Help! Vinyl care (esp. with Knosti)

I'm new, apols if I'm in the wrong place.

Decided to revisit my old LPs, so I've put a new Adikt cartridge on my old Basik-Akito turntable. I want to reduce surface noise but can't afford a vac machine. So, after research, I obtained, in addition to green sandpaper for the stylus from Linn dealer:
- Super Exstatic carbon fibre brush
- Pixall sticky roller
- Knosti disco-antistat
I am now VERY demoralised, esp. with re the Knosti:

- The Exstatic just gathers dust in a line and ADDS static to the LP.
- The Pixall makes the LP look less dusty, with no effect on sound.
- The Knosti is a disaster – I can't understand why anyone recommends it. I've used it on a single rackful of LPs and it has deposited stuff in the grooves which gathers on my stylus and makes the LPs sound horrendous. (Also, the supplied rack turned out not to have a flat bottom, so one LP wobbled off and got irreparably scratched...) HELP!!!

- How do I get this Knosti stuff off the records? Does it sound like I've mis-used it somehow?? Is it meant for much dirtier LPs than my old but basically well-looked-after collection?

- How do I get this Knosti stuff off my stylus? I've nervously tried the green sandpaper but it doesn't really help.

- Any suggestions other than taking my records to a cleaning service?

Thanks so much!

 

I can't really offer any advice regarding your Knosti problems, but I do use a Super Exstatic brush.

There is something of a knack to using it. I find that once the brush has gathered the dust up in a line, it is best to tilt the brush and only use one of the brush edges to pick up the dust from the surface of the record (sort of flicking the dust up onto the velvet-like underside of the brush).

With particularly dusty records I also spray my LPs with isopropanyl before using the Exstatic brush.

For really dirty records I will place records on a cloth and wipe down the surface with a velvet cloth (again spraying with isopropanyl).

These two methods work pretty well for me and I have only ever needed to have a handful of records professionally cleaned.

 

Knosti

I had the Knosti,and had the same problems you are experiencing,try using another cleaning solution,as the Knosti solution gunks up the grooves.

 

I have used the knosti OK, but I have experienced similar to your description on the very odd occasion, I find ensuring the solution is clean is essential, re cleaning them can be useful, as if there is accumulated crud (not always visible) then it can mix with the liquid when wet and appear to make things worse so re cleaning can be of use, failing that try art du son fluid with it as that has a very good reputation. I have also found things improve after a play after cleaning, when played again they are better as the stylus cleans the grooves very well.

 

run the brush at an angle to the centre of the record, not 90'o tnagental to the grooves, and then when the frotn egde has cleared the disc, just sldie it off sideways.

 

I wanted to try cleaning my LPs not because they look filthy but because they seem much noisier now than when they were new(er). I don't think I'm just being hypersensitive after years of digital listening, so I assume it's gradual build-up of stuff in the grooves and hope it's something I can reduce. Otherwise I'm just going to digitize them, fix them with software like the cheap but amazing ClickRepair, and jettison the vinyl.

Okay, will try.

Thanks for all advice – also I'd be grateful for advice on stylus cleaning, as the Knosti has caked mine in stuff which a light rub with green sandpaper isn't removing. Anyone tried those sticky substances that you lower the stylus onto?

 

I use the extreme phono solid state sylus cleaner - you let the stylus drop into the substance, and then lift it - it works very well.

 

Thanks – do you know where you can get it in the UK?

 

I use LAST stylus cleaner & StylLAST to preserve it, works dandy at getting the crud off of the stylus

 

extreme phono, yup, i've got i don't use,prefer the vibrating brush..

yours for £15 delivered. (save on US postage..)

 

I've been using a Knosti for some time now, but was not too impressed at first either. Once I ditched the fluid that ships with the Knosti and changed to L'Art du Son things improved appreciably - no more gunk on the stylus and much clearer sounding records.

So - tip the Knosti fluid down the sink and get some L'art du Son.

To improve things further, you may also like to consider getting a KAB EV-1 from KABUSA. This is basically a stripped down manual version of the Nitty Gritty RCMs - plug your vacuum cleaner in and turn the record yourself.

I now wash/scrub my records using L'Art du Son solution in the Knosti then vac. them clean and dry on the EV-1. Very manual but very effective.

Persevere, it is worth it.

Regards,

Stuart.

 

Oh - as for stylus cleaning. I was always able to brush the gunk off with a small stiff-bristled brush. If this isn't working, try the LAST cleaner mentioned above.

 

Thanks Stuart. After re-cleaning a few LPs as suggested by Peez, I'm slightly chastened: one LP is now far less crackly than it was before the first cleaning, so I now have to admit that the Knosti CAN achieve something. But another LP is more gunked up than it was after the first cleaning! This suggests that my LPs really do have loads of crud in the grooves, and that getting it out will need more cleaning and/or better fluid than I realised.

Could you be more specific about the brush and the technique? I'm paranoid about my £200 Adikt. Okay, diamond is hard, but the mechanism seems very fragile. Using the green sandpaper is traumatic enough – and surely the paper only cleans the bottom tip of the stylus, not the sides that touch the grooves??? Solid state/zerodust sounds easy on the nerves.

 

I'd echo what PEEZ says, but perhaps the Knosti cleaning fluid isn't the best either.

I thought the Knosti was the best 50 quid I'd ever spent on my hifi. But gave best results when records were brushed with Goldring / Clearaudio brush first.

I'd recommend cleaning the solution every 5 - 10 records and perhaps giving the brushes a once over every 15 - 20.

The stylus usually picked up loads of dust on the first go round after cleaning despite the records usually looking okay.

I've just got an OKKI NOKKI machine to replace mine and will let you know how good that is.

 

Thanks. I have the Super Exstatic but not sure I'm using it right. My latest idea is to sweep all the dust into a line, then use the sticky Pixall roller to snort the line of dust off the LP.

The forums seem to talk off lost of crud being in the fluid. So far (two uses) mine just seeps quickly through all 5 filters leaving nothing behind. Does this suggest that something isn't right – that the brushes aren't doing their job? I'm rotating the LPs completely about 5-10 times in each direction.

How exactly?

 

Try a thin wire brush / Bottle brush and your hoover's thin attachment to pick the dust up.

If it's new there shouldn't be too much of a problem. But they do pick up a lot of dirt pretty quickly and if you don't get rid of it then it's only going t end up either in your solution, or your brushes and eventually back onto your records.

 

Hi,

I use a brush similar to this. You need to very carefully brush the underneath of the assembly from back to front - that is, draw the brush over the stylus similarly to a record passing beneath it. Any other direction and you risk ripping the cantilever from the body... I've never used sandpaper on my cart - thought horrifies me - I'd expect if you are comfortable doing this then gently brushing the stylus wont be any trouble for you.

As I say, I've never used the sandpaper stuff, but aren't you meant to use in on the 'sides' of the diamond rather than the tip?

I've read that the filter paper supplied isn't very good at separating the crud from the fluid. You may wish to try using coffee filter paper instead. However, I'd urge you again to ditch the Knosti fluid and use something decent instead.

Regards,

Stuart.

 

ill second that on the filters, i use ALL the supplied filters stacked to clean the liquid and then rinse them after

 

Thanks. I've used all 5 filters together and on both uses so far, the liquid has just run right through with no residue. I have Art du Son on order and will use coffee filters in future.

The Linn dealer just told me to lightly but smoothly draw the sandpaper from back to front over the tip. It's ultrafine grain - what worries me more than its surface is the steadiness of hand required and the fact that I don't quite see how to get it to rub the sides of the stylus (which the dealer didn't mention) without risking sideways pressure on it, which I'm not going to attempt. I have Last and Stylast on order, which hopefully will come with some sort of brush.

Also, does anyone have ideas for cleaning the Knosti's brushes? (Not that they seem dirty yet.)

 

both the last and stylast come with nail varnish type brushes, i would keep sandpaper where it belongs and well away from my cart