What not to clean your records with

From time to time I’m asked “how should I clean my records?” The answer to which can be slightly confusing, to folks who like myself grew up in the 70?s and remember seeing their friends use the Disc Washer line of products. For day to day cleaning I recommend a carbon fiber brush, specially designed for record cleaning. I do not recommend the application of any fluid the to the LP?s surface, such as used in the Disc washer system, these fluids can congeal on the records surface, robbing you of sound.

The only instance where I recommend fluid coming into contact with LP’s, is via a record cleaning machine such as the Nitty Gritty or VPI models. Record cleaning brushes such as the Hunt EDA Mark 6, do a great job at cleaning, with no damage to the records surface.

B.Greenway

Proper turntable placement

Proper turntable placement, no were not talking about in the living room, or next to the stereo. What I want to discuss is the correct placement for your turntable and how it can affect the sound quality in your system. If you were to take a microscope and examine the surface of an LP, you?d no doubt notice the tiny pits and grooves that hold our precious, yet somewhat delicate, analog sound. A stylus has to be able to ?feel? every nook and cranny on the surface of that LP in order to extract every nuance that?s present in the recording; this as it turns out is one area (proper placement) almost all turntable owners fall short on.

Almost everything in a turntables? environment can affect its sonic quality, even down the speakers themselves. That?s right, think about what a speaker?s purpose is and it?s easy to see how easily they can alter a turntables sound. A speaker?s purpose is to move air, that might be over simplifying it a bit, but that?s their job in a nutshell. Now what is a turntables job in the system? The turntables job is to, as accurately as possible, get the information off of the LP with as little distortion as possible.

Picture this, you?re trying to draw a beautiful landscape with a pencil, and I come up behind you and whack the back of your hand while you?re drawing. Will the picture turn out as nicely if I hadn?t disturbed you? Of course not and this is the exact same dilemma the stylus on a turntable experiences when there are unnecessary vibrations either airborne or emanating from the floor.

When trying to find the most suitable place for your turntable, keep a few things in mind. You want it close enough to the rest of the equipment so that your phono leads will reach the pre-amp, but far enough away that the speakers as to induce the least amount of airborne vibration possible. This is no small task in some systems but the closer you come to this goal, the better the sonic results.

One last thing to consider is the stand itself. Try this, go up to your turntable?s stand/shelf what have you, and gently try to rock it. If there is any and I do mean any movement or play in the stand or shelf, try and eliminate it. This securing of your turntables? resting place will in some systems be on par with the benefit of a new piece of gear in your system. Yes it really can make that much difference. Note that none of the set-up tricks I?ve discussed here address the turntables? actual set-up, i.e. azimuth, stylus installation and pitch, that?s a whole other story unto itself.

B.Greenway