Humminguru record cleaner

@lewm whoever told you that was incorrect. Ultrasonic machines are indeed "ultrasonic" unless you are a bat. The cheap ones operate at 40KHz, the more expensive ones at 120KHz. 

From YourSoundMatters dot com:

"The Degritter doesn’t come cheap at over $3000/£2000.

Naturally, this raises the question, what do I get when buying a Degritter over, say, the much more affordable HumminGuru at just $499.

This is a BIG question...

Aside from the general build quality (the HumminGuru is clearly built to a price and feels much more plasticity and flimsy compared with the Degritter), there is the glaring issue of power.

Ultrasonic record cleaning machines require a good amount of power to generate the cavitation bubbles for record cleaning; there is a big difference when it comes to each of these machines.

The Degritter uses 300W to generate its 120KHz frequency across four transducers.

The HumminGuru uses only 60W to produce a 40KHz frequency with just two transducers.

This glaring difference does raise some concerns as to whether or not the HumminGuru has enough “juice” to get the job done.

The low power by comparison goes a long way to explain why, in my experience, why the HumminGuru often benefits from multiple runs on the same record.

This comparison is a little unfair given the vast price difference, but it’s important to state.

Granted, $3000+ is a huge outlay. And my recommendations for the Pro-Ject VCMs and the HumminGuru still stand if you’re on a tighter budget. You can, and will, get great results with these machines, you’ll just have to work a little harder to achieve the same outcome.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about the Degritter for some time, I can wholeheartedly say that it’s worth the investment if you buy a lot of used record or want to restore your old collection. "

All I'm saying is that there are reasons (much more power, higher frequencies used, the automatic "hands off" cycles, etc.) the Degritter is so much more expensive than the Humminguru, so just set your expectations accordingly. If the Humminguru works for you as an adjunct to a VCM then that is great. 

@moonwatcher if you look at the price difference between the Guru and the Degritter, it is, at least imho, impossible to assign said difference to the build quality and the higher power of the DG. Instead, what is going on…is that the usual suspects are involved with the DG. As such, there is a lot more ‘upside’ built into the DG to support all of the ‘middle men’. Luckily, the Guru offers a great option to those folks, like myself, who are happy to see a machine brought to market with a great deal of value -and less impact from the ‘middle men’!. Everyone I know that owns a Guru is very happy with it.

I'm willing to bet HG will offer up another level up for more money eventually.

@davey and @aberyclark that's what I'd like to see. A "mid-priced" model offering the higher power of the Degritter without as many bells and whistles.  I already have a decent homemade vacuum RCM so I can use it to rinse and dry the records after they are ultrasonically cleaned.  Hopefully Degritter or Guru would eventually address the market in the $1000 to $1500 range for those of us who love vinyl but only have a few hundred albums, and mainly now listen to streaming services.  I can't justify $3K on an ultrasonic machine.  I'm actually pretty happy with my vacuum RCM (total cost around $500), but figure adding a good ultrasonic machine to the cleaning routine would be a step in the right direction. 

How much power is actually required to generate the bubbles that do the trick? I’ve had medical equipment cleaned by CLIA compliant machinery that essentially used a wall wart. We are just cleaning records here, not fracking. I am willing to believe that a”cheap, plasticky” Ultrasonic Device does the job and given the maturity of the technology if it sells for $500 I suspect the manufacturer is doing just fine in the profit area. As to the machine not being a piece of audio candy, I’m alright with that. I don’t need the mop that cleans my expensive hardwood floors to be sitting in an expensive Greek pottery from Republican Athens.