Understanding Record Wear

Clean, pristine sound begins with a clean record.

Although a new record may look clean on the surface, it is not. Every new record has surface chemicals and record-pressing compounds left from the manufacturing process. From the moment a record is removed from its cover, it electro-statically attracts dust particles from the air. The stylus then embeds these particles (hardness up to 8, a diamond being 10) into the soft record vinyl (hardness less than 1). The resulting pits and holes cause noise, distortion, "clicks" and "pops" in the music.

Handling the record deposits debris, fingerprint oils, salts and residues. Upon playing, the record stylus scrapes the record surface, exerting extreme pressure at the stylus tip (14 to 40 tons per square inch), raising the temperature to almost 315 degrees F (the melting point of vinyl) and imbedding dust particles and debris into the soft vinyl. Heat, pressure and debris cause microscopic cracks to appear on the record surface, even on the first play. With each play tiny pieces of the record vinyl pop out, leaving holes and pits in the record surface. These holes cause noise, distortion and "clicks" and "pops" in the sound.

The real problem is that ordinary record cleaners will not do the job of removing record-pressing compounds and trace deposits. Older records are a bigger problem. Many of the contaminants such as air pollutants and fingerprints simply cannot be removed by standard cleaners.

Only LAST products can effectively and scientifically clean and preserve records and styli.

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