Starting a Classical Vinyl Music Collection

Well, it really depends on your budget. My first was a VPI. It layed down the cleaning fluid and vacuumed it up. It does a good job, and is relatively inexpensive, but it sounds like a 747 landing, and is quite large. I now own a German Nelly… elegant, effective, quiet, and small, and cost… two or three times the VPI. But there are many on the market. It will depend on your budget. My VPI lasted for twenty years… so it is a long termed investment, worth choosing wisely. Ultrasonic are a mixed bag, more complex.
 

I would ask Bard (Google AI), given your constraints and then research those on Stereophile and The Absolute Sound. Also, both these mags evaluate lots of classical albums for performance and Sonic’s.. I think they both have done the hundred most important classical albums somewhere. I would research the hundred most important classical recordings online to find the right albums to start with

Classical Vinyls seems to be everywhere and cheap, thrift stores

if you cant afford a RCM then get a nice carbon fiber brush

I've actually have a ton of old classical vinyl, but the're pretty beaten up. Lots of static and pops.

I've got a local HI FI shop and they have a klaudio record cleaner.

They charge $4.00 a disc.

Going to give it a try.

Anyone familiar with the Klaudio?

Well, at $4 / album it’ll take a while to amortize the $6,500 for the cleaner.

I think it is a great idea to try their cleaning. Some albums are “cleanable”… as in it makes a huge difference… some not. With experience you can learn to tell by looking at them (well, most of the time).

One of the major variables involved in what used vinyl sounds like is your turntable / cartridge. There is an huge drop in noise with an audiophile table. Part from the table and part from the cartridge… the stylist most older records were played on old record players with big stylists… so a high end cartridge drops down into the groves further and they can sound much better as long as they are clean(ed).

What is your system? There is a place under your ID to put photos. Very helpful for us to understand your system and where you are coming from.

I'm kind of in the same boat, although I just started with some Mahler, not for any particular reason other than I had liked what I'd heard at some point. I also have quite a few modern (avant garde?) composers that I've never really listened to so I just put them all through the VPI cleaner - it is indeed loud, but it does a pretty fantastic job. I just use earplugs when I am in cleaning mode. Looking forward to some headphone listening tonight.