Hunt EDA cleaning Questions ?

[omegaman]

I've just bought one of these and have a couple of ( Stupid ) questions.

1) I find the brush is pretty good at picking up fluff, dust etc, but the velvet pad then ends up dirty, How do you clean it ( I know you are not supposed to rub it with your fingers ) ?

2) I sometimes still end up with a streak of dust when I lift the brush up, Is there a technique to prevent this ?

3) I am not putting any pressure on the brush, just holding it in position and let the weight of the brush do the work, but this still slows down the turntable, This can't be any good for the motor. Should I be turning the platter by hand ?

Cheers

 

[memepool]

The knack is to put it at a slight angle to the record as it rotates, fully level so the felt pad picks up the dust, then tilt it so that the carbon fibre brush is still in contact with the vinyl, and in one stroke pull it diagonally accross the surface picking up any dust still left behind. Repeat until you can't see any dust left on the vinyl.
To clean the brush get one of those velveteen pads you find in a dry cleaners which lifts lint off coats.
The amount of force you can exert depends on the type of drive system on your deck obviously as a torquier direct or idler drive will be far less effected by any pressure. With a belt drive just be a little more careful.

 

[omegaman]

cheers memepool, I now its a bit crazy to ask how you clean a cleaning brush but the dust has to be removed somehow and all I could find was links to how good the hunt cleaned.

Most of the fluff seems to come from the felt mat, I think I may change that to a cork one. The felt seems to hold the dust and the static, or I could go the full hog and get an acrylic platter, what do you think ?

 

[memepool]

Yeah that's one of the things about felt mats. You can use the same brush pad thing I mentioned for the Hunt EDA to clean your platter mat as well. Then you need 2 of them so you can use one to clean the other

As for changing your mat, that depends on what your platter is made of. I found silicone sounds better on mazak like you find on a Thorens / Linn deck but on glass, like the Rega platter, it sounded a little dead to me, as though the glass needs damping.

Whatever you choose will affect the sound so it's really a question of trial and error. Cork is definitely worth a shot as it's usually the cheapest option.

 

[omegaman]

I only have a pro-ject debut III, and the felt mat as been a bit of a pain from the start. I think I might give the cork a go. The felt seems to stick to the vinyl after cleaning and has a lot of fluff/dust sticking to it.

cheers for the help

 

[ghostmusic]

I just use the edge of the metal cover for the Hunt brush, and get the dust off... I think that's what they advise in the instructions, too.

 

[memepool]

problem with that is that it recirculates the dust back into the air again and it can often just find it's way back onto the record, which attracts dust like a magnet unfortunately...

 

[ghostmusic]

I think I can live with that... I'm not that OCD enough to keep my room that dust-proof! =) I just make sure to stay reasonably away from the platter when I do so, and besides, I clean my records with VPI 16.5 and Audio Intelligent 3-step routine anyway, so we're not even talking about a lot of dust...

 

[omegaman]

Cheers guy's. Thanks for the help.