I compared the Vinyl Cleaner and the VPI with a Delrin vacuum tube. The Delrin tube greatly improved the performance of the VPI with a much quicker and more effective vacuum in one pass. I had purchased it when my Loricraft drove me made taking about 25 minutes to clean one record with the four steps of the Walker Audio vinyl cleaners. I could do these four steps on each side in about seven minutes with better results. I used a USB microscope to view the grooves and what, if anything, was left there.
I used the Audio Desk which took me about one minute to setup and push the button and make sure the record was rotating properly. I then left and listened to music coming back later to inspect the grooves. Both the VPI and the Audio Desk left nothing behind. The Audio Desk was clearly the winner in terms of convenience.
Initially, I cleaned VPI cleaned records listened to them and then cleaned them with the Audio Desk and listened them again. I heard a modest improvement realitive to what I heard after playing new records, cleaning them, and then listened again. I repeatedly did this for a while and concluded it was real although beyond my understanding why. Then I decided to reclean albums that had only been cleaned with the Audio Desk using the VPI. I was glad I tried this as the second cleaning again sounded better???
I gave up on this as it was just too much for me to keep two cleaning machines and to clean everything twice. Since I could see nothing on any record cleaned with either machine, I have no idea why what might explain my findings.
At the last RMAF, I found the KL Audio ultrasonic cleaner. I liked it as it doesn't use a cleaning solution. Only distilled water is used and it has a more powerful ultrasonic source. I haven't done any comparisons but know of one where no substantial difference were noted. I think ultrasonics are here to stay.
