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Originally published in the out of print and much sought after third issue of The Tracking Angle, from the summer of 1995

The Most Comprehensive Record Cleaning Article Ever!

Zen and the Art of Record Cleaning Made Difficult

While this article is at least 10 years old, to my knowledge it still offers one of the most comprehensive and effective record cleaning regimens ever published. Nitty Gritty's 'First' cleaning fluid, mentioned in the piece, is no longer available. While it was extremely effective, it was environmentally unfriendly and had to be taken off the market. In addition, many new, non-isopropyl based cleaning fluids (alcohol is still used in most of them, just not isopropyl, which is said to dry up vinyl plasticizers) are now available. Even if you don't follow the regimen precisely, the principles are worth noting.

I use Disc Doctor fluid and applicator pads and have incorporated them into the regimen outlined by Michael Wayne in this story. Disc Doctor must be used in conjunction with a final distilled water wash and dry.

There are other fluids on the market worth considering, including Record Research Labs (distributed by Musical Surroundings) and L'Art Du Son (available from themusic.com). Whichever fluid you use, consider the manufacturer's recommended application procedure, read Mr. Wayne's article and use both to come up with a procedure that works for you.

Also note that as of February 2008, Allsop no longer manufactures the Orbitrac II. We are talking with them about a re-introduction but as of now nothing concrete has been proposed.

Zen and the Art of Record Cleaning Made Difficult

By Michael Wayne

You've finally secured a copy of that elusive Golden Era record you've sought for so long. It cost you more than a set of tires for a Porsche 959. Now you are ready to reap the rewards of your unrelenting efforts; but first, since you consider yourself a well informed audiophile record collector, you decide to vacuum wash your treasured disc, both to make certain you hear nothing but its unvitiated analog beauty, and because you vaguely recall reading something somewhere about the potential record damaging dangers of playing uncleaned records.

Dutifully you apply your favorite fluid to the disc'perhaps using a brush to scrub and spread the fluid about. You set the machine to vacuum, and in a mere few revolutions, you are at last ready to revel in the sonic ecstasy of your new vinyl treasure.

By the end of side one, a slight but persistent vinyl noise and a subtly cloudy musical presentation fill you with doubt and nascent frustration. Vinyl angst has set in. Wasn't this LP supposed to be 'Super-mint,' or 'AAA-Ultra-Plus'' or some such hyperbole? It was certainly expensive enough. Burned again? Perhaps another cleaning cycle might do the trick.

Doggedly, you repeat the ritual, and this time you are reassured. Why yes, more of that whooshy background is gone, and darn if the entire soundstage hasn't increased in scope and definition. The instruments sound richer and timbrally more accurate. Ah! Your troubled soul begins to relax. Another few cleanings and perhaps even that thin hiss which has new replaced the intial whoosh will disappear; the soundstage and hall reverb will become even more evident and pure. This disc may yet sound the way your dealer 'Sid the Groovemeister' promised it would.

Keep dreaming, Alice. Wonderland ever beckons the desperate. Your fastidious but flawed, and woefully incomplete cleaning attempts may have insured that you never experience the full potential of your cherished record. You may as well go digital.

Indeed, the very first alarm signaling a potentially serious record cleaning problem sounds simultaneously with improvements heard after the first cleaning cycle. It indicates that the cleansing attempt was only partially successful.

In place of the large, original groove contaminants, there now are smaller, possibly stickier ones, to which cleaning fluid has bonded chemically and, if the record is played after this single cleaning cycle, probably thermodynamically as well, due to the intense heat and pressure generated by the stylus traveling through the groove.

Play a record with foreign matter sticking to its grooves, and you run the risk of welding it in permanently. The solution, of course, is to start with a completely and perfectly clean disc.

Let's examine a few widely held misconceptions about record cleaning. The first is that vacuum cleaning is sufficient and complete. In fact, it may be, but only in those few special cases where the contaminants are primarily dust and nothing more. When a disc has been subjected to an environment of tobacco smoke, fingerprint oils (which over time tend to harden and solidify on a vinyl surface), silicone record cleaning cloths (true groove polluting monsters), God knows-what cleaning fluids and brushes, and a variety of other sticky, gummy substances, a simply vacuum cleaning cycle is unlikely to do the trick.

Using the techniques described in this article, I have regularly taken vacuumed discs and removed globs of yellow-brownish gooey substances from the supposedly 'clean' record grooves.

The safe and highly effective cleaning techniques described here, do require some time and effort, but since when has that stopped analogue devotees? The cleaning approach I recommend is based upon the following principles and strategies:

1) Use of a chemically wide spectrum of cleaning fluids.