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: Filler, and the Time and Place for CleaningPosted by Paul S on: 11/14/2009

Now that I'm thinking about laundry and dishwasher "detergent" again, I'm wondering about that American Consumer Staple, "Filler", as in, yes, folks, there's "30% More for Your Money", etc., etc. And I'm wondering how all this filler behaves on our records during and after a typical record cleaning ceremony. Does it act like the stuff that is designed to rinse off, or does it behave like basically inert crud, or more like, say, sawdust, or styrofoam? Wouldn't it be "funny" if some of the stuff in typical household detergents "responded" to the electricity that is part and parcel of the typical LP?

Romy, the question about dirt vs. jagged edges vs. sound is a good one. I have certainly subjected some records to very rigorous cleaning and still they sounded "dirty". This is one of the things I would love to check out with the stereo microscope. I have long suspected that some of the commercial record treatments were not so much concerned merely with cleaning the record but they were at least as concerned with making good and certain that the record would sound noticibly "better" after treatment, regardless of the cause of the noise. In this case, some sort of slippery "filler" might just do the trick for the micro-damaged LP grooves.

Maybe some folks like cleaning records; I do not, at all. I am pretty philosophical about the quick wipe I give every side (with the LP spinning on the TT) just before playing it. But this takes, literally, just a few seconds, and I may skip it if I am really immersed in a thread.

As for the full-tilt RCM cleaning, do people really do this more than once per LP? When I first play a new or new-to-me used record I tend to try a more-careful-than-usual wipe. I start with a dry carbon micro-fiber brush and then the wetted DiscWasher brush, and then I try playing the LP. If it sounds dirty, I pull it off and set it aside for a thorough RCM cleaning, and I add a sticky note if I think it needs special abuse. I usually clean records when I've got a stack to do, and I do not even try to listen to music while I'm in RCM mode. I clean the records and set them aside, together. At some point I try playing them again. I rarely clean a record more than once. It has to be a wonderful record in every other way for me to try it again. Meaning, generally, once I've cleaned an LP, it's done, that's that.

Paul S

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