Stylus cleaning: tools, fluids, techniques?

ExtremePhono.com for the best stylus cleaner with no liquid.

I've always been leary of polymer based stylus cleaners as they place negative force against the stylus shaft itself. There aren't any records that my stylus has stuck to. This force over time may lead to premature wear of the shaft and suspension, even when used correctly. Imagine a wire that is twisted back and forth. Eventually the wire will break at the stress point. Will this happen over time? If it doesn't actually break, it will still have stress points due to the stress applied in both normal use and with the negative stress placed upon cleaning with the polymer cleaner. Isn't this worth considering? If it doesn't break, it seems logical that the metal used in the shaft is at least stressed, so it is weaker. This may affect the sonics of the cartridge.

Polymer products are also petroleum based, so it is logical that the solvent action of the petroleum within the compound is what actually cleans the stylus. With these types of solvents, a film is present after the cleaning, which may lead to additional stylus build up. This also is of concern to me.

I've seen others use the polymer based cleaners, many believe in them, but for me the verdict is still out. Properly used, liquid stylus cleaners work fine, without imposing negative force, without creating stress points, and without films left behind. I'd used Audio Technica back in the 70's, Last during the 1980's and early 1990's, and Record Research since then, without any premature wear or stylus suspension failures. Cartridges used include the top of the line models from Grado, Benz, Koetsu, vdH, and Clearaudio.

Plain H2O. And I mean pure, *demineralized* water, the universal solvent...

I find it a bit surprising that so many have still not heard of the Record Research "stuff". Maybe because I live very close to the source, the word got here sooner.

I have found that the record cleaning solutions from RR are vastly superior to most all other products, including LAST. As for the stylus cleaner, I find LAST and RR to be equal, though I haven't done microscopic analysis on which to base this claim. The LAST stylus brush is great. I wouldn't think one could go wrong with either of these products.

The polymer based cleaners do not have to be petroleum based (nylon socks are petroleum based, but probably didn't affect human health). There are many other non-petroleum checmicals. However, most of the liquid cleaners are solvent based. Solvent will 'dissolve' things faster than any polymer, just the evaporative action of pure 100% alcohol is very powerful action.

Of course water and brush are the 'purest', will do no damage, but will also hardly clean.

However, I have never seen any stylus fallen off because of either solvent-based or polymer cleaner. However, a lot of dirty coils from capilary action (i.e. the hollow boron cantilever wicks up the liquid, while the dust particles 'kicked off' by the stylus hit the moist coil and stays there.)

The other physics against the liquid/brush cleaner is the fact that the brushing strokes by human finger many times stronger than that of tracking force, and this really will impact the logetivity of the cantilever/suspension. On the other hand, Newton already proved that the force applied by polymer has to be exactly equal to the tracking force set on the tonearm.

I did encounter many sad owners of premature moving coil cartridge failure from prematured cantilever suspension collapsed after only 1 year of active use + vigorously cleaning with brush/liquid.

The 'purity' of our polymer based cleaner can be easily proven, just smear some polymer on a clean mirror surface, and rub it off, there will be no residue, no grease left on the mirror surface.

Extremephono products are tested with almost every top tier cartridge, including the $10000 Clearaudio Insider.