I sold my VPI 16.5 and took delivery of a Loricraft PCR3 3 days ago. I made the change mainly because of concerns related to transferring contaminants from record to record. The Loricraft solves that problem in the vacuuming step by using a moving string as the contact point between record and vacuum nozzle. The VPI has nylon strips on a vacuum tube that contact repeatedly each successive record, potentially spreading dirt, and if the record came from a dirty enough environment, brown tar like goo. I think the Loricraft does a better job in the vacuuming step, concentrating its power at one point rather than spreading it out over a tube the width of a record. But the problem still remains of your cleaning brushes and if you are cleaning a really dirty record, spreading the bad stuff to the next one. How do you Loricraft users address this, or am I being too concerned?
Something I miss from the VPI is the ability to use the vacuum port to clean the brushes. I would (thanks to 4yanx for this) vacuum the brushes (and vacuum tubes contact area)after each record and every fourth record rinse them with their respective fluid (RRL SDC or SVW) and then vacuum them. So I at least felt like I was keeping those items clean. With the Loricraft Im looking at my brushes after a couple records thinking I wish I could vacuum off whatever is on there.
So Im still in the trial stage. Its a beautiful machine and it gets more of the fluid off the record Im sure, but I dont know yet if its worth the cost. I cleaned some older records with it that were a little noisy after the VPI and they still were after the Loricraft. These are 40 years old and its probably not dirt causing the ticks and crackle. I dont know for sure, but those and other records may have sounded a little better in some nebulous way that Im not able to identify.
Something I miss from the VPI is the ability to use the vacuum port to clean the brushes. I would (thanks to 4yanx for this) vacuum the brushes (and vacuum tubes contact area)after each record and every fourth record rinse them with their respective fluid (RRL SDC or SVW) and then vacuum them. So I at least felt like I was keeping those items clean. With the Loricraft Im looking at my brushes after a couple records thinking I wish I could vacuum off whatever is on there.
So Im still in the trial stage. Its a beautiful machine and it gets more of the fluid off the record Im sure, but I dont know yet if its worth the cost. I cleaned some older records with it that were a little noisy after the VPI and they still were after the Loricraft. These are 40 years old and its probably not dirt causing the ticks and crackle. I dont know for sure, but those and other records may have sounded a little better in some nebulous way that Im not able to identify.