Thumbs up for ultrasonic record cleaning

My experience with ultrasonic cleaning is nowhere near as positive as the those reported by others. I had a choice between an Audio Desk Pro and a Loricraft PRC 6. I chose the Audio Desk Pro. The unit was purchased new from a dealer. 

The first album I cleaned was an original copy of Paul Simon's Graceland
lp that I could never quite get clean. I gave it one extra beep and awaited sonic bliss. I put the record on the turntable and gave it a good listen and found that nothing had occurred. I re-cleaned it with a Spin Clean, 60 turns clockwise in total, 60 turns counter-clockwise in total. I rinsed the Spin Clean fluid off with distilled water and cleaned this record again on my conventional RCM using Disc Doctor record cleaner and various brushes. A good rinse followed. The record now sounded good.

This is how all the records I cleaned behaved. Use the Audio Desk. Then hit the Spin Clean and my old Hanss Acoustic RCM. It seemed that the Audio Desk loosened the grub on the records but did not remove it. After 80 record cleaning cycles with the same result, I drove the 2.5-3 hours ( one way) to the dealer with the machine ( and a 4 liter jug of distilled water and a new bottle of Audio Desk cleaning solution) and asked the dealer what gives. The filter and cleaning brushes were cleaned and dried the day before my trip.

The dealer mixed the cleaning solution into the distilled water and filled the machine. He then cleaned a couple of records. The cleaning process was carefully observed and deemed okay. The records were played and the dealer announced that this is all I could expect. The machine was working as well as any he had seen.

I had cleaned the filter and brushes several times before I went back to the dealer. I changed the distilled water and cleaning solution several times as well in case the machine was dirty from the factory. 

I went home and using a new batch of distilled water and Audio Desk cleaning agent I found that nothing has changed. So, by this time I have gone through 5-6 changes of water\cleaning fluid solutions. My impression so far is all  I get is more work going back to my old record cleaning machines to remove the grunge the Audio Desk loosened but did not remove. After just over 100 records were cleaned on the Audio Desk, I drained the fluid and cleaned the rotating brushes and the filter. The filter showed very little debris (2 shakes with a pepper shaker). Much, much less than I have seen on other posts on the internet. My records are cleaned and rinsed before being cleaned with the Audio Desk, but after all the dazzling superlatives that I have seen used to describe the Audio Desk I am truly at a loss. 

I have considered sending it back to Germany with a letter describing my experiences, but I doubt that much would come of it. I think if I received an all okay in German I would ask Mr. Glass to just keep his machine as I would not feel I had lost anything but thousands of dollars and my pride  for being fooled so easily.

I should have purchased the Loricraft PRC 6 instead. It is exactly the same money. I know what a Loricraft or a Monks can do, and it is  a lot more than the Audio Desk can.

Caveat Emptor.

@regafan,

My 3 years plus with my AD machine ( I now look at it as an informative, expensive lesson), was that after pre-steamimg, I did get better results. after going to the DIY machine set-up, it’s clearly better than the AD.

For convenience, which the AD has in spades, for me, the high initial cost and the inability to be able to access the internals, the inability to be able to clean out the cavity properly, the high ongoing cost of ownership and so on makes it hard to recommend.

Well, I have no way to know who is right and who is wrong, but I am certain that I made the right move for me. I was on the verge of buying the AD and was ready to hit the button for PayPal to well-known dealer in PA when I happened to read that the transducers in any US machine eventually crap out and immediately concluded it was dumb to pay that much money for a machine that performs such an isolated function. I went the cheap route instead-a $200 Chinese-made 6L US tank and the Vinyl Stack Pro and the various fluids recommended by some chemist on some audio Board thread that was repeated on Arthur Salvatore's site. This dealer in PA was offering $500 off with a trade-in of a VPI RCM so I had my 16.5 in my car to ship off to said dealer. I instead bought two new pick-up tubes on the realization that I very much need my 16.5 to dry off my records after I run them through my cheap alternative set-up. 
I haven't yet started with my cheap-route set-up thanks to being on crutches at the moment, but when I do, I will report back. 

@fsonicsmith,

Thanks for the post. Look forward to your findings!

(By the way, "I don’t know who to believe",..I can appreciate that. This is why I spend the effort in several ways to find out for myself...then I report here.) I stand behind what I here. My recommendation for anyone is to try several options for yourself.


Although I really don’t pay much attention to the audio press much any more, I did (kind of ) follow Art Dudley’s move towards the AD cleaner. At first he said he could not afford it, then low and behold he bought one. He is the one writer I have respect for. I only hope he’ll possibly do a DIY US cleaner in the manner in which he did his own plinth for the Thorens. ?