varunbadola1974
Member
Friends,
Today I committed an audiophile blasphemy and cleaned a record with WD40. A record, which was presented to me after a stage performance in Kolkata by the organisers, was in an abysmal condition. One is suppose to hear crackle behind music in old records which have not been taken care of? Well in this case I heard music behind crackle. previous 3 cleanings had not brought any satisfactory results. So with nothing to lose, I tried Cleaning it with WD40. I had already seen a Japanese video of the same, which I am certain almost everyone present here would have seen. I followed the procedure to the T. Though the experiment requires a few things. Just a soap water wash at the end, I thought, would not suffice. As I have a GEM DANDY at my disposal, I thought it would come in handy at this point. So after applying the WD40 on the record (just one small spray on the lint free cloth for one side and then rubbing it on the whole side) and cleaning it throughly with a lint free cloth, I put the record on the machine and applied the solution and let it soak for 3 minutes. GEM DANDY is a RCM which just blows the dirt away from your records. There is nothing sophisticated about it. But it brings you the results. The result... is astonishing to say the least. A good 95% improvement in the playback. There is no fidelity loss as far as I can tell. As I know the adverse effects of WD40, I also used an old AT95 cart for playback. Though it is a great cart, I know that if anything went wrong with the stylus, it would be easier to replace than the MP500. I am listening to the LP as I write to you. Well...at times it is better to have some music than no music at all. would it have adverse effects in future, I would not know as yet. But for starters, the results are exhaulting.
Today I committed an audiophile blasphemy and cleaned a record with WD40. A record, which was presented to me after a stage performance in Kolkata by the organisers, was in an abysmal condition. One is suppose to hear crackle behind music in old records which have not been taken care of? Well in this case I heard music behind crackle. previous 3 cleanings had not brought any satisfactory results. So with nothing to lose, I tried Cleaning it with WD40. I had already seen a Japanese video of the same, which I am certain almost everyone present here would have seen. I followed the procedure to the T. Though the experiment requires a few things. Just a soap water wash at the end, I thought, would not suffice. As I have a GEM DANDY at my disposal, I thought it would come in handy at this point. So after applying the WD40 on the record (just one small spray on the lint free cloth for one side and then rubbing it on the whole side) and cleaning it throughly with a lint free cloth, I put the record on the machine and applied the solution and let it soak for 3 minutes. GEM DANDY is a RCM which just blows the dirt away from your records. There is nothing sophisticated about it. But it brings you the results. The result... is astonishing to say the least. A good 95% improvement in the playback. There is no fidelity loss as far as I can tell. As I know the adverse effects of WD40, I also used an old AT95 cart for playback. Though it is a great cart, I know that if anything went wrong with the stylus, it would be easier to replace than the MP500. I am listening to the LP as I write to you. Well...at times it is better to have some music than no music at all. would it have adverse effects in future, I would not know as yet. But for starters, the results are exhaulting.