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
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The sticky and oily silicon trace builds up within time of usage and the time has come... The more the thicker, the longer you used the same pad the faster trace will build up. Shape of stylus tip especially may matter. Please note ones not using it have no problems -- simple math is enough to judge complex science behind

Life is indeed function of time.
I see Magic Eraser has already been mentioned.

Should be on everyone's list of maintenance items. Superior to many of those specialty cleaners,gel pads for considerably less$
Really, I've used moon gel with out issue or problems. Do you have pictures of the damage it has done? If so, can you provide them. I would like to see the empirical data to support your claim. I understand that my use is not proof that it doesn't do damage but yours is a serious claim and I should stop using moon gel if in fact it is damaging my cartridge.

Actually I had the problem with dust from the first play of this cartridge, so the moon gel couldn't be the culprit.