Like when they told the Wright Bros they couldn’t fly—or when they told the Little Engine that it couldn’t…
I’m not really sure what or if I can add anything meaningful to my photo, but my main point was the Onzow was not dong the cleaning job I thought it would. There was lots of schmutz on the diamond and the cantilever, how it got there and what it is I can’t say for sure. I’ve read that vinyl (from dragging through the groove) can accumulate on the diamond, perhaps that was what I saw and it was very well attached. Could be all the airborne stuff that settles on the LP while on the platter (or it’s those garage sale LPs that you just can’t get clean). Now that I’ve seen this stuff I want to clean it, but I ruined a Koetsu Black many years ago being anal, so I’m hesitant …
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I bought a used Garrott Optim FGS many years ago that was advertised as a being a well maintained low hour cartridge. What a joke that description was. I would have been surprised if the original owner had ever cleaned the stylus once as the stylus was buried in a very hard ball of welded black goop that looked like a mixture of cigarette smoke and old welded vinyl. I was surprised that I was able to remove every last speck of the tarball by slowly sweeping the sides of the stylus with the apex of a small cut wedge of Magic Eraser. I had to work under a high powered loupe to make sure I didn’t snag the top of the stylus but it was very effective and the stylus looked like new after a half hour of cleaning.
+1
WARNING: I was using the MoFi LP9 liquid with applicator brush and it left a nasty, hard pile of crud on my stylus. Could not be removed by reasonable means. Actually traded up to the better Rega Aphelion2 as a result so not a total disaster (but costly).
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@SpyderTracks Curious: how is the DS working out for you?
Best,
-JP
Haven’t ordered it yet, blew all my money on some new speakers, and have various commitments at the moment, but will definitely pick one up as soon as I can.
Well if you gotta spend your money on something, speakers are a good choice 
Best,
-JP
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They’re sooo goood, taken my system where I want it to be, had an incredible tube amp that was being held back by a (very good) digital speaker system.
I have always used brush and fluids. Recently moved to Audio-Technica stylus cleaner with great results.
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The AT is firmer, so the cantilever dives less.
I believe the AT is also a flat surface whereas the Onzow is bowed, so again, less stress on the cantilever.
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You may wish to reconsider. I have.
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Stylast is my go to, does a great job.
Blue-tack and Magic Eraser.
Uhkay, this is going to sound ridiculous. It did to me, but I’m pathetically curious and maybe a skosh gullible.
So, I know a guy. He has a bigass super microscope and he seems to be obsessive. He’s considered an expert in the Linn world.
After his “exhaustive testing”, he recommends Original Formula Silly Putty to clean the stylus.
I bought a bag of eggs and tried the stuff, settling down onto a flattened section. The result as seen thru my 10X jewelers’ loupe and also with my son’s watchmaker’s microscope shows an immaculate, shiny stylus.
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Stylist is great soundwise due to friction removing ability. But I use an electronic pad for real cleaning (Flux HiFi or so).
Did you try this testing with Blu-Tack v. Silly Putty? I don’t think your Silly Putty experiment sounds ridiculous considering all the other wet or dry solutions and brushes that to me look very dangerous in the grabbing and soaking departments. I sorta trust the opinion of Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith since he is a respected designer/builder/engineer and 50 years of doing such. I still have an original Discwasher Stylus cleaner brush with mirror and switchblade control and a bottle of SC-2, don’t use it though. Thanks for posting your conclusions!
I’m also a fan of Peter L and for a long time, I used Blu-Tack.
But the last time I used it, when I cued the arm upwards, a string of Blu came up, stuck to the stylus.
It took a lot of effort with a dry brush, an abrasive Ortofon brush, Lyra SPT and Linn (3M) “green paper” to clean it off.
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