Dude, that's brutal lmao. I had a similar gut punch moment when I learned I'd been using wet cleaner on my phone screen for years and it was actually stripping the oleophobic coating. Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know.

Patricia's method of just letting it run for hours is exactly what I did with my old Technics SL-1200. After about 40 hours of continuous play, the soundstage really widened and everything felt more natural. I think @patricia42 is totally right about that bass filling out once everything settles in.

@jana179 yeah exactly, way too much effort for something simple lol.