I may never get to own one of these due to the price, but if I could I would say that it may the best upgrade to any analog system. I had the opportunity recently to have a couple of records cleaned on one. The two Lp's I had cleaned are one of many copies I have purchased thru the years in search of a good clean copy. The title is the 2 disk set "Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall". I took one of my copies over in hopes that I would get back that sought after clean copy. However I will preface my comments about the Audio Desk with the cold hard fact that once a record reaches a level of surface noise and contamination, nothing can make it new again. However once the Audio Desk completed it's 8 minute process, the improvements were immediately evident. First thing to take notice of, absolutely the cleanest and shiniest black vinyl I think I have ever seen. The LP's looked better than new under light. But the real test is listening. As I have listened to the title many many times from my first copy back in the 70's and never on LP, CD or Imported CD have I heard the detail of the recording. On disk #1 the cleanest of the two the LP was much cleaner than I have been able to obtain on my VPI 16.5 using Walker 4 Step, Mobile Fidelity Enzime, L'Art Du son, and various other solutions. My guess is the Audio Desk cleaned an additional 50-70% of the surface noise from the album. The depth of information in the Annie Haslam's Vocals, the clarity of the Bass that I had written off as muddled recording failure was now revealing the individual notes each taking their own space in the music field. The orchestra was fully present and not crowded together as before. Now on to disk 2, the disappointment of permanantly damaged grooves was inescapable. However the music that came thru had much more information to re-write the recall of this recording burned in my memory from previous listening sessions. On Scherazade with the verbal introduction to the song, I heard instruments and voices in nthe back ground that I had never noticed before. Little plucks of strings and puffs on brass as the orchestra was making sure they were ready to perform. I will say that an additional cleaning of 20-30 percent of this album was still obvious but to my disappointment, the Audio Desk is not a miracle worker, but a pretty damn good magician. I think 3800.00 is a lot of money for just about anything these days, but is it worth the 3800.00? Yes if you value and love your record collection. I have an LP12 with many upgrades and Lyra Kleos Cartridge. This record cleaner is just 800.00 more than the cartridge and when I put the two in perspective they both can bring a much higher level of performance to your turntable. Unfortunatly you need both and I sadley can only afford one. The financial curse of audiophilia continues....
I've got my eyes set on one too - have had the pleasure of neighboring with the folks that import the machine to the US for the past 2 or 3 shows in Vegas - They needed Records to clean - I was more than happy to loan them mine :-) By far the best cleaning machine I've come across yet.
"Feeling" is good. Feeling can hide a lot. I prefer knowledge about how something works and after a while I know why something is better. I use a different machine but unfortunately I have no "feelings" when I use it. :-)
This is the kind of machine it would be nice to do a trial with. I saw it working once and wasn't impressed especially since part of this particular unit, a pad as I recall, kept falling off. If it normally works well and simplifies the cleaning process it may well be worth the money. $3800 is a pretty big leap of faith to try it out though.
Careful guys, There has been a great deal of failure rate with the Audio desk vinyl cleaner. Check the other thread on this on audiogon and also audioaficondo.
I am waiting until the defects are taken care of. Also, the owner of Audiodesk doesn't answer any emails, bad business sense to me.
Have you considered buying a $75 home ultrasonic dental cleaner? That's what I plan to do because i was going to get one for my teeth anyhow. I will let you know how it works on LP's.
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