Should I Brush My Cartridge After Each Use?

Do you brush your teeth after every meal? Seriously, once dust has been deposited onto the stylus, the damage is already done; dust having been ground into the groove walls. The answer is to keep your records clean. There are many cleaning regimens that are quite effective, try doing a search. You may also need to purchase some new inner sleeves if the ones with your records are harboring dirt, as this will just be deposited back onto the records. Don't cure the symptom, cure the disease!

Don't worry-just play (and enjoy) records that are fairly clean. The good folks at Rega will even say that the stylus cleans the record for u. To a degree, I agree!

Clean your stylus with Linn-supplied green paper on occasion. It's slightly abrasive and easy to use.

So many of us are taking all the fun out of the vinyl experience.

I agree with Viridian about the primary importance of record cleaning, but there is more to stylus maintenance than that. Even "perfectly" clean records (ie, wet cleaned and vacuumed) leave a deposit of vinyl molecules on a stylus. This occurs during every play.

If these deposits aren't removed they continue to accumulate. (Grunge bonds with more grunge.) The heat and friction of the stylus/groove interface burnishes these deposits into a hardened layer that becomes progressively more difficult to remove. Clean tracking and sonic performance slowly but inexorably deteriorate until it becomes noticeable. At that point the cartridge owner thinks he needs a new stylus or cartridge. He doesn't. He needs to perform proper maintenance.

JCarr taught me this and it isn't theoretical. I've seen/heard/tested it on two dozen styli that I've rehabilitated for friends. They dry brushed after every side, but the buildup was thick and getting thicker, as was their sound. I have seen this buildup on (and removed it from) $100 Shures and $8,000 LOMC's.

Note to Heyitsmedusty: when brushing/cleaning a stylus, brush only from back-to-front (the direction the record groove travels beneath the stylus). Don't go the other way unless you have a very light touch. You could damage your cantilever or suspension.

For the best/cheapest/easiest-to-use stylus cleaner, do a search here or on VA for "Magic Eraser".

Sorry to A'gon regulars for sounding like a broken record. I know you've all heard this 100 times.

Doug