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Contact Line stylus - gathering dust on stylus. Help!

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a moving iron cartridge with a "high profile contact line" stylus.  I bought it because of the reviews that I had read, not because of the stylus profile.  I've had it for over a month now, and while I like the sound there is one VERY significant problem.  The stylus gathers so much dust on it that I can't get through one side of a record without having to get up multiple times to clean the stylus.  I've tried 5 or 6 other cartridges on my set up over the last few years without any difficulties.  I always clean the stylus before every side, usually by dipping it in Moon Gel.  With the other cartridges there is seldom any dust visible in the gel.  With the contact line stylus, there are large deposits of dust every time I dip it in the gel (sometimes even two or three times during the same track).

In over a month I have yet to get through one side of an album without having to clean it.  Often, I have to clean it 4-5 times per side.  This happens on every record, even newly cleaned ones.  It happens whether I've just cleaned the apartment and dusted or whether it's been a while.  I just dropped in two of my old cartridges to compare, and they sailed though record after record without any difficulty.  I guess I could have it re-tipped with a different stylus profile, but I hate to pay to have a brand new cart re-tipped.  

Any thoughts?  (and please, no jokes about my poor housekeeping :))

Thanks, Scott
smrex13
harold-not-the-barrel
799 posts
 
My friend once had a DECCA Reference. He had to sell it because it was a dust magnet. Well, he purchased a handfull of quality vintage MMs and after having found the best to get near or maybe equal the mighty Reference sold the rest.
Weird carts anyway, I have used Micro Ridges (and Line Contacts in lesser extent) for nearly thirty years without serious dust/dirt issues.
nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 

The stylus is glued in the cantilever at peculiar angle so you should

try different SRA or VTA adjustment. If this angle is wrong your stylus

is not tracing the groove but plough the groove. If your ''dust'' is black

this may mean particles from the record and not ''dust''.

cleeds
2,065 posts
 
nandric

The stylus is glued in the cantilever at peculiar angle so you should try different SRA or VTA adjustment.

Sorry, but this is completely mistaken. The VTA/SRA for a line contact stylus is the same as for any other stylus with the sole exception of conical stylii, which really have no VTA/SRA. It is true that some manufacturers use slightly different VTA/SRAs, but the differences are slight. If the VTA/SRA is truly "peculiar," you have a defective cartridge.

Not all stylii are glued into place, btw.


jjss49's avatar
jjss49
58 posts
 
i find that using zerostat before and after a sweep with a carbon brush helps minimize dust attraction to the LP

that and frequent use of a stylus brush/zerodust blob

of course, a recently wet cleaned record to start with is essential
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,180 posts
 
I spin a lot of records and I use a Dynavector 20x2 and it has a Micro stylus, I have always washed my used  records first when they come home in a spin clean then I use groove glide once and I use regular clean paper sleeves and I brush the stylus once before each side, it really never gets dirty, proper record care is worth its time.

Matt M
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