GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: Sensible record cleaning: vinyl piranhas and record Vaseline

Post Subject: Drying of sounds with soapPosted by drdna on: 11/14/2009

Paul S wrote:
I can only say it seems "as if" either something gets removed that should not have, or something gets left behind that should not have. I can think of no better word than "dried up" to describe the sound of the detergent-washed LPs I have listened to. And, yes, I've tried "OxyClean", too.

I will be interested, Paul, to see how the Dawn experiment goes.

I never experimented too much with detergents like this because it caused what I can describe as a "transparent underwater sound" effect. The noise was cleaned away and the records had an increased level of detail, but the music was activated in an odd way and it seemed that edges that shouldn't have been round were round and there were angles that shouldn't be there. This was rather subtle, but I think this is what you are talking about?

Purely guessing, I always attributed this to the detergents cleaning away every last bit of mold release compound and such, but the microscopic areas getting filled with surfactants and wetting agents and spot eliminating compounds and such.

This was eliminated to a great deal by washing for five times with distilled water after the detergent step, but this was a lot of work. I achieved the same thing by using First cleaning agent, which cleaned the oily grime off and improved the transparency and richness of the music in a way that felt natural.

Adrian

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