Q. Can I play my vinyl wet?
Answer:
This is quite a controversial topic, but we would not recommend playing records wet.
When we tried it, the record became ruined (unless it was always played wet). We had water all over our record player and the cartridge, which was not good for any of the hardware. If solvents are used, then the diamond adhesive will loosen and if the stylus does not detach, it will move in it's mounting. Any liquid that comes between the stylus and the record groove will not compress – if it is trapped, hydraulic pressure will build up to relatively enormous levels. It could result in fracture of the stylus and/or record damage. At the very least, the liquid will interfere with the true sound of the groove as the stylus is now forced to trace not only the groove, but a variable amount of water film between it and the groove. We would speculate that high frequencies would be especially affected and in all honestly, we would always recommend that the records are played in the way they were intended.