Unfortunately buying this record cleaning machine comes with a longevity life span of 300-1000 records. There’s an almost certainty that after that it will fail on you. Everyone that I know who has bought one has had it fail on them after using it extensively to clean their collection. I’m not talking about early generations either. One person had to return the pro x 3 times for a new model. Luckily he bought it from a reputable dealer and it was still under warranty. They aren’t fixable if something goes wrong. If it’s out of warranty your screwed. As good as it cleans your LP’s the reliability issues that have plagued it from the beginning still remain. At $4500-5000 you would think it would last a lifetime!
First impressions of the Audio Desk Record Cleaner
This is my first US cleaner. I was using a spin clean before - tedious at best.
The $4K price tag was a barrier for a long time but I found a used low mileage one a few weeks ago for sale from Analog Audio (Minneapolis, MN). The owner Paul Blizel was great btw.
I’m systematically going through maybe 400 records using the full 5 min cleaning cycle so 9 mins total per record. I’m a 125 into the task.
Most of my records are new, and quite a few are higher-end pressings.
I had 2 new records with flaws in the pressings, including Wild Flower and all the rest. Track 1 has a visible production flaw - AD made a slightly better but didn’t solve that issue - no surprise there.
Dire Straits On Every Street was full of static-sounds with no visible flaws. I did have my local dealer run it through his AD but I’m sure it was a 1 min clean. It took 2 X 5 min sessions, but it now sounds great. This record was a litmus test for me because the distortion was annoying on every track. Well done AD.
As I listen to the newly cleaned records, I’m astonished by the newfound clarity and blacker backgrounds, even on the high-end pressings like one step and masters from Analogue Productions and MOFI. It’s a significant upgrade.
Maybe I should have bought one sooner.