Vinyl Accessories - Skip It or Buy It!

I agree lewm. It can't remove grunge. However, if a record is not fingerprinted and kept in a rice paper sleeve other than when being played and has the dust removed each time, inside a record jacket (or sometimes 2) inside an outer plastic sleeve inside a sealed glass cabinet door, how does it get grungy? I am meticulous in handling and storing my records. The brush magnetically removes dust I guess because of the static charges that makes the dust stick to the fibers and it sweeps larger particles and hairs. I'm sure it doesn't remove deep dirt. I've lived with the risk of a sound difference for 40 years, and I don't see it changing. There is so much difference from record to record in SQ, that it is really hard to tell as you play different records if one would need cleaning beyond the dusting before every play.

I think I bought 2 EX records and was not comfortable with them one time and brought them to my brother in-law's (not a special trip) and I cleaned them. He has some expensive VPI machine I think. It vacuums and brushes and everything. It was more time consuming than I thought, and I am wondering how he keeps track of when he cleaned which records. He doesn't even have them situated perfectly vertically as I do. Another thing to keep track of and worry about if they always look shiny and clean....

They were still EX records though. That's when I said NM or Mint (which is really new but opened and never played I guess) only if not available new.

Obviously if you are an avid buyer (or seller) of used records a RCM is a must have.

sokogear

My opinion for record cleaning machines is that they are useful if you buy a lot of used dirty records. I try to keep mine pristine and only use a carbon fiber brush to remove dust ...

Your LPs aren't pristine if all you use is a carbon brush to clean them. If you want proof, just look at the gunk that's accumulating on your stylus.

I guess pristine is the wrong word to use @cleeds. If I wanted perfect, I'd have to deep clean them every time I play them.

Life is full of compromises.....let's just call them excellent.

Compromise is right. The cleanest records I know are the Hot Stampers from Better-Records.com they are cleaned using the Walker Enzyme 4 step method on a very expensive RCM that uses a cleaning wand that continually feeds fresh cleaning thread so all dirt is continually lifted off the record. This eliminates the major problem with all other RCM designs which is that the cleaning brush is always building up crud, ultimately smearing it all over the supposedly clean records.  

Granted the crud we are talking about is not visible. But totally invisible crud does make a difference! My records scrubbed with Disc Doctor looked really clean. Same records after same cleaning process only with Walker Enzyme sound better. Not night and day, but definitely better. Not necessarily more quiet, but more fine detail.  

The downside is the VPI RCM is only used to suck off the final rinses. Because otherwise, crud smear. So a very laborious process, a good 3 min per record, almost all hand labor. 

But, I didn't have to spend $4k on the fancy RCM. Compromise. 

@millercarbon - we are in agreement on this issue! Better Records should have the best record cleaning process. It’s central to what they do. They charge much more than I’d pay for any record, but I can see them succeeding in the cost no object market.

Funny thing is, not only does my brother in law with the expensive RCM have his records shelved erratically from a perfect 90 degrees to 45 degrees, which gives me high anxiety, he doesn’t even use a brush to get rid of dust before playing a record. I think he only uses his RCM when he buys a used record. His system is probably 3-4 times as expensive as mine and he doesn’t even use a power conditioner! He put his stereo on a dedicated circuit. I tried to explain how the power company feeds noisy juice,  but he thinks power conditioners limit the dynamics of amps.....

He’s had problems with hums and tubes, you name it, but he won’t put the PC in.

The worst part is that I started him down the rabbit hole when I recommended a $500 manual Music Hall table 20 years ago when I was amazed at the improvement over my old fully automatic Phase Linear 8000 and he started getting upgradeitis ever since. He took my advice then, but now gets victimized by stereo salesman after stereo salesman. Oh well....