2. analog
  3. 192074-192661

Audio Desk cleaner.....still available?

I've been looking into this as my VPI 16.5 (from 35 years ago) has failed and I got taken on a "new open box" SOTA cleaner that was a trash heap no longer made (the site I used still says they are available on order....I called SOTA and they are not and you would not want one anyway).  The Audio Desk and the Degritter are the likeliest candidates.  The Audio Desk is or is not any longer in production/? Upscale Audio seems to have them, at least online. I was looking at a used one, likely the old model, but there are failure reports. I don't know about the new one, or whether it is even buyable. I'd prefer used if functional, but welcome opinions. The Degritter is the other option and it seems Galen Carol has them here in Texas. Info on that would be good too.  I'm starting to think record cleaning companies are the audio equivalent of roofing companies. Advice welcome!!

128x128howardlee
willy-t
159 posts
 

Kl audio seems the best on the market right now

as far as reliability and an all-in - one machine

If you want reliability and don’t mind a 15 minute air dry 

I would recommend the Elmasonic P90 H

It’s an ultrasonic that produces 30 and 90 hz cavitation

Mine has been bullet proof for 4 years now and the results are 

near perfect.  With this one you must locate at rotisserie 

as this is just a high quality machine

Last I looked it was in the $1500 range but no moving parts to fail 

unlike the all in one machines. 
I got pointed to this machine from the beginning by an online 

record cleaning service and never needed to look elsewhere

Good luck Willy-T

macg19
948 posts
 

AudioDesk works really well, but mine died after cleaning approx. 500 records and I too was offered a slight discount on a new one OR sending it back to Germany at great expense with an unknown outcome. But it looks like a garage experiment - the engineering and design is awful.

I now have a HumminGuru which is good enough as I rarely buy used records. 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,868 posts
 

 

For a coupla hundred bucks you can buy a Vevor 6L USC machine with a simple LP lowering arm on Amazon. It's a good way to try out ultra-sonic cleaning on the cheap. The US frequency is 40kHz, and features no water filtering or drying. For a coupla hundred bucks more you can get the original Humminguru, which does include filtering and drying.

 

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
791 posts
 

The Degritter is a much better machine than the Audiodesk - much better design and operating system and its cleaning performance is excellent.

More to discover