"Cleaning" Vinyl Makes It Worse Not Better!

Look at all these comments and go to the sites recommended for more in depth discussion about cleaners and such. I was where you are now: Trying the manual spay and wipe cleaner something like GrooveWasher. It was leaving gunk that required me to clean the stylus several times during play - and causing distortion. Not good. As others note, maybe not following instructions and using something like a Spin Clean with a few drops of surfactant in distilled water to do a final rinse might help immensely. But talk about labor intensive. It gets old quickly.

I got fed up to the point of building my own vacuum record cleaning machine similar to the guy below for about $250 and have called it a day. I would love to have something "real" like an ultrasonic Degritter but I don’t play vinyl enough to justify the expense of one. I think about how many CDs I could buy for the price of one, or an "end game" DAC.

If I had to do it over again, I’d probably just buy a Record Doctor VI because by the time I bought all the tools needed, bottles, and such, I was very close to the price of one. And that automatic turntable thing I use is no longer available on Amazon. Pity. It helps a bunch.

Note that while it does have fanboys, the Humminguru is underpowered with those wall wart power supplies and simply does not produce cavitation bubbles to do the cleaning like the far more expensive Degritter does. That doesn’t mean it can’t help, but your expectations might have to be tempered a bit or do two or three passes to get decent results. There are many videos where this is discussed.

While just a guess, I think vacuum cleaning done right can get you about 80% of the way to Degritter sound quality. Of course if you are going to get into vinyl heavily as your primary source and you have the funds, a Degritter sounds like the way to go. Sure would save you a heck of a lot of time. Time you could use for more listening and less cleaning.

Fortunately, I’ve found I can clean my records once in the humid summer, put them into good quality sleeves and then merely Zerostat them and use a carbon fiber brush prior to playing for many plays before they need cleaning again. Static electricity sucks - literally.

https://youtu.be/U1Au-WFeWQ8?t=2

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGfmZ6-x-Fk&pp=ygUQY2xlYW5pbmcgcmVjb3Jkcw%3D%3D

@impaler you want to get that junk off the record. The mold release agent residue can increase surface noise and mask some detail. I generally clean new records before playing them.

@vitussl101 maybe so. But I’m more than happy with the results I get from my homemade record vacuum machine. It is head and shoulders above the old Discwasher we used in the 1970s. No, it isn’t as convenient for one off use like a Degritter or the $6000 Clear Audio Double Matrix or whatever you said, but as I stated, I only have about 250 vinyl records and don’t buy new ones or play them like I used to. When records were about $20 a pop, I became more selective. When they became $30, I cut my buying in half. When they became $40, I stopped completely. I’m done.

I can’t see the sense in blowing $6000 on something for just 250 records.

I could buy about 500 CDs for that amount and not have to waste any time cleaning. Or I could pay for Tidal for about 40 years, assuming I live to be 106.

Alternatively, if I really, really, really was anal about it, I could box up the top 100 of them and send them off to be professionally cleaned and returned to me.

Ultrasonic cleaning of records is something Audio Advice or other bricks and mortar places should think about getting into. As a service, say charging $2 a record, it would also allow them to sell associated audio equipment like turntables, phono stages, and cartridges.

The thing is, if people are having to deep clean their records often then they are doing something wrong either in handling or in storage. Once I clean a record with my vacuum system, I generally don’t have to do it again for a very long time. Glad of that.

If a Degritter was $500 I’d buy one in a heartbeat just for fun. But not at $4000. I’d have to own at least 2000 records to justify it.