Dust bunnies on stylus no matter what

[inalone]

Hi all,

For the past few months I've aimed to drain my bank account and upgrade my setup to one where I have zero issues. Unfortunately, that in itself has caused issues. Most of them are now sorted, however no matter what I do, when I clean records I always get dust bunnies after playback, usually on the second side.

At first I thought it was the Spin Clean, so I got myself a Pro-Ject VC-E - same issue. I then thought, well the dust bunnies on my finger appear sort of dark, so it must be the felt mat. I changed to an acrylic mat, same issue

Does anyone have any idea what these annoying dust bunnies I always get no matter what are, and if it's normal? Thanks

 

[Joe Mac]

Yeah it’s normal enough. You’re saying side 2 mainly. What type of platter mat are you using? Do you dust it regularly. It could be that you’re pressing side 2 of a nice clean album into a dusty mat and it’s picking it up. You can use an little carbon brush to clean off the surface before dripping the needle. There are loads of options but I use this one

Tonar Dustaway carbon fiber and velvet record brush

This state-of-the-art record cleaning brush combines the properties of the Tonar Classic brush and the Nostatic brush into one brush! The center part of the brush is made of ultra-fine pole high quality velvet. This velvet is flanked on both sides by a thick layer of very fine carbon fibers. The...

www.kronosav.com

Also just to keep the stylus clean I use one of these between each record I play. When the tonearm is in its rest gently brush the stylus from the back to the front.

Tonar Clean Tip Carbon Fibre Stylus Cleaner

The Tonar Clean Tip stylus brush is made up of densely packed short carbon fibre filaments that are very effective to keep the fine stylus tip clear of dirt and other deposits that can course interference and mis-tracking over the record groove. Use the Clean Tip stylus brush with care moving...

www.kronosav.com

 

[inalone]

Yeah it’s normal enough. You’re saying side 2 mainly. What type of platter mat are you using? Do you dust it regularly. It could be that you’re pressing side 2 of a nice clean album into a dusty mat and it’s picking it up. You can use an little carbon brush to clean off the surface before dripping the needle. There are loads of options but I use this one

Tonar Dustaway carbon fiber and velvet record brush

This state-of-the-art record cleaning brush combines the properties of the Tonar Classic brush and the Nostatic brush into one brush! The center part of the brush is made of ultra-fine pole high quality velvet. This velvet is flanked on both sides by a thick layer of very fine carbon fibers. The...

www.kronosav.com

Also just to keep the stylus clean I use one of these between each record I play. When the tonearm is in its rest gently brush the stylus from the back to the front.

Tonar Clean Tip Carbon Fibre Stylus Cleaner

The Tonar Clean Tip stylus brush is made up of densely packed short carbon fibre filaments that are very effective to keep the fine stylus tip clear of dirt and other deposits that can course interference and mis-tracking over the record groove. Use the Clean Tip stylus brush with care moving...

www.kronosav.com

Hi,

I was using a felt mat and switched to an acrylic one today which I brushed beforehand and still had same issue. I brush the stylus after each record because of this issue, but im glad to hear that it's fairly normal, just annoying after I've spent a lot of money on cleaning and I never had this issue before that

Thanks.

 

[Joe Mac]

It may be that in properly deep cleaning you’ve loosened stuff deep in the grooves for the first time that’s coming up on your stylus now. It’s a constant battle against dust with this hobby and it always wins, you just have to keep cleaning lol.

 

[Mr Moustache]

I noticed the shape of your stylus plays a lot there too. I am currently using a fine line stylus and it is a lot more prone to attract dust than my previous elliptical. Now that I clean all my records on the Humminguru before playing them, I don't have that problem anymore.

 

[JohnnyCashFan]

I would check your Tracking force on your cart /stylus as well, a little heavier than recommended is usually ok, but not a lot.

You may want to pre scrub with these mofi brushes before you use the vacuum RCM, that may help get any grime/dirt/dust up that's deep in the grooves. They work really well for this. Record Cleaning Brush

Make sure your using a good cleaning solution. The Chisto is highly recommended around here.

Chisto Easy Groove Concentrate

For record cleaning machines. For all types of records from LPs to ancient 78 RPM shellacs. Quick and convenient way to keep your records at its best.

highend-electronics.com

Use a good carbon Fiber brush before every spin.

Use good inner and outer sleeves to prevent dust from getting in your jackets.

Keep your platter, table area dusted

 

[kvetcha]

Hi,

I was using a felt mat and switched to an acrylic one today which I brushed beforehand and still had same issue. I brush the stylus after each record because of this issue, but im glad to hear that it's fairly normal, just annoying after I've spent a lot of money on cleaning and I never had this issue before that

Thanks.

I agree with everyone here saying to brush each side of the record before you play it. The act of spinning a record, especially in dry air, produces static charge that attracts whatever dust you've got hanging around.

I'd also suggest maybe checking the air filter in your HVAC system. If it's not doing its job properly you're going to have more airborne dust than you might otherwise.

 

[Joe Mac]

I agree with everyone here saying to brush each side of the record before you play it. The act of spinning a record, especially in dry air, produces static charge that attracts whatever dust you've got hanging around.

I'd also suggest maybe checking the air filter in your HVAC system. If it's not doing its job properly you're going to have more airborne dust than you might otherwise.

I may be wrong, there are outliers, but with him being in Britain the odds on him having a HVAC system are slim to nothing lol.

 

[inalone]

I may be wrong, there are outliers, but with him being in Britain the odds on him having a HVAC system are slim to nothing lol.

Correct lmao

 

[inalone]

I would check your Tracking force on your cart /stylus as well, a little heavier than recommended is usually ok, but not a lot.

You may want to pre scrub with these mofi brushes before you use the vacuum RCM, that may help get any grime/dirt/dust up that's deep in the grooves. They work really well for this. Record Cleaning Brush

Make sure your using a good cleaning solution. The Chisto is highly recommended around here.

Chisto Easy Groove Concentrate

For record cleaning machines. For all types of records from LPs to ancient 78 RPM shellacs. Quick and convenient way to keep your records at its best.

highend-electronics.com

Use a good carbon Fiber brush before every spin.

Use good inner and outer sleeves to prevent dust from getting in your jackets.

Keep your platter, table area dusted

I do all of the above apart from the brush before a clean (and my cart is at 2G, the recommended force) - I use the pro-ject wash it solution that came with the VC-E, would the Christo be substantially better than that?

 

[inalone]

With the VC-E my current workflow is:

• Apply the mixed solution to the surface, and spread with goat hair brush
• Flip record and do other side (allowing the other side's liquid to do its thing)
• Flip back over, vacuum back and forth until the record is properly dry
• Put on drying rack to let the dead-wax liquid dry (this drives me insane, how the dead-wax has to air dry - genuinely tempting to send it back for this reason alone)

Would a brush come before putting it on the machine as sort of a manual, hand clean before going on the machine?

 

[Russ I]

Short of a (de-) static gun, I agree with others that brushing each and every side prior to playing (once the platter is spinning and you're ready to drop the arm) should be the final step in your process and should help. In some ways I feel like brushing the vinyl once it's sitting on the platter ready to play is at least as important as any of the other steps. I've recently begun using a Zerostat prior to placing the record on the platter, and that definitely seems to make the brushing stage more effective.

 

[Russ I]

Hi all,

For the past few months I've aimed to drain my bank account and upgrade my setup to one where I have zero issues. Unfortunately, that in itself has caused issues. Most of them are now sorted, however no matter what I do, when I clean records I always get dust bunnies after playback, usually on the second side.

At first I thought it was the Spin Clean, so I got myself a Pro-Ject VC-E - same issue. I then thought, well the dust bunnies on my finger appear sort of dark, so it must be the felt mat. I changed to an acrylic mat, same issue

Does anyone have any idea what these annoying dust bunnies I always get no matter what are, and if it's normal? ThanksView attachment 125904

It wasn't until I started using my HumminGuru that I was seeing a little white blob on my stylus every now and then. And it wasn't the typical loose dust--it was a bit more substantial and (seemingly) gunky than that. I think @Joe Mac may be right about the cleaning process leading to the stylus having access to groove depths that weren't accessible before. If that's not what's going on, then I'm really stumped.

 

[Joe Mac]

It wasn't until I started using my HumminGuru that I was seeing a little white blob on my stylus every now and then. And it wasn't the typical loose dust--it was a bit more substantial and (seemingly) gunky than that. I think @Joe Mac may be right about the cleaning process leading to the stylus having access to groove depths that weren't accessible before. If that's not what's going on, then I'm really stumped.

I don’t think the stylus is going deeper, I think the process is loosening stuff deeper and lifting it. You’d need a move advanced profile with higher tracking force to actually be going deeper I would imagine. Now the fact that I mounted a more advanced stylus with a greater tracking force at the same time as I got the HumminGuru I feel may have doubled the effect

 

[Russ I]

I don’t think the stylus is going deeper, I think the process is loosening stuff deeper and lifting it. You’d need a move advanced profile with higher tracking force to actually be going deeper I would imagine. Now the fact that I mounted a more advanced stylus with a greater tracking force at the same time as I got the HumminGuru I feel may have doubled the effect

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Something, somewhere, somehow is leading to the stylus accessing stuff (including sound!!!) it didn't have access to before. I just think of it as another step in the record-cleaning process LOL.

 

[Joe Mac]

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Something, somewhere, somehow is leading to the stylus accessing stuff (including sound!!!) it didn't have access to before. I just think of it as another step in the record-cleaning process LOL.

Yeah totally. It’s definitely lifting junk that the spinclean couldn’t get to and as some of it is white fluff I’m guessing also fibre deposits from the spin clean cloth!