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VINYL RECORDS
In order to avoid distortion and cracking noises, it is essential to clean your records with suitable methods and products. Carbon fibre disc brushes perform good basic maintenance and should ideally be used after each listen. Often it is thought that a disc is damaged when it is simply dirty.
For a deep cleaning that will remove dust, molding agents and static electricity, there are several cleaning systems such as ClearAudio, Music Hall Audio, Okki Nokki and Spin Clean. I highly recommend cleaning even new discs.
Once the disc is well cleaned, it is important to replace the inner paper sleeve with one that does not leave residue, such as sleeves by Mofi and Nagaoka.
It is important also to keep the stylus clean. Ortofon offers a brush for dry cleaning. Audiolink, Last and Audio-Technica use a liquid, which enhances efficiency. The ideal is to use both types.
To prevent the disc and its sleeve from buckling, they should be stored upright in a cool, dry place.
CD, DVD & LD
These formats require much less maintenance. A soft microfibre cloth combined with a product such as Spin-Clean DiscMist will allow you to keep them for a long time. The cleaning is done from the center to the outside of the disc. If the surface is damaged, there are resurfacing tools manufactured by Venmill and other companies. Although storage is much less critical, excessive heat should be avoided, as over the long term these media may turn yellow, which makes reading more difficult.
HARD DRIVE, MEMORY CARD AND USB STICKS
They are the least vulnerable media, although they are sensitive to humidity and excessive heat. Hard drives (except SSDs) are sensitive to surrounding magnetic fields.
MAGNETIC TAPES
Of all the media, these are by far the most vulnerable. The ideal temperature is 20 ºC with a humidity level of 40% in a clean place free from magnetic fields greater than 5 gauss. To prevent the warping of the tapes, wind them using the recorder’s playback function. This will provide reduced but constant and uniform tension. For the long term, it is best to store tapes with the end facing out to avoid imprinting, especially in the case of piano recordings. Avoid touching tapes with your hands. Clean and demagnetize the heads of your tape recorder every 20 hours.
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Francais (French)
