HumminGuru Orbit Vinyl Record Static Remover

Further thoughts: Considering it’s extremely low price, the Hudson Arm/Brush is certainly worth a try. As I thought about it more, a couple of things occurred to me.

1- If the Hudson Arm/Brush is used alone (with no other anti-static device), playing a disc with a static charge would mean as the LP is playing, the area not yet having come into contact with the Arm’s bristles will still have a charge, and therefore be attracting dust. That is especially true if records are played with no dust cover in place.

2- I never play an LP until I have deep cleaned it, whether new or used. And I don’t necessarily immediately listen to every LP I have just cleaned If only the Hudson arm is used to address static, and deep cleaning has created a static charge on the disc (or it already had one, which the cleaning did not remove), that would mean the disc would be put into an inner sleeve clean but with a static charge. Not a good idea.

But there is no reason the Hudson arm cannot be used in conjunction with any other anti-static device. So treat the disc with a, say, Destat III, then play it with the Hudson arm in place. In the late-60’s/early-70’s I used the Cecil E. Watts Dust Bug, which differed from the Hudson Arm in that it had a round barrel of bristles in place of the goat’s hair/carbon fiber bristles, and had no grounding wire. I was amazed by how the Dust Bug tracked the LP at the same speed as did the cartridge. I assume the same is true of the Hudson arm.

Orbit in the house and works as advertised. So far cleaned 5 records that previously had pops n ticks. And it’s super convenient to use. 

Late response to bdp’s post of 9-19. Static charge, great or small, will instantly distribute itself evenly across the exposed surface of an LP, the side that is in play. Therefore the concept that the Hudson brush neutralizes the LP surface that it is traversing or has traversed, while the untouched grooves between brush and label remain fully charged is faulty. The better way to think of it is that the brush, as it travels, is constantly reducing the average charge on the surface taken as a whole. So when you’re done, the surface would measure no or low static charge, but during play there was gradual reduction in charge as the brush moves from outer to inner grooves. But charge wouldn’t have been neutral throughout play at any time.

I received my Orbit and gave it a go last night and… Nada. The unit is dead as doornail. I made sure it was charged, turned it on, placed it on the spindle, pressed start and the unit does absolutely nothing. Not a sound, certainly not a rotation. I guess I’ll see what their customer service looks like?