As a general rule I wash/clean all my new vinyl records. I find that this reduces noise and static. I also do this because I believe most vinyls are produced in a manufacturing facility where little concern is given to air quality management and handling. If I had my druthers I would press and package vinyl records in a clean room facility of class 300,000 or better. What is the facility like where Octave Records vinyl records are made? Do I need to wash and vacuum my Octave Record vinyls before play?
Here’s a video of an Acoustic Sounds pressing area. The first few minutes shows the super sterile clinical environment hahahahaha. Also, note the number of throwaways she has starting at at 6:30. Even non-pressing work areas are a mess. This is a typical pressing plant scenario.
I’m not pushing Acoustic Sounds or any other label/manufacturer under the bus. The work is hot and dirty, and that’s not even considering the huge amount of chemical waste.
When I was crazy about LPs, I had a VPI record cleaning machine with the drain hose attached to the pump. The yuck that came off new records is a sight to see. Even audiophile records. I don’t know where the sterile factory myth started about LP pressing plants, but a lot of our younger customers at the shop believe the myth. I’m here to bust that myth.
Myth busting aside, I don’t buy or listen to new records much anymore, but when I do, I throw them right on the turntable and listen away.
Same here, every record I play is washed with a Degritter machine, then each side exposed to a Furutech Destat III, cleaned with an AQ brush and a Flux HiFi Turbo 2.0. Then I put it in a Nagaoka new sleeve.
I have a Degritter too and I love it! I clean every record whether it’s new or used. When I used a SpinClean, I was always surprised and amazed at the amount of crud left at the bottom of the tank after cleaning a brand new record. It only takes a few minutes, so why not do it?
All LPs get cleaned before they get the needle at this establishment.
Then into a new anti-static sleeve.
I’ll add, the amount of detrius removed from new LPs can be rather unsettling as others on the forum have reported.
Yes. Degritter has small, medium, hard settings, they last each 5/7/10 minutes depending on your choice. I use to set medium for new records (7), hard for second hands records (10) and small (5) for records already in my collection (already cleaned).
More or less the time for a little break between 2 playing records: while the Degritter is working I have the time to take the old record out of the TT, put it into the sleeve, find the original location into the archive, launch a clean process on P20.
It’s a ritual.
I feel devoted to my records and happy for taking care of them.
Relaxing placebo effect also known as audiophile insanity.
Thanks for describing, that’s really devotion!
Not sure how many times you’ll clean some often heard records then…ultrasonic cleaning under normal conditions should do no harm imo, but in our case it might (not sure)…just take care that your devotion doesn’t have an opposite effect on some precious records.
I used to clean everything, but you can see if a new record has any muck on it, but more importantly if it falls out the sleeve it should be OK, but if it has a load of static and won’t budge, it gets a clean.
