Analog Spotlight: Clean and Quiet

Especially during the winter months many analog enthusiasts suffer from a much higher level of static causing ticks and pops during playback and attracting dust to their discs. Static is worse in the winter because the air is being dried out by heating systems. 

The traditional remedy for removing static from LP or CD was to use an ion generator like the venerable Zerostat ($125). This involves pulling the trigger and slowly releasing it several times, but frankly we have found this approach to be only somewhat effective.

A better solution is a more powerful static-canceling product from Furutech called the Destat III ($329 on special) which has a broader coverage area, is battery powered, and releases a consistent, even stream of ions onto the record or CD surface.

Cleaner IS better!

Clean records will always sound better than those with fingerprints, dust, and other gunk clogging up the grooves. Not only does a clean LP sound better, clean LP's help your stylus last longer because removing the debris eliminates some of the friction on the diamond.

Starting with the basics we have the Anti-Static Record Brush from Audioquest($22.95) and the Big Record Brush from AcousTech Electronics ($36.95), both of which do a good job of getting rid of dust and other surface contaminants. Both have carbon fiber bristles that also can reduce static charge to some extent.

But wet cleaning of an LP does a far better job than dry cleaning can.  There are any number of "scrub and suction" wet cleaners on the market. We find the Nitty Gritty Model 1.0($476), which entails manual fluid application, manual scrubbing, manual record turning, and vacuum pickup of the fluid, to be a pretty good, basic cleaner. Nitty Gritty has a full range of wet/vacuum cleaners available with more and better features all the way up to their automated MiniPro 2 ($1313).

The next major step up in cleaning LP's, and one that will allow you to get to the bottom of the LP groove where even microfiber is too thick to travel, is adding ultrasonic cleaning. 

NOTE: ultrasonic-only systems are not effective on their own because of a Catch-22: it would take more ultrasonic power than it is safe to use on something as soft as vinyl in order to clean it! Safe levels of ultrasonic combined with a surfactant, TOGETHER with mechanical cleaning, is the winning trifecta.

The Kirmuss KA-RC-1 ($970) is an ultrasonic-only machine, but it is part of a "system" that comes with additional tools and fluids for scrubbing and drying by hand. Following this system approach gets the grooves clean all the way to the bottom and everywhere in-between as long as you are willing to make the time (figure 15-20 minutes all together) and provide the elbow grease for the mechanical parts of this cleaning protocol.

For those with larger collections and/or limited time to devote to cleaning their LP's, the best solution, and the only automated LP cleaner that combines ultrasonic and mechanical cleaning, is the fully automatic, ultrasonic and mechanical cleaning "robot" known as the Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner Pro (now in Roman Numeral X, 10th Anniversary version: $3999 is our discounted price). The user involvement starts and ends with putting an LP in the machine and pushing a button. Come back in a little over 5 minutes (cleaning times can be extended in 1 minute increments) to a pristine, dry LP ready to go into its sleeve. And because of the fan-assisted evaporative drying function, as opposed to the more common, but static-inducing vacuuming used in most other machines, the disc is also static free so dust is not attracted to your newly cleaned LP.

It IS an expensive machine, but one that is so quick and easy to use that it actually DOES get used. Definitely the top choice for most of us with larger LP collections.

The final frontier for CLEAN vinyl playback is making sure the stylus is squeaky clean. Some hobbyists use a wet cleaner and brush like the Mobile Fidelity LP-9 ($24.99).  Lately, however, many have started using "solid state cleaners" like the Onzow Zerodust ($39.99) and especially the new, highly effective DS Audio ST-50 ($80). (Take a look at the DS Audio video on our YouTube channel for more on this innovative product.)

Keeping the LP and stylus clean, and removing static from playback, is going to pay sonic dividends. After all, no one enjoys listening to clicks and pops  (unless they are the "Boston Pops").