Why should you clean your records?
Listening to a vinyl record on a properly set-up hi-fi system unravels detail and delivers musical enjoyment that can easily be lost in digital systems. That's the main reason why vinyl records have endured and have a pivotal place in our relationship with the music we love. However, there is a key part in the vinyl system that is so often overlooked, to the detriment of your musical enjoyment: the vinyl record itself.
A vinyl record interfaces with the needle of a pick-up cartridge, so record maintenance is a crucial task to stay on top of if you want to get the best from your records. During day-to-day use, records can pick up impurities from their environment, resulting in a build-up of dust and other particles inside the record groove. These impurities can easily bond to the record wall and the cartridge's stylus to introduce unwanted artefacts into the sound.
The picture below of a record groove close-up highlights how even small impurities on the record surface could affect the "shape" of the record wall - causing mistracking or introducing unwanted noises into the sound. However, it's not just about how this debris affects the stylus movement. Loose impurities can also bond or "burn on" to the cartridge's stylus, causing a significant build-up there (see the second picture). If the diamond stylus is dirty, it doesn't matter if the record is pristine, the sound will still be incomplete and you may experience tracking issues. If you remove these impurities from the record groove and the diamond, you are left with a perfect platform to enjoy your records fully.
Close-up of a clean stylus in a clean record groove
Build-up of dirt on a stylus tip
Dry cleaning solutions
Dry Cleaning solutions are the front-line solutions for maintaining your vinyl record collection. If you use them regularly, each time you sit down to listen to your system, the bigger tasks of deep-cleaning your records will be needed less and less. Here, Pro-Ject Audio Systems offer a variety of solutions including the Brush-IT, for manually cleaning a record before you lower the tonearm, the Clean-IT for cleaning your cartridge stylus, and the Sweep-IT E, an innovative cleaning arm that cleans your record just before the groove reaches the cartridge.
Manual cleaning solutions
The Spin Clean Record Washer System MK II is a long-standing manual cleaning system that's sold around the world by Pro-Ject Audio Systems. It takes the concept of a dry-cleaning brush, like Brush-IT, and applies it to a wet environment - so the cleaning fluid loosens the dirt and the brush removes it. Spin Clean is a great solution for reducing surface noise and getting deeper into the record groove than other "dry" products. On top of this, thanks to the deliberately bright colour of the Spin Clean, you can see exactly how much dirt has come off of your record.
Provided by Henley Audio
