Finding ultra-pure water locally...

Tim,

You are such a NERL! ;-)

Fully agree that a very pure water rinse is an essential final step. Of course it's no surprise that a second cleaning sounded better than the first, as you said. Here's how we A/B final rinse waters:

Get both sides of an LP as clean as you know how. Then rinse side 1 with water A and side 2 with water B. Play and compare. (If you have a second set of ears available, as I do, don't tell him/her that it's a test until after they've heard both sides... double blind).

Now re-rinse each side with the opposite water. Play and compare again.

If you hear a difference, re-rinse the quieter side with the OTHER water (the water NOT used for when it was quieter). Play and listen to hear if the sound goes backwards. If it does, and re-rinsing with the quieter water makes it better again, you've identified the purer/better performing water.

Doug

Hdm and Jtimothya thanks for the info for Thermo Scientific Nerl Diagnostics i just got off the phone with a very nice lady and orderd 12 pints of there Reagent Grade Water. Next time i will go with a 5 gallon order. Steaming lps does use more water. I think steaming gets lps to sound better than not.

Doug i understand your test on a/b ing sides but as you know different stampers used for lp sides could come into play sound wise.

Dumb question: how exactly do you "rinse" the record?

Drubin: Carefully douse , paint, or spray a portion of the LP absorbing the water with a micro cloth. Or, repeatly spraying pure water on a revolving a disc seated on a RCM, then vaccuming the disc to remove the water and any contaminates. Some record steam cleaners report dipping the LP into a shallow bowel of pure water , rotating the disc with a micro cloth in one hand to absorb the water from running over the label. What ever you decide , experiment with a trashed LP to perfect your hand-work.

Drubin, my process for rinsing with a vacuum cleaning machine is to dedicate a cleaning pad (Walker Audio, Disc Doctor or Music Direct) to the final rinse; apply ultra pure water to saturate the pad; apply pad to rotating LP; then vacuum.
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