in cleaning LPs, I say that having cleaned thousands of LPs over the years.
>> 
>> -- Tom Fine