As the new owner of a Pro-Ject T1 BT record player, I have been browsing the hi-fi internet to find tips and tools that could improve my listening experience. Part of the pleasure of a new hobby is learning about it and discovering what works for you. However, the hi-fi world has no budget, and many in it judge impurity with great harshness.If you don’t spend thousands on a record cleaner and clean them before each listen, you are disrespecting the music, apparently. If you don’t live in a dustless white void, you’re adding impurities to the sound, supposedly, and this is very bad, we’re told. And let’s not get started on snake oil like the purity of your electrical outlet.This whole attitude makes hi-fi music less accessible and interesting; but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some small upgrades that can help maintain and improve your record player experience for a modest sum.To start, a simple free way to improve your listening experience is to keep your record clean. This is fairly intuitive. The music is played from a physical surface, so don’t touch your records with crisp-covered fingers or grease-soaked hands and keep the dust cover on when not using your machine. You don’t need to baby them, but also don’t be foolish. Beyond that though, how clean you want your records to be is a matter of taste. Pro-Ject Brush It Record Brush. Courtesy of Pro-JectFor some, any impurities in the listening experience completely undermines the point of a record collection, and everything has to sound as pure and clean as possible. If that’s your goal, you really shouldn’t be listening to analogue music at all. Records have a certain warmth to them, whereas streaming from Tidal or downloaded FLAC audio files has a digital neutrality to their sound. However, you can get closer with a cleaning machine. These manually or automatically spin the record with a cleaning solution and brush to remove any excess oils or dust, leaving them as pure as possible.If you can tolerate the occasional hiss or crackle — or, like me, enjoy the pleasurable imperfections of physical music — some basic cleaning tools can help. Pick up an inexpensive carbon brush to clean the records and briefly run it across your record as it spins before you listen. You can also buy a brush to clean your cartridge, though this will be used far less frequently. If you buy old records or have left your collection in a dusty spot for too long, you can send them off for a professional clean for relatively modest sums.Pro-Ject Clean-It Cartridge Brush. Courtesy of Pro-JectAnother way to improve your listening experience, besides cleaning, is to improve the consistency with which the cartridge reads the records, ensuring it doesn’t skip or slide as you listen. A properly calibrated machine will do a great job out of the box, but two small upgrades can help.Pro-Ject Cork Mat. Courtesy of Pro-JectFirst, don’t play the record directly on the platter; ensure you have a platter mat to reduce slide. A felt mat likely came with your turntable, and though this is a big improvement over not using one, a cork mat is an inexpensive but enormous improvement. Static build-up vanishes, and this massively reduces record skipping. There are more expensive combinations, like cork-rubber blends, but the gains here are marginal, and mostly to the character of your sound, rather than its quality.Pro-Ject Record Clamp. Courtesy of Pro-JectFinally, a record clamp is a small weight that sits atop the center of your record, holding it stably to the platter without flexing or damaging it. The goal is to reduce slippage with the cartridge. For light cartridges like those that come with the Pro-Ject T1 BT that I recommend, this is a helpful upgrade. It is the least essential and the most expensive of these upgrades, but given that vinyl is about enjoying the ritual and atmosphere of listening to music, a polished diamond-knurled aluminum weight that also improves the sound is a nice addition to that feeling.
