Wet Playing Vinyl

Just properly clean your records and you will be better off in the long run.

Wet playing vinyl.

Never wet play your vinyl records. Wet playing sounds like an ideal solution at first but is not. With thousands of records in our music collections the last thing one wants to do is ruin them. Thoroughly clean and dry them before playing.

Most guys are against wet playing records as many feel that the liquid enters the stylus through the cantilever and loosens the glue holding it in place. Doing so only causes the stylus to spread the abrasive sludge deeper into the grooves possibly doing irreversible damage. Cleaning records with glue vinyl gong groove burn wet play and more. The stylus life will last forever because wet play does for a stylus what oil does for an engine.

Make sure that you fully wipe down your records with a microfiber cloth or let them air dry on a cleaning mat. It may initially sound better on some old records but the wet surface will dry and just end up leaving more residue overall. This makes the record sound even worse as the crud dries. Never spritz water or wet play a vinyl record in an attempt to quiet the crackle and pops.

Instead using a record with moisture on it can damage the grooves and create an even bigger mess to clean. It is a myth that playing a wet record will reduce static build up. Have you ever tried playing your records sopping wet. A kieth monks style record vacuum may be required to remove washed dirt from the groove bottom.

Never wet play a vinyl record does wet playing a record help reduce noise. Check out this experiment with a play test included. Do not do this. The solution you use to wet play also evaporates and causes other problems including not allowing the heated vinyl from the stylus to heat and cool as it does from normal air play.