Best Record Cleaning Process on a Loricraft

SunnyBoy my friend,
I'm a little bit surprised you didn't go the full monty with the entire range of AIVS Cleaners, and Pure Water Rinse.

They seem to be engineered that their products compliment one another in concurrent steps (ie: Enzymatic-Super Cleaner-Rinse),(or #15-Enzymatic-Super Cleaner-Rinse)

Syntax, I see no ill effects caused by what you state about "wet lips" somehow recontaminating the record again, and makiing it noisy again?

At least not if one uses a pure water rinse, such as AIVS, and perhaps even goes one step further, and dedicates another Wand for specific Rinsing alone.

My beliefs are this: That one could probably hook up a 16 gallon Shop Vac to their Loricraft, VPI, or whatever RCM, and it still may not fully remove contaminants, and residues if the cleaners have not done their jobs first by detaching those contaminants.

And about the only detriment I can gather that may/can be caused by a wand type RCM like the VPI-Clearaudio-Etc, versus a more sophisticated machine like the Loricraft-Monks, is the possiblity of record surface abrasion, caused by physical contact of a Wand containing contaminants-dirt-dust-grit.

If one takes the steps I mention above, this possibility should be lessened. Mark

I'm not quite as down on steaming as Doug, but he is correct from what I've experienced. (BTW, the LP Doug mentioned was a brand new Music Matters release. So even with new vinyl it can be possible to clean away layers.) Steaming can be better than doing nothing, but I submit that a final rinse with pure water is still needed at a minimum. Steam is not nearly as effective as a good enzyme soak. Since soaking is more effective and takes less work and no energy cost, I have abandoned steaming. To me it is a simple, logical switch.

But, then again, I know several people who don't clean any LPs and are enjoying their music just as much as any of us who do clean.

A bottle of enzyme cleaner finally arrived a few days back and Holy Cow the results are positively amazing. This is the Enzyme cleaner from Osage Audio(Jim Pendelton).On somewhat difficult records a 5 min soaking with the avis enzyme, vaccuum with the PRC 4 dlx, followed with 2 mins soaking with the L Art du Son and finally one or two rinses with laboratory grade distilled water and my vinyl has never sounded better. Pops and clicks I had given up on have largely retreated if not disappeared.
Hopefully will acquire a larger stock of the Avis enzyme cleaner on my next trip to the US in June. Unfortunately, none of the couriers are willing to transport liquids across the globe.
I plan to be miserly with the Avis.
I guess Mark is right. Unless you have the cleaning fluids sorted out the RCM alone will not do.
If you have'nt added a enzyme cleaner to your regimen I strongly recommend you do so. Dealing with Jim Pendelton was a wonderful experience.
Happy Listening

Sunnyboy,
Sounds like you have a good routine with excellent results. Congratulations. May I suggest you now follow up giving your newly cleaned LP a demag before you insert it in a new sleeve? I do it with a bulk tape eraser for about a minute and notice a good improvement, mainly in a slightly lower noise floor and thus increased detail and dynamics.

Regarding the cleaning, I have been buying a bunch of used records lately and am experimenting with not wiping off the dust with my Hunt brush to avoid grinding the dust in the groove before I apply the enzyme soak. I think that the dust will float in the fluid and be vacuumed up by the Loricraft anyway without the risk of scratching the grooves.

I also notice that if I leave the vacuum on between applications of fluids, the tube is less likely to get clogged. Also, it seems that the tiny vibrations of the motor agitate the fluid in the grooves, so I don't have to agitate it as much with the brush. This may be gentler on the vinyl.

What have others tried?

Peterayer
Thanks, would like to follow up on the demag suggestion. Any particular product that you have been impressed with? Did read about a Furutech demag gizmo in ST a while back and if I recall that was a couple of grand. Would prefer a cheaper route.
Apologies for hijacking this thread.
Cheers