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The Definitive Stylus Cleaner thread.


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On 25/06/2018 at 1:34 PM, Blk plastic said:

+1 for Magic Eraser. No residue, works very well and is cheap as chips. I use a tiny gift box as a platform, a match box would also suffice. I inspect the stylus before AND after cleaning and I've never had a problem with stray fibres.

Here's some electron microscope pics I found of a relatively clean stylus 'before and after' cleaning with a Magic Eraser.....

[IMG]

[IMG]

No signs of any ME fibres in that after shot......or is that a tiny fleck on the left side and on the tip?:lol: The poster did say he 'forgot' to use compressed air after using the ME. Those two 'flecks' aren't in the before shot. We are talking in microns here though......great photo's.?

Source: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/stylus-photos-high-magnification.138956/

Edited by stevoz
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13 hours ago, stevoz said:

Here's some electron microscope pics I found of a relatively clean stylus 'before and after' cleaning with a Magic Eraser.....

[IMG]

[IMG]

No signs of any ME fibres in that after shot......or is that a tiny fleck on the left side and on the tip?:lol: The poster did say he 'forgot' to use compressed air after using the ME. Those two 'flecks' aren't in the before shot. We are talking in microns here though......great photo's.?

Source: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/stylus-photos-high-magnification.138956/

Looks good to me. I'm sticking with Magic Eraser.?

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9 hours ago, Blk plastic said:

Looks good to me. I'm sticking with Magic Eraser.?

I think I posted before that I had never seen any evidence of fibres left on the stylus in any of the closeups I have taken.  It's just a furphy from some of the real worrywarts.

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41 minutes ago, aussievintage said:

I think I posted before that I had never seen any evidence of fibres left on the stylus in any of the closeups I have taken.  It's just a furphy from some of the real worrywarts.

I think so......?

Edited by stevoz
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Guest Muon N'
On 10/07/2018 at 5:41 PM, stevoz said:

Here's some electron microscope pics I found of a relatively clean stylus 'before and after' cleaning with a Magic Eraser.....

[IMG]

[IMG]

No signs of any ME fibres in that after shot......or is that a tiny fleck on the left side and on the tip?:lol: The poster did say he 'forgot' to use compressed air after using the ME. Those two 'flecks' aren't in the before shot. We are talking in microns here though......great photo's.?

Source: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/stylus-photos-high-magnification.138956/

There also appears to be a fiber on the left side of the very tip.

 

I gave up on ME as it seemed to just push the crap up to the base of the stylus.

 

If it works for others, more power to them.

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A fresh supply of Sticky Hands arrived the other day and I cut the 'tail' off one and put it on a piece of printing paper. A day later......                      

20180711_162913.thumb.jpg.42c20bd6ce2be36f53d243cde4f9827b.jpg  

So I guess that confirms there will be a residue with Sticky Hands but I suspect Zerodust and the like would do the same if placed on paper. Maybe someone with Zerodust could try it and report? I'm still using Sticky Hands, over a years cleaning on two different styli without a problem has me confident they're fine.?

Edited by stevoz
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13 hours ago, stevoz said:

A fresh supply of Sticky Hands arrived the other day and I cut the 'tail' off one and put it on a piece of printing paper. A day later......                      

20180711_162913.thumb.jpg.42c20bd6ce2be36f53d243cde4f9827b.jpg

So I guess that confirms there will be a residue with Sticky Hands...

 

I'm not sure this is an accurate conclusion, but I understand where you are coming from. 

 

If we look at a normal use of this (or similar) product, the non-porous stylus is in contact with the gel for a very brief period.  The stylus would also have some particles on it which would act as a barrier.  The molecules in the gel have greater attraction to themselves than to other surfaces, which is why it doesn't permanently stick. 

 

With your experiment, the paper is a porous surface which facilitates the draining of the molecules.  Sure, it demonstrates that some of the gel can transfer.  But it also demonstrates that the substance transfers to a porous substance over time.  And I think the amount of time is critial to this demonstration.

 

I would think that no/minimal transfer would occur with very brief contact with non-porous substances. 

 

 

Edited by audiofeline
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6 hours ago, audiofeline said:

 

I'm not sure this is an accurate conclusion, but I understand where you are coming from. 

 

If we look at a normal use of this (or similar) product, the non-porous stylus is in contact with the gel for a very brief period.  The stylus would also have some particles on it which would act as a barrier.  The molecules in the gel have greater attraction to themselves than to other surfaces, which is why it doesn't permanently stick. 

 

With your experiment, the paper is a porous surface which facilitates the draining of the molecules.  Sure, it demonstrates that some of the gel can transfer.  But it also demonstrates that the substance transfers to a porous substance over time.  And I think the amount of time is critial to this demonstration.

 

I would think that no/minimal transfer would occur with very brief contact with non-porous substances. 

 

 

I agree with this assessment.....I did have the same thoughts re: particle barrier on stylus itself. As I said, no problems in over a year using these 'hands'.?

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  • 2 weeks later...

As this thread is the "Definitive Stylus Cleaner Thread", I thought I would include this one that I came across on the TNT Audio site - the commercially available "Glasrubber" product.  I suspect this product would be hard to find now.  It consists of a pen with retractable glass fibres, which was made for cleaning glass and erasing drafting pens drawing on drafting film. 

 

It sounds like it works with a similar concept to the stylus cleaners made of carbon fibre (eg. the Discwasher stylus cleaner).  However, given the description of the abrasive qualities of this product, I would be hesitant to use the Glasrubber. 

 

glassrubber.jpg

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On 26/06/2018 at 5:46 PM, aussievintage said:

or fingers

humour no doubt, but 3-4yrs back I went to a demo of the top Vertere tt/arm/cart by engineer/company owner Touraj Moghaddam.  He started with an interesting talk about the design principles behind his wares (from memory the combo was well north of $100K) and then played some LPs.  Couldn't believe my eyes when between each LP he gave the stylus a touch-up with his finger!  The LPs were from his personal collection and not the quietest so I guess the finger is his regular 'cleaner', one of the most bewildering things I've seen in hi-fi. 

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8 hours ago, David.M said:

humour no doubt, but 3-4yrs back I went to a demo of the top Vertere tt/arm/cart ...  Couldn't believe my eyes when between each LP he gave the stylus a touch-up with his finger! ... 

Did he bother to turn down the volume when he did this, or did you enjoy the sound of high-fidelity reproduction of fingerprints over the system?

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11 hours ago, audiofeline said:

Did he bother to turn down the volume when he did this, or did you enjoy the sound of high-fidelity reproduction of fingerprints over the system?

He was kind enough to turn down the volume, I guess an advantage of the finger is you don't need the audio to tell you you've just bent the cantilever!

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I use zero gel too. But here's something extra- I stupidly damaged my Airtight PC1 Supreme by not concentrating enough and arm went flying. Looking online these retail suppliers were charging US$>5000 for retip etc. I sent the cartridge off to A&M Japan who make it. Full service replacement of cantilever etc AUS$2500. Shows the value of bypassing these middle people if you ever damage your precious cartridge.

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1 hour ago, Laurence said:

Looks cheap enough

I haven't been able to find zerodust for that price. $52 is the cheapest I have found in aus. $34 sounds good. Any links?

Edited by Hazzzy
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Oops apologies--misread the price in UKpounds...yes correct $60 seems about cheapest ....but honestly cartridges and needles are delicate and you can wash these gels in water/washing up liquid etc so they do last a while...

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3 hours ago, Laurence said:

go for it

Yes I will. At least it has a reputation to work whereas the cheaper alternatives are an unknown. $52.24 with the 5%discount!

Edited by Hazzzy
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Yeah!! Mind you having said all this one cannot discount other contributors' suggestions. Fremer recommends the 'In the Groove' roller mostly to clean platter before putting on record thereby diminishing chances of dust on even a clean record. I bought one like a true audio groupie! To be honest- it is less tacky than the lint cleaner I can buy for less than $10 which in truth is all it is anyway. So on this one I 'wasted' which goes back to my opening comment. 

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6 hours ago, Hazzzy said:

Yes I will. At least it has a reputation to work whereas the cheaper alternatives are an unknown. $52.24 with the 5%discount!

Hardly unknowns, Hazzzy as many have been using successfully for years, including Stereophile reviewer Herb Reichert "I was concerned that Moongel might muck up my diamonds or lube up my LPs, so I've been closely studying its effects with a powerful magnifier. I am no longer worried, but I am deeply impressed. Nothing has ever cleaned my styli this well—or, apparently, this safely." 2016.

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Yup but other forums have some negative and 'risk' averse inputs about moongel: eg. "I clean my stylus after each side of play. After using Moongel for a week, my Expert Stylus paratrace diamond disappeared. Coincidence? I don't know. I've been advised by ES not to use liquid cleaner. Could it be that there is enough "liquid" - judged by its softness - in Moongel that has dissolved the glue used in attaching the diamond? - have not heard same about zero dust product.

 

just saying!!!

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