Vinyl Cleaning Experiment

[BobM]

I recently bought the reissue of Joey Defrancesco "Plays Sinatra His Way" 180g. took it out of its sleeve and put it on the VPI to wash. I was in a hurry so I just used the VPI fluid and vacumed it off, put it on the turntable and listened. It sounded OK, but there was some surface noise and the soundstage was disappointing.

So I bellied back up the the 16.5 and went through my usual cleaning routine with Disk Doctor solution and 2 rinses, then gave a listen again. A very nice improvement - quiet, spacious, more dynamic even.

This really isn't about what is the best solution to use, I know we all have our favorites (e.g. Disk Doctor, L'Art du Son, some home-made solution, etc.) it's more about the fact that there is indeed an improvement to be had by cleaning new vinyl and the fact that different solutions do indeed make a difference in the resulting sound.

 

[MDP]

It absolutelty matters, My VPI has always been very helpful reducing surface noise.

I'm really wanting a ultrasonic record cleaner, haven't made up my mind on which one yet :exciting:

 

[Myles B. Astor]

I recently bought the reissue of Joey Defrancesco "Plays Sinatra His Way" 180g. took it out of its sleeve and put it on the VPI to wash. I was in a hurry so I just used the VPI fluid and vacumed it off, put it on the turntable and listened. It sounded OK, but there was some surface noise and the soundstage was disappointing.

So I bellied back up the the 16.5 and went through my usual cleaning routine with Disk Doctor solution and 2 rinses, then gave a listen again. A very nice improvement - quiet, spacious, more dynamic even.

This really isn't about what is the best solution to use, I know we all have our favorites (e.g. Disk Doctor, L'Art du Son, some home-made solution, etc.) it's more about the fact that there is indeed an improvement to be had by cleaning new vinyl and the fact that different solutions do indeed make a difference in the resulting sound.

It's not necessarily what the fluids do but what they leave behind that counts. I also think that everyone should do an ultrapure water rinse after cleaning. You might find that the VPI is better than you think.