Wet Cleaning the Stylus

Wet clean? Nope. Used to use Zerodust too. Never again.

Why no Zerodust?

I use the zerodust before each wet cleaning to keep the junk out of the bottle of stylus cleaner. Audiotop is the best fluid I've ever tried, but too expensive to contaminate. Magic Eraser at the end of every session. I don't like to use it too many times as you can tear the stylus off if you get careless. IMO, zerodust is safer.

@Doug

One thing Peter Ledermann points out is that ROH containing stylus cleaning fluids can chill/freeze the glue bonding the stylus to the cantilever and cause damage. You also don't know if you're really cleaning all of the stylus with a liquid cleaner. I haven't had any issues with liquid cleaners but IIRC spectral did years ago with their cartridge. Personally I use the Onzow, ME and Clearaudio SC fluid. :)

Ohnofiasco,

ZeroDust will not remove crud that's burnished onto the stylus. All it does is remove loose fluff (and of course it won't remove anything at all from the cantilever).

I've rehabbed a number of cartridges for people who regularly "cleaned" their styli using only ZD. They thought their cartridge was worn out and were ready to replace it. An effective cleaning made it as good as new, both visually and sonically.

ZD is effective at removing residue from an ME cleaning. ME particles are abrasive, so you need to remove them before playing a record. ZD is good for that.

The ZD is safe, but not sufficient.