best value - record cleaning machine

"Value" is a relative term. If you spend $500 dollars for a suit from Goodwill, you have likely gotten poor value. Yet the same $500 spent on a new Armani suit is probably a good value.

Likewise, if you only have a few records, a VPI machine is a decent value. However if you have thousands of dollars (or more) invested in a vinyl collection, purchasing a high quality vacuum RCM like a Loricraft is not only a good value, but in my opinion as essential as your cartridge or a tonearm. If you want to get the best sound and preserve those precious LP's, in my experience, a high quality RCM is not a luxury but a necessity.

Clearly there is no one option best for everyone. Otherwise there would be a consensus on technique, equipment and fluids.

I was a long time Nitty Gritty user. Prompted by a major upgrade to my vinyl system, I decided to see if other record cleaners would do the trick better. I compared the VPI, Loricraft and ClearAudio Matrix cleaners. I was hoping that the Nitty Gritty would be as good as the others because...well because I'm cheap. Unfortunately for my wallet, to my subjective ears, the Loricraft was clearly the best. I'm intrigued by steam cleaning but have been too lazy to try. I'm already usingthe 3 step AVIS system and don't want to spend more time cleaning each record!

My only regret is that I didn't buck up and purchase the Loricraft sooner. IMO, a good record cleaning system is as important as any component in the vinyl chain.

My point regarding value on the previous post was simply that if you have a lot of money invested in your records, many of which are extremely expensive to replace (if they can be replaced at all), then spending the money for a good RCM is definitely worth it. I have ~2500 records, including numerous out of print Mosaic box sets and 45 rpm reissues and mono jazz LPs that bring the cost per record to a reasonable level (~$1/record). If you have a small collection, the cost per record rises, possibly to a point of not justifying the cost of the RCM.