Stylus cleaning.

[bob orbell]

How often do you clean your cartridge stylus? as some members will know, I use a Ortofon Kontrapunkt B, I also play a lot of records, however, for the past three months or more, I have been experiencing a lot of very annoying sibilance, thinking that the stylus was coming to the end of it's life, the cartridge was removed for inspection, what I saw through the magnifier was loads of crud, it was just like a tree branch with frost on it, a good clean with a stiff carbon brush and IPA followed by a soft brush to clean the cantilever has returned the sound back to normal, I think that I am going to run the brush over the stylus at least once a week. What do others do?. BOB

[Phil Y]

I keep a small loupe by my deck and occasinally, maybe twice a week, have a quick look at the stylus before I play a record. If it looks a bit cruddy I give it a quick brush or a wipe with some stylus cleaner. I use Nagaoka 801 cleaner, which I assume will be safe with my Nagaoka cartridge.

Phil.

[Ali Tait]

I use an audio Technica ultrasonic cleaner. They come up on ebay now and again.

[bob orbell]

Hi Ali, Iv'e got one, but it does not seam to get all the crud off, after some time, do you use your's wet or dry?. BOB

[colin.hepburn]

Ortofon 2M Blue other cart Goldring1042
I mostly clean the stylus by light brush between side and use some Audio-technicea AT607 at end of session

[Ali Tait]

Originally Posted by bob orbell

Hi Ali, Iv'e got one, but it does not seam to get all the crud off, after some time, do you use your's wet or dry?. BOB

I use it dry, I'm a bit leery of using cleaners on the stylus. I usually give it (the stylus) a run over with a brush after using the AT.

[bikerhifinut]

Hi gents.
Funnily enough I was chatting on the electric telephone to Dom Harper (Northwest Analogue) last week as he has my ortofon quintet black in due to my hamfistedness and knocking the stylus tip off the boron cantilever. One of the subjects discussed was how did I clean my stylus. He was most concerned that I didnt use any solvent based cleaners as he felt they could weaken the glue bond between tip and cantilever. Liquid cleaners ok with ally cantilevers as they are generally (not always) a "pressed in" affair through a flattened bit at the end with an 'ole in.
He gave me some of that green putty stuff but i dont like using it on anything more valuable than my standby At95E.
I tend to use an old ortofon vibrating pad cleaner (oooer missus). However Dom was of the opinion that many styli are junked because they are so dirty with baked on gunge that they look worn out under a magnifyer or microscope and that careful and thorough cleaning often brings them back to life.
I'll never be sure if i just knocked the expensive Shibata diamond off by being cack handed or if I weakened the bond by using an IPA based cleaning agent.
A.

[Phil Y]

What are stylus cleaners usually made of ?
Surely ones made by cartridge companies are safe.

Phil.

[bikerhifinut]

the only fluid i ever used was ortofons own that came with the vibrating cleaner.
It smelt a lot like IPA.
I noted that ortofon do not advocate any liquids for use in cleaning stylii on their Moving coil cartridges.
In the absence of any certain knowledge whether the glues used are soluble in alcohol solutions i'd rather not chance it.
I happily use liquids on the old AT95E but the styli cost pennies in comparison.

Andy.

[bob orbell]

I do believe that Ortofon do not recommend fluids of fear of the fluid entering the motor, or suspension. As I have posted before, on here, I have never worn a stylus out, I always f--k the thing up.