Ultrasonic cleaning with kirmuss and loss of high frequency details.

I watched the video on the Kirmuss machine done during the 2018 RMAF.  I have no issues with any of the claims made, but I would never ever be bothered to go through that ritual with every single new LP I buy.  I already find that I waste a lot of time on "maintenance" (changing light bulbs, buying stuff for our house, fixing minor plumbing problems, etc.)  These constant intrusions have made me understand why some want to be very rich, which for me would mostly mean that I could pay someone else to perform those onerous tasks, which would include cleaning LPs with a Kirmuss or any of several other US machines or even my trusty VPI HW17, which is also a pain in the arse to use.  So, I need a butler, not a Kirmuss.

My research into ultrasonic cleaning of LP's has lead me to conclude that the 35kHz frequency of the Kirmuss (and even the 40k of other machines) is too low. 60k and 80k creates more gentle water molecule activity, a good thing considering the rather fragile and vulnerable vinyl composition of LP's. In addition, I'm unconvinced by the arguments made by the Kirmuss pitchman in regard to the removal from the LP groove of organic materials via their cleaning solution.

My experience with US cleaning leads me to conclude with @bdp24 on the frequency aspect. I own a Audio Desk and a DIY machine as @rushton proposed w/the filtering system. I recently saw a US machine with a frequency sweep mode, although it still operates at 40khz, seems to make sense. I’ve noticed from experience with my 6 liter tank and the Vinyl Stack spinner, that even with a 4 lp ability, I find the best cleaning is done with two lp at a time @ 45C, on the slowest rotation, for 40 minutes.

Kirmuss notes his positioning of his four devices as critical to the cleaning performance. That makes perfect sense in a way but as a layman, I’d question that somewhat, as these frequencies are being transmitted through water. It seems to me that water would break up the flow of these frequencies? So, this machine I saw on Amazon w/ the "sweep" mode @ under $300 makes sense.

Kirmuss makes a lot to do about the application of his fluid (with the same brush, over & over) yet says not one word about using the same fluid/water over & over without a filtering system. Very surprising!

Yes, wondered about his using that same brush multiple times in succession and then being surprised that he kept revealing that whitish deposit, which might well have come from the brush that was dirty from previous use.  But I gave him the benefit of the doubt in that I assumed he cleaned the brush between uses without mentioning it.  At least I hope so. 

What I do with my VPI HW17 is to clean (using the built-in brush) in both directions with a mixture of distilled, deionized water + 10% propanol + a drop of Triton X100.  Then dry with vacuum.  Then squirt some pure distilled deionized water on the surface of the LP and use the HW17 brush and vacuum to get rid of the excess cleaning fluid that may have lodged in grooves.  That last bit with unadulterated deionized water makes a difference. Takes me 2-3 minutes to do both sides of one LP.  I compared my method to one particular US machine, cleaned by the owner of the company, at the Capitol Audio Fest.  I chose one LP that had really good sonics but was stubbornly still a bit noisy after VPI cleaning.  All I could say was that the US cleaning made no significant improvement, and I could guess (not prove) that the noise on this particular LP was due to previous groove damage with a bad stylus, not to "dirt".  We sometimes forget that some LPs are not salvageable by any cleaning method.  By no means, however, do I claim that my little experiment proves anything about what is the "best" way to clean.  It only made me feel that I have little to gain by adopting the US method, which would add some aggravation that I don't need (until I am able to hire that butler).

Hey @lewm, that would make a great name for a cleaner---The Record Butler ;-) . "I say, Sir. What shall I clean for thee this morning?"