Record Cleaning

After many, many years of "getting by" without a record cleaning machine, I finally purchased one and very quickly realized I'd unnecessarily put up with far too much background noise and too many ticks & pops. If you plan on buying used vinyl, this is particularly true. Rega seems to fetishize simplicity to a fault in this case. You can also get great results with other wet cleaning methods and/or steam cleaning, but dry brush cleaning is not the e-ticket ride to maximizing your vinyl listening experience.

Okay, Photon46 you raise a valid point. May I ask what you are using to clean your records?

Thanks,
Randy

I completely agree with Photon. I'm a huge Rega fan, but completely disagree with Roy Gandy.

I waited a while before I bought a record cleaning machine. Had I known then what I know now, I'd have bought it a long tome ago.

I bought a KAB USA EV-1. All the machines reportedly clean to the same degree. The differences are convenience features. The EV-1 is basically a Nitty Gritty without an internal vaccum.

With the money you save over Nitty Gritty or VPI, get a steam cleaner. I use an old Technics TT to blast the LP with some steam, scrub with some cleaner, then vaccum with the EV-1.

Everything sounds so much better now. It's like I bought a new TT and cartridge. If you're not vaccuming the stuff off, it's not coming off in my experience.

JR

I have a prized Oracle carbon fiber brush i got as a gift. The original owner bought it 25 years ago.. It stil works like new.
I used to wash records by hand.. but now nearly all i do is clean them with the brush....

And now for something completely different...Nagaoka Rolling Cleaner. been using the same one for about 30 years. It works. Also have a Hunt, Nag's much more effective.

Also use a VPI 16.5. Had KAB, but pulling the vacuum down leaves a trailing edge of fluid. Downfall is on VPI when someone closes the lid with the tube in place it breaks the wand. Over and over at $30 a crack. YMMV.

JMO.