Ultrasonic Record Cleaners ???

puroagave said:
I have David Ratcliff's V-8, its the 'hillbilly' alternative that resembles a junior high science fair project. ... I'm very pleased with mine.
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Ditto. Mine has the filter as well. I found that running the filter between cleaning cycles works best. I also have a VPI 17F and need both for my particular regimen. After 40+ years of cleaning LPs, I have finally settled on a regimen in which I have complete confidence and control.

John
 
MDP said:
Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a new Klaudio RCM today !

I love my vinyl and want to get the most out of the grooves, and with retirement coming up, I should be set as far as my vinyl system goes.

:woot:
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Congrats Mark! or
Well, now you've done it....now you have to go out and get more records!:D
 
allvinyl said:
Ditto. Mine has the filter as well. I found that running the filter between cleaning cycles works best. I also have a VPI 17F and need both for my particular regimen. After 40+ years of cleaning LPs, I have finally settled on a regimen in which I have complete confidence and control.

John
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I use mine in conjunction with a nitty gritty RCM, sometimes I just use the V-8. regardless, every ultrasonic machine has its drawbacks the only major one with the v-8 (to some potential buyers) its not push-button easy and requires you to roll up your sleeves. actually, the v-8's heating element is not trivial and completes the package for me, AFAIK the AD and KL don't have it.
 
MusicDirector said:
Congrats Mark! or
Well, now you've done it....now you have to go out and get more records!:D
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You are in for a real treat. You will not believe how much better your LPs will sound! You will not believe how much better your system will sound!

One thing. I find that recleaning every ten - twenty plays or so keeps the LPs sounding immaculate. Not sure if it's NY air or what but you can clearly hear the instruments regain their dimensionally.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
You are in for a real treat. You will not believe how much better your LPs will sound! You will not believe how much better your system will sound!

One thing. I find that recleaning every ten - twenty plays or so keeps the LPs sounding immaculate. Not sure if it's NY air or what but you can clearly hear the instruments regain their dimensionally.
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Thanks Myles, I was curious about how often to do a re-cleaning.
I'm super excited :yahoo1:
 
MerrillAudio said:
I have have often thought that because of the price and use of the RCM, it should be a shared resource. 4 audiophiles purchase it and each get it for 3 months in a year. That way the Ultrasonic cleaners would only be $1,000 each. Perhaps the 1st person pays and extra $100, the next extra $50, the next less $50 and the last less $100. Patience pays off. Or start with 1 month each in the begining and they begin the 3 month rotation.
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Good line of reason there. However, that would work best if the members were close enough to not require shipping the unit.
 
Dre_J said:
Hi Mark, Yes they are good and more convenient in terms of use or time-on-task...


Yes. For additional review information, I discuss the Klaudio's (KD-CLN-LP200) functionality specifically in this month's October 2014 edition of The Absolute Sound (TAS 246).

I have the Klaudio which I would have chosen between the two but I can see some others choosing the Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner. If you have friends with both, why not try them out and pick the one you personally prefer?

Hope this helps,
Dre
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Dre, that was a great review you wrote in The Absolute Sound in the October edition, on the Klaudio !
 
MDP said:
Dre_J said:
Hi Mark, Yes they are good and more convenient in terms of use or time-on-task...


Yes. For additional review information, I discuss the Klaudio's (KD-CLN-LP200) functionality specifically in this month's October 2014 edition of The Absolute Sound (TAS 246).

I have the Klaudio which I would have chosen between the two but I can see some others choosing the Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner. If you have friends with both, why not try them out and pick the one you personally prefer?

Hope this helps,
Dre
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Dre, that was a great review you wrote in The Absolute Sound in the October edition, on the Klaudio !
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Thanks Mark.

I know it isn't online yet and only in the magazine for subscribers right now. I got a little technical with it but tried to keep it informative from a practical point of view.

I'm glad it worked out and you enjoyed the review.

Dre
 
Myles B. Astor said:
You are in for a real treat. You will not believe how much better your LPs will sound! You will not believe how much better your system will sound!

One thing. I find that recleaning every ten - twenty plays or so keeps the LPs sounding immaculate. Not sure if it's NY air or what but you can clearly hear the instruments regain their dimensionally.
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I've recently been thinking about that. I'm not in need of doing that at this point, but I also think that it may not be universally necessary. I think it does depend on your environment, but still kind of hard to say for certain. My current environment gets dusty quick, but that's about it mostly, not a whole lot of other contaminates mixed in that are sticky or make the dust stickier. That said though there is much we don't see and I used to live in a house where there was dust, cooking particles from a gas kitchen and a heavy smoker and pets. That is pretty much every bad thing that can land on a record and stick in the grooves just in the amount of time it takes to take it out of the sleeve.
In such an environment I can see benefit of running one's records through a cleaning every 10 to 20 plays.

Micheal Fremer says one should only have to clean a record once and then just use a carbon fiber brush to dust it before play. I find that to mostly be the case for me in my environment currently, but again, I don't think that is universally true and I think that is completely dependent on one's environment.
 
MusicDirector said:
I've recently been thinking about that. I'm not in need of doing that at this point, but I also think that it may not be universally necessary. I think it does depend on your environment, but still kind of hard to say for certain. My current environment gets dusty quick, but that's about it mostly, not a whole lot of other contaminates mixed in that are sticky or make the dust stickier. That said though there is much we don't see and I used to live in a house where there was dust, cooking particles from a gas kitchen and a heavy smoker and pets. That is pretty much every bad thing that can land on a record and stick in the grooves just in the amount of time it takes to take it out of the sleeve.
In such an environment I can see benefit of running one's records through a cleaning every 10 to 20 plays.

Micheal Fremer says one should only have to clean a record once and then just use a carbon fiber brush to dust it before play. I find that to mostly be the case for me in my environment currently, but again, I don't think that is universally true and I think that is completely dependent on one's environment.
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Agreed.

Another thing to think about is humidity. Some record sleeves may actually "seal" the record in as opposed to letting it breathe and thus promote the growth of fungus and bacteria in the grooves. That's one reason I liked Todd Garfinkle's record sleeves.
 
Just a follow up on the mold issue with LPs. From the following piece.

Paper sleeves are also hygroscopic (water absorbing) and as a consequence facilitate the growth of mold or fungus on the LP. Older audiophiles may remember the original Discwasher record cleaning fluid that used sodium azide to kill and remove these organisms from the record grooves. (Sodium azide was, unfortunately, removed from the market several years later when it was found to react with copper pipes and cause explosions.) As we know from early enzyme based record cleaning fluids from Buggtussel and more recent products from Audio Intelligent and Walker Audio, not to mention two newly released items from Mobile Fidelity and Musical Surroundings, microorganisms lurking in the record grooves contribute to the record's background noise and the occurrence of pops and tics. These various organisms, according to Dr. Bruce Maier, founder of Discwasher, "produce vinyl etching enzymes." (see BAS, vol.3, no. 10, 1975.) Paper sleeves also contain and shed debris that is trapped by "sticky" record mold release compounds. (Note, other particles can also be trapped–and that's a compelling reason to clean brand new LPs.) Glassine paper is no better than ordinary paper because of its hygroscopic properties.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue38/lp_sleaves.htm
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Agreed.

Another thing to think about is humidity. Some record sleeves may actually "seal" the record in as opposed to letting it breathe and thus promote the growth of fungus and bacteria in the grooves. That's one reason I liked Todd Garfinkle's record sleeves.
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Good point with the humidity. Can't say that is a problem where I am at except just a few days a year perhaps in which case it is far more harmful to me than to my records or sleeves which remain uneffected.
That said though I refuse to purchase or even take for free, any record with signs of moisture being present on the sleeve at any time in it's life. I can remove all the fungus and bacteria in the grooves of the record in one shot, but I would not want to put it back into the outer sleeve with signs of moisture damage, I don't care how much audiophile poly there is wrapped around the record. I also don't enjoy going out and trying to find another copy of the sleeve in better shape either, so I just don't go there in the first place.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Just a follow up on the mold issue with LPs. From the following piece.

Paper sleeves are also hygroscopic (water absorbing) and as a consequence facilitate the growth of mold or fungus on the LP. Older audiophiles may remember the original Discwasher record cleaning fluid that used sodium azide to kill and remove these organisms from the record grooves. (Sodium azide was, unfortunately, removed from the market several years later when it was found to react with copper pipes and cause explosions.) As we know from early enzyme based record cleaning fluids from Buggtussel and more recent products from Audio Intelligent and Walker Audio, not to mention two newly released items from Mobile Fidelity and Musical Surroundings, microorganisms lurking in the record grooves contribute to the record's background noise and the occurrence of pops and tics. These various organisms, according to Dr. Bruce Maier, founder of Discwasher, "produce vinyl etching enzymes." (see BAS, vol.3, no. 10, 1975.) Paper sleeves also contain and shed debris that is trapped by "sticky" record mold release compounds. (Note, other particles can also be trapped–and that's a compelling reason to clean brand new LPs.) Glassine paper is no better than ordinary paper because of its hygroscopic properties.

LP sleaves
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Oh darn, so we blow up a few copper pipes to save our records. LOL!
Seriously though, every record gets cleaned in my house, new or used and for the very reason you state. I recently saw a silver face plate of a vintage receiver that was kept in some storage area where mice got in and partied. The face plate ended up looking like the surface of the moon without magnification. So I liken the microorganisms from waters, proteins and anything of the like floating around in the air or somehow getting on the record doing the same thing. Make all the more important to clean records and ditch all paper sleeves of any type and use new, clean, high quality/audiophile quality, HDPE inner sleeves such as MoFi or Diskeeper or similar (don't know about using these in humid climates though) and not even picking up any outer sleeves with signs of time in moisture at all.

Great article on sleeves Myles!
 
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