August 2, 2009

Dust Off, Furutech Select SK-II Electrostatic Brush.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

Furutech Select SK-II Electrostatic brush, made from "finest of hard to find goat's hair!" Now I am wondering Hmmm........

The contents and the packaging. The Tsai Ching LP does NOT come with it!

When an LP sticks to the platter felt mat when you lift it up after playing, means it is statically charged, very dangerous scenario as the lifted felt mat could get caught with the stylus tip and break it, an especially pain full experience if you've got an expensive cartridge installed! The static charge can manifest itself in the next play in the form of clicks and pops. One effective way to kill the static charge is using the Milty static gun. Furutech proposes another way, in the form of the Select SK-II brush. Apparently made from "finest of hard to find goat's hair" as quoted from packaging. The brush bristles are soft and feel nice to touch.

Now, that's how you do it! I can be a hand model too! How's that for an alternative career choice?

It's the most effective brush I've come across so far. LPs that previously lifted the felt mat after playing doesn't do so anymore after a brush before play. Post Furutech Select SK-II brushed LPs sound very quiet, without the clicks and pops, if there were stubborn dirts, it's very certainly lessened(the clicks and pops that is). It also claims to do the same on CDs. Do CDs get static charged as it spins inside the player? I don't know, nor can I verify the phenomenon. However, I did try the SK-II brush on some old dusty CDs, and it works by very completely removing the dust from CD's play surface, which is the non-label side, just in case you're wondering.

It's supposed to work on CDs too!

The Furutech SK-II brush selling price is RM$590 each. I know, it's obscene amount of $$$ to pay for a brush. I have an Allstop Antistatic brush, bought a few years ago for less than RM$100 a piece. By comparison, the Allstop does a half decent job of removing the static charge on LPs. As to the value of the brush, I would leave to the eyes of the beholder, personally I know two owners of reference level LP playing system already bought the Furutech SK-II brushes. For them it's small money to pay for peace of mind, knowing that they have one less reason to worry about snapping off the stylus tip on their very expensive cartridge. If you have to ask how much does their cartridge cost? I would say about the same price of a brand new Perodua Viva!(Malaysian made entry level 0.66ltr engined car!) Just to put things in to perspective and whom might buy them.

Furutech is sold by Audiomatic, contact Eugene, tel: 012-3222698

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