Which VPI LP Cleaning Machine?

Having been, well, screwed, early on when I was a novice on the VPI's, here are some differences.

The VPI 16 has not been made in over 15 years. It had the vacuum tube attached to the lid and did not have a reservoir for fluid - it just was sucked into the base for evaporation.

Some 16's were upraged to 16.5's - different lid, with the vacuum tube mounted on the deck, and a plastic reservoir (later ss) mounted under the deck to hold fluid (mostly grime). In addition, some 16.5's were made that have a 16 model plate on the back. Folks at VPI explained to me that the very earliest 16.5's used the 16 name plates that were left over in stock at the time.

I don't know too many specific about the 17, only that I would like to have one and they are about 3X the price of a 16.5. A friend that I know has no problems with his and can clean many records in one sitting. I can personally attest that the 16.5 will get HOT after doing about 6-7 records. Push it too far and it WILL shut down. I am thinking of modifiying my 16.5 to include a small fan.

Sean is right, shop around for deals and, if not doing business with a verifiable dealer - check out the condition carefully before buying................

I recommend a VPI 16.5 machine and also Galen Carol Audio (gcaudio.com) as a dealer. Both have performed flawlessly for me. The cleaning tube on the machine is grossly overpriced. It used to sell for over $ 20 when it probably cost maybe 50 cents to make. Therefore, it is advantageous to make the tubes last longer by "dry cleaning" the record first with a HUNT EDA brush (or equivalent). The cleaning solution too is quite expensive especially if you do a lot of cleaning but you can make your own for less than $ 5 (distilled water + isopropyl alcohol +photoflo)which will last for hundreds of cleaning.

Enjoy !!!

Sohail

I had lots of trouble with a 16 for the reason discussed above--no reservoir--and it literally fell apart. I switched to a 17. It performed flawlessly for over 10 years, and then I sold it to a friend (who had minor repairs made) and bought another one for myself to last the next 20 years. Maybe the 16.5 is an improvement over the 16 (I have no real knowledge about this), but the 17 is truly a class act and vastly superior to the 16.

I'm fairly new to analog, but I bought a 16.5 about 3 weeks ago and all I can say is WOW! I didn't get as good a deal as Sean, mine was $440 delivered from Music Direct. I also use the Hunt brush for dry cleanings. All I can say right now is I never realized analog sounded so d@mn good. It definitely is better than cd. I haven't decided yet about SACD versus analog, but the bottom line is, get the cleaning machine today! 16.5 or 17 I don't know how much a difference it makes, but I DO know that the 16.5 cleans LP's like nobody's business. Highly recommended.

who cleans more than one or two records at a time? clean a record/listen, clean another/listen. if you are doing production buy a production machine, if you are a listener buy a 16.5 do it manually and be happy. take the other 1k and invest in a cartridge or some vinyl or a set of blow up dolls.