Taking Care Of Your Vinyl Records
Just as you need to care for your audio equipment, you also need to clean your records and care for them.
If they’re dirty or scratched, it hardly matters how great your turntable is.
Your music just won’t sound very good!
You will not feel the breath of the artist or see the soundstage. Cleansing the surface is not cleaning, our process gets into the grooves and restores the record removing remnants of prior cleaning processes, cleaning agents, record release agent as well as fungus and dirt.
To avoid damaging your records, you’ve got to PAMPER them!
Treat your vinyl right, and you’ll enjoy crystal clear sound every time!
Keep your records clean!
The weakest link in your music experience is the source material. We know what compromises the CD and digital music have made. Vinyl records are the oldest form of recordings and where you don’t want to let dirt, debris, fungus or gunk build up inside the grooves. Most forget where most cleaning methods introduce dust as well as leave residues in the grooves which sees the stylus no longer make proper contact with the pressing.
If you do not maintain and take care of your records, they won’t reflect the originally pressing and mastery of the artist, producer, engineer, studio and process.
Instead of top-notch fidelity, you’ll hear "ticks and pops", and a duller sound, missing the original breath.
Avoid scratching your records, handle them with care.
Dirty records are often redeemable, but scratches (depending on their depth) might be permanent.
Improper storage and handling can scratch up your records. Handle record by the edges, use a non PVC, anti-static sleeve for storage and not the paper sleeve insert or cardboard sleeve.
"One thing is certain: playing a dirty recording, regardless of its format, is one of the most damaging things you can do to it.”
-(Gerald L. Gibson, Head of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress, 1991)
It is just as important to use a carbon fiber brush to remove any dust before play, as playing a record as such will see the heat of the needle actually embed dust and dirt into the grooves. The good news? Caring for your records isn’t all that hard.
By using the Kirmuss Audio Record Cleaning & Restoration Machine, you’ll never have to worry about dirty records getting between you and your tunes!
Most processes cosmetically clean the record’s surface, and most leave a coating or residue in the grooves. Vacuum systems also introduce dust and apply static, also leaving residues on the groove surface. The KirmussAudio process strips out lodged contaminants from the grooves, including removal of the original record release agent that may in fact see dust, dirt, and fungus lodged in the grooves.
Grooves are the key to great sound
Record grooves are where your favorite music lives. As your stylus cruises the grooves, it sends those analog signals through the cartridge to your preamp and, finally, to your speakers.
Grooves are essentially to records what words are to a novel. Just as you can’t tell a great story without compelling language, you can’t enjoy great sound without clean, undamaged grooves. Here’s what that means for your vinyl record collection:
Why store records vertically?
Stacking records can warp or bend them, never mind increase the risk of scratching. Record shops don’t display vinyl vertically just for customer convenience.
They do it to protect their product. But following the cool-dry-vertical protocol alone won’t keep your records from getting dirty. To protect records from dust and contaminants, you should store them inside professional-grade, anti-static sleeves.
How to store your records
- Cool, dry, and vertical – that’s how to store your records.
- Excess moisture and heat can harm vinyl, so it’s a good idea to store your records in a dry, temperature-controlled environment. Most of the time, this means keeping them within your primary living space.
- Attics are a no-go because the summer heat can warp your vinyl.
- Basements are iffy, too. When the relative humidity reaches 58% or higher, the risk of mold increases.
- Due to the fact that PVC has a sugar content mold will grow on vinyl itself, and it can grow on a paper record sleeve and then gunk up your grooves. This is why we strongly recommend the use of NON PVC sleeves to store records.
- At best, prolonged exposure to moisture, humidity, and mold will make your records dirty and ruin those great record covers. At worst, it can warp them.
How To Handle Records
Don’t touch the Grooves!
When possible, only touch your records at the edges and on the label. Otherwise, the oils from your hands could get inside the grooves. The more oil that gets in the grooves, the more dust sticks to the playing surface. It’s kind of a springboard toward gunking up your records, so you’re better off not beginning the process in the first place.
Proper handling also matters during the moments just before and during play. Raise and lower the needle on your turntable using the cueing lever – not your fingers. When you’re done listening to a record, be sure you slide it into the sleeve. Dropping it in risks splitting the sleeve or scratching the vinyl.
What should you do if you happen to touch the playing surface? First of all, relax. We’ve all done it. You just need to clean your records, and that's what we, at KirmussAudio do BEST!
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ROBERT PLANT from LED ZEPELLIN showing a "WHOLE LOTTA LOVE" for vinyl... although the way he has is laying on the carpet may not be the best way to handle his record collection!
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"AS GOOD AS IT GETS"!
John Joseph Nicholson, "Jack" to his friends... listening to some vinyl back in the day. -
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix probably created a "PURPLE HAZE" around his record collection...
Cigarette smoke is absolutely horrible for any Vinyl! -
Marlon Brando Jr. was one of the greatest actors who ever lived... but he should not have been smoking anywhere near his vinyl... The way he held those records must have left nice fingerprints on them too!
Someone should have "Made Him an Offer He Couldn't Refuse" and taught him the proper way to handle his beloved music LP's! -
Terence Steven McQueen, the star of such classics as Papillon, Bullitt, and The Great Escape obviously had great taste in music judging from the record collection at his feet...
That Miles Davis is absolutely fabulous! Too bad no one told Mr. McQueen how much better his records would have sounded had he taken better care of them!
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Someone really should have told Sir Michael Philip Jagger that he could get more SATISFACTION out of his record collection if he didn't smoke near it!
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Nice to see "Frodo Baggins" (Elijah Wood) enjoying some vinyl!
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ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD!
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.) absolutely loved his vinyl! The Boxing Legend that gave us such iconic phrases as
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" &
"Don't count the days, make the days count."should really have known better than to handle those 45's with a bit more care and TLC...
