Ultrasonic record cleaners

I bought the Humming guru ($400) direct from the South Korean company, for my Nephew. No scientific data, but it cleaned and dried pretty well.

I would keep the VPI you have for dirty records, and run them through the Humming Guru after the VPI.

I use an AudioDesk and it’s OK overall.

I find proper record cleaning is just about the biggest upgrade I’ve ever experienced. What good is a decent table and a lovely cartridge if the record is dirty? I am constantly surprised at how quiet—often silent—a record can be despite age and heavy use. I’ve a few from the sixties that I know were played often on a crappy Philips record player with a ceramic cartridge, and on everything I’ve owned since, and they are still silent!

Most of my cleaning has been with a point-source vacuum, the Loricraft PRC-4 Deluxe, and having added a Degritter, I think I’m getting things as clean as I can with little effort. Everything goes through the PRC-4 with a homemade mixture of detergent (currently L’Art du Son), IPA and DW, then into the Degritter for a ’Heavy’ clean with their own solution, and it gets placed in a new inner sleeve. Using the Loricraft first saves the tank of Degritter fluid from getting gross contamination (it is re-used for 30 disks). Furutech Destat III and a blower brush before playing, but nothing touches the record, other than air and ions. After about half a dozen plays, it goes back through the Degritter, but I don’t repeat the Loricraft unless I hear any surface noise, in which case it gets a long visit with AI Enzymatic solution before going in the Degritter again. Styluses are cleaned with a dry carbon fibre brush.

If I could have only one of those machines it would be the Degritter. If the only option were a 60kHz U/S machine, I’d prefer the Loricraft. The extra energy and the smaller size of cavitation bubbles makes the difference that justifies the Degritter’s price until someone else makes a 120kHz/300W for less money!

I own a  Degritter and have used an Audio Desk and a KLaudio.  I have not tried the Acoustic Sound revamp of the KLaudio but will say it's a bit pricey.  I cannot say that one machine cleans better than the others, but I will say that the Audio Desk break down and require more attending to, expensive parts replacement, and KLaudio, well they went out of business.  My dealer sells or sold all of them and when I visit them, especially the large, used record department they have, I would see broken down Audio Desk and KLaudio machines not working, and in need of repair.  And the Degritter?  The same one since they first received them.  It has cleaned thousands of records without a hitch.  It's the most reliable, cheapest to run (almost nothing), and as effective as it gets.  It tells you when to clean which is simple, replace the water, and you don't even need to use their filters.  You can cut your own from cheap filter material you can purchase at the local hardware, or building supply store.

   Most of the tank type based machines, built around a generic jewelry cleaning cavitation machine that has the ultrasonic emitters on the bottom of the tank as opposed to the four, two on each side of the tank, facing the record.  The frequency of these ultrasonic emitters has also been optimized to clean vinyl records.  As far as the inexpensive machines go, I've never heard of any good results with them outside of websites that cater to inexpensive products.  

   Lastly, I own an opera set that has been in my family for 65 years and I thought it was pretty damaged but what a performance of Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), the clarity of the voices, the cathedral bells, the best I have ever heard.  I thought I would never see another copy until a friend found it on Discogs and I bid on it and got it.  It was very clean but it was mono, mine stereo and while pretty much the same in a lot of respects, the stereo version is just better.  After cleaning the stereo copy several times on the heavy setting, I started to like the old banged recording over the cleaner mono version.  I'll say this again; I thought who would spend three plus grand on a record cleaning machine?  Now, who would not want own one of these machines?  And I have owned a VPI and a Record Doctor and grew up cleaning my lp's on a Keith monks machine at a local dealer that was free to customers. Degritter takes cleaning lp's to another level, it's the easiest to use, and frankly, if you don't purchase something like this, buy a Spin-Clean.  I own one and frankly I never really found the vacuum machines much, if at all better.

@lewm  I have done that test. I cleaned most of my collection with a VPI 16.5. Then I bought  a German Elmasonic 80KHz US cleaner and built an RCM around it. Then I cleaned my entire collection on the US setup.

Using the few uncleaned, but carefully handled since new, records to calibrate the test, I noted how much gunk was present after US cleaning 50 records. Visual observation only, of residue and colour of fluid. No accurate measurement, no photos, sorry.

Then I cleaned 50 more records, in new fluid, which had previously been cleaned on the VPI. About the same amount of amount of residue as before, colour less changed. A second US cleaning in clean fluid produced essentially no more gunk, although in problem cases multiple US cleaning improved sonics..

Cleaning with US improved sonics over VPI. The improvement was about equivalent to upgrading a major component. An added benefit is stylus wear.

I  had a photomicrograph taken of a Koetsu after nearly 1000 hours of play, and it showed, according to the dealer, "minimal wear", which is what I thought. He went on to note that I should not even consider rebuilding it, "unless I had a whole lot more money than he thought I did." So it looks like my cartridges are wearing very slowly, and the US cleaning is not only paying for itself, but paying dividends.

I am careful to do heroic rinsing, 2 rinses in pure running water, followed by a distilled water bath and then distilled water spritz. I also use a lab grade detergent from Fisher which is especially formulated for plastics. 80KHz. New sleeves. With other regimes, such as diluted alcohol (Danger !), I have no idea, so YMMV.

So maybe your US RCM is superior to the one I used for my little comparison. My VPI certainly removes a lot of gunk based on looking at the effluent from its waste tank.