The Hannl Micro arrived, and my 1st impression was WOW! I had seen the Nitty Gritty and the VPI and they look functional, the Hannl looks like a "high end" turntable. It has a gloss black and brushed aluminum finish and you don't have to hide it in the utility room when you are finished cleaning.
The power cable plugs in the bottom and there is a master power switch next to it. The front panel has the on-off switch with built-in led. There are two front panel push-buttons to spin the aluminum platter left or right. Two more push-buttons control the five speeds of the platter, and led's light at the highest and lowest speed. The final two buttons are for the vacuum motor, and it also has five speeds with the highest and lowest marked with led's.
The full size aluminum platter has a rubber mat to hold the record, and comes with a very heavy record clamp with built-in rubber gasket to prevent fluid from getting to the album label. The platter motor has incredible torque... feels like a winch motor. The platter would rub your fingers raw before you could slow it down.
The vacuum pickup is nicely made with soft velvet strips that contact the record. Two additional replacement sets are included. The vacuum pickup sits above the record on soft rubber rings which allow you to gently push it to the record surface and then it springs back by itself. The vacuum pressure can be set at five different levels and of course the noise of the vacuum pump is at five different levels as well. The noise is much less than the VPI machine and you can easily talk to someone standing next to you. I don't think it is so quiet that I could enjoy listening to music while cleaning a record, but I don't play my music really loud.
Additionally, they supply a record cleaning brush, a small squeeze bottle to apply fluid, a large micro-fiber cloth and a bottle of X2000 cleaning solution. Not sure what the X2000 is and I bought a bottle of L-Art du Son.
Cleaning a record is really fun with this machine. Place a record on the rubber platter mat and use the clamp/record protector to hold it down. Apply some fluid, brush a few revs to the left and a few revs to the right to scrub and loosten the dirt. Then vacuum to the left one or two turns, and to the right one or two turns. Voila... a nice clean record.
I cleaned a few clunkers first to test the results and they were better than I imagined. Next was a good one, the Thelma Houston Sheffield recording. I'm not sure what she is doing these days, but for about 15 minutes she was right there performing.
I'm sure I will give some steam cleaning with the RCM a try one of these days, but for now I'm more than pleased with the results of the machine.
Finally... a tip of the hat to Cytocycle who made me aware of the Hannl machine, also Joe at The Cable Company for friendly service, fast shipping and a great price, and the Audiogon list members... without you I'd still have dirty records!
