The following is in part a review that I wrote for the VPI Forum:
The SugarCube works as advertised. That is, it removes ticks, pops and
noise on old and worn records, although not always perfectly. I have
found that badly damaged records can't be saved, but for many situations
it removes the majority of the rice crispies. Very often old noisy
records are transformed and have totally silent backgrounds. Does it
alter sound? I believe so, very slightly, but for me the trade-off is
well worth it. I have cherished records, no longer available, and often
used replacements seem hard to find or in some cases prove to be
ridiculously expensive. My wife finds me gems in used record bins, but
most of the time they are too noisy to be fun to listen to. The
SugarCube is the best solution I have found for listening to many old
records. To illustrate, I have a fabulous Janis Siegel record that is
probably just a bad pressing and is out of print of course. I gave up
trying to find a good copy so bought the CD. Disappointing. Just
sucks. But now through the SugarCube it is like magic, I mean it really
sounds great. I have a fair number of records that are noisy for one
reason or another: Some are just old and have been played a lot, others
are just bad pressings, some are scratched. If they play, the
SugarCube can make them listenable in most cases. In a lot of cases,
they can sound indistinguishable from new records. The device is not
perfect, however, as there are those records that are damaged beyond
salvation, or that are so distorted that they still are un-listenable.
Perhaps they were played to death on an old console, or someone set the
tracking force too low back when that was fashionable, who knows? But
this thing is capable of salvaging a lot of vinyl.
Notes on
setup. The SugarCube can be set up in a variety of ways, I put mine in a
tape loop on my line stage pre-amp because I have two turntables, a
phono preamp, and a step up transformer to switch back and forth between
moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. To capture all of that
without complication, in my situation the tape loop worked best. For
many it could be installed in series between the phono stage and the
line stage. Or if you have an integrated with a built in phono stage
use a tape loop. Also, even though the SugarCube does not seem to
interfere with the music, if the record being played doesn't need it, I
like to leave the whole deal completely out of the circuit, which is
another argument in favor of using a tape loop if you have one. Finally
a word on sensitivity. It is basically not sensitive at all. Set the
control at about mid-point and that works for everything. Very easy to
use.
Honestly, if you have a lot of records there are bound to
be some dogs and cats in the mix. Music Direct offers their standard 60
day return privilege. Only you can decide if the retrieval of lost
music in your collection is worth it to you or not. The only downside
to this thing is the $2,000.00 entry fee (oh and don't forget you will
need two more sets of cables too). For me it is a no-brainer.
