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Audio Desk cleaner.....still available?

I've been looking into this as my VPI 16.5 (from 35 years ago) has failed and I got taken on a "new open box" SOTA cleaner that was a trash heap no longer made (the site I used still says they are available on order....I called SOTA and they are not and you would not want one anyway).  The Audio Desk and the Degritter are the likeliest candidates.  The Audio Desk is or is not any longer in production/? Upscale Audio seems to have them, at least online. I was looking at a used one, likely the old model, but there are failure reports. I don't know about the new one, or whether it is even buyable. I'd prefer used if functional, but welcome opinions. The Degritter is the other option and it seems Galen Carol has them here in Texas. Info on that would be good too.  I'm starting to think record cleaning companies are the audio equivalent of roofing companies. Advice welcome!!

128x128howardlee
macg19
940 posts
 

AudioDesk works really well, but mine died after cleaning approx. 500 records and I too was offered a slight discount on a new one OR sending it back to Germany at great expense with an unknown outcome. But it looks like a garage experiment - the engineering and design is awful.

I now have a HumminGuru which is good enough as I rarely buy used records. 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,821 posts
 

 

For a coupla hundred bucks you can buy a Vevor 6L USC machine with a simple LP lowering arm on Amazon. It's a good way to try out ultra-sonic cleaning on the cheap. The US frequency is 40kHz, and features no water filtering or drying. For a coupla hundred bucks more you can get the original Humminguru, which does include filtering and drying.

 

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
764 posts
 

The Degritter is a much better machine than the Audiodesk - much better design and operating system and its cleaning performance is excellent.

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