I’m the very proud owner of the PHK record cleaning machine cobbled together by a very clever guy from Brazil. Yes it does look like a primitive toy from Fisher Price but it does a great job just connect a wet and dry vacuum cleaner and you are away.
It doesn’t have to be a wet and dry vacuum as the machine traps the liquid in it. Any vacuum cleaner can work.
That’s part of the genius of it (I had one before I got my Loricraft).
Well, yes and no. It was “Pure, Perfect Sound - Forever” and was the marketing speak from Philips. I remember it well. It was a big joke because when they claimed later to have improved them, we all thought, how can you improve on perfection? I was in the retail record business in the early- to mid-80s, when this demo CD came out.
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That’s good to know ricsmas.
Thanks Josquin - I’ll be going back to the books I read those claims in (being too too young to remember such things the first time around) to see whether I misread it or the author skimped on the research!
Mark
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It is Kirmuss Audio. I dont know anything about the company and I’m not promoting them. He does have some interesting theories about record cleaning and somewhere here you should find what he says about having to remove residues left behind by wet/vac cleaners
If you have an hour or so to watch
Not trying to divert. I stumbled onto this whilst looking for examples of Perfect Sound Forevor.
Amusing article including the 3 Audiophile Betrayals
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That was interesting but I’m way too lazy to spend half an hour cleaning one record.
I guess it all depends on how much you value the particular record. I doubt for example that many art lovers would feel reluctant spending half hour to restore a prized painting.
I guess so. I’m not the type to chase down rare first pressings but I see that might be worthwhile effort if you did. It’s the first time I’ve seen an ultrasonic cleaner though which was interesting. I guess I hadn’t expected there to still be so much manual effort involved and that just goes to show how the quick methods probably are not as effective as they could be. Maybe even to the extent of doing more harm than good. I have a Project RCM and it certainly doesn’t seem to do any harm, and records do sound initially better after being cleaned. Whether that improvement is short term remains to be seen.
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I think the point of the Kirmuss if that it isn’t for maintenance cleaning so much as for restoration. I use an Audio Desk US cleaner, but still have records that don’t sound their best. I’ve wondered if the Kirmuss could restore them, or if they are just permanently damaged. My dealer has talked about bringing one in. I would like to try it. I might then get one for restoration projects if it can prove itself to me on items in my collection.
Well, I think record cleaning can probably be split into two approaches.
Serious archival restoration and every day general care and keeping records clean with a basic RCM.
As I mentioned earlier I had a ProJect VCS2 and will be shortly getting another, Ironically more for cleaning new records than my older ones!
Funny thing, but before RCM’s became popular, what happened to good old take the record back to the shop if it was “noisy” when bought new. I did and still do. I think if more people did that then pressing plants would have to take more care with quality control in the cleanliness dept. It does on the one hand strike me as a bit of a cheek to have to resort to cleaning machines to make a new record acceptable to be played.
Yes, I agree completely, especially the observation about modern pressings more often arriving with dirt/finger prints etc from the pressing plant than they did in the past. I actually did return an album to Amazon recently for exactly that reason. But it’s not something I enjoy doing. I do have a couple of albums waiting for cleaning. This thread might give me the impetus to actually do it.
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What I like about my Audio Desk is that it’s drop dead easy and quick to clean records. I drop on in and get it started and come back after 5 minutes to do the next if there is a queue of them. I clean records as soon as I acquire them. For the new ones the Audio Desk has been good enough. However, I have records that are decades old and could use some better attention.
Well of course we have to be pragmatic within reason and in these online days sending records back can be a pain in the butt even when the online retailer has a good return policy.
The importance of record cleaning IMO is a bit contentious. I dont believe in habitually cleaning records, especially with potions the ingredients of which are unknown and therefore having potentially unknown long term detrimental results.
My approach is if a record looks clean and sounds fine then dont.
On the other hand if a record is obviously dirty, noisy and needs cleaning…
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It does cut down static. So worthwhile from that perspective. Some albums are nearly impossible to extract from the sleeve when new.
That’s true. Optimal who have been pressing the Blue Note BN80 series for example have had terrible static, impossible to get the record out without surgery.
In that case I would probably just use distilled water to kill the static.
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For anyone who might be interested the ProJect VCS2 ALU is available at a couple of online retailers for £365 (usually 399)
I think that’s great VFM
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I well remember, back in the days when I had vinyl, sometimes I used to cut the sleeve off rather than drag it across the surface. Then use a zerostat on it before replacing with a better 3rd party sleeve.