I don’t think that being accurate is "trying way too hard." But YMMV.
I guess things have changed a lot in 10 years - because 10 years ago it seems there were lots of misc US machines running at less than 40KHz. I’m not in a position to measure everything, so I need to take most specifications on trust. Guess I’m a little less trusting of everyone selling on EBay. Again, YMMV.
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I purchased the iSonic cs6.2-pro about a week ago. Ten albums at a time with excellent results. Easy to set up. Great customer service. Fair price. This is my first crack at USC and I'm convinced with the results. My clean vinyl is even cleaner. I hear the difference too. Happy with this purchase!
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Sorry I am late to the party but here are some clarifications and some information.
- There is nothing wrong with using tap water for rinsing so long as you do not allow it dry on the record which is why you immediately follow with a DIW rinse. When tap-water dries, the mineral salts that are in solution come out of solution and everyone should be familiar with hard-water scale and how it is not easily removed. Generally, requires an acid with vinegar (acetic acid) and citric acid being commonly used.
- The inexpensive Chinese UT tanks available from Amazon can work. They tend to be 40-kHz, 6L and advertised as 180-W (based on using three 60W transducers). Being kind, the advertised power is optimistic, and this is easily determined by observing how long it takes for the tank (with no heaters) to heat up. In comparison, the Elmasonic P-series are very powerful with real power and their tanks heat up quickly, and for people who do serial cleaning with them, we have to add a pump (& filter) & radiator to keep the tank temperature less than 100F. So, the Elmasonic is going to yield a cleaner record. However, like all things, it's the law of dimensioning returns. The lower power/performance of the inexpensive units can be mitigated by an aggressive preclean step and with use of a touch of nonionic surfactant for a no-rinse UT solution.
- In the USA, the recommended non-ionic surfactant is Tergitol 15-S-9 which for vinyl record cleaning and UT tank cleaning is superior to Tergitol 15-S-7. You can buy Tergitol 15-S-9 here Tergitol 15-S-3 and 15-S-9 Surfactant | TALAS (talasonline.com) and keep the container capped when not in use and stored in a cool dark place, it will last many years. Note that the CMC for Tergitol 15-S-9 is 52-ppm which is about 1/4 Triton X100 (189-ppm) which means very little goes a long way. Using Tergitol 15-S-9, you can prepare a no-rinse UT solution that provides wetting only at 0.0035 to 0.005%.
- Otherwise, while we are talking about UT, how about some cool video's that show what cavitation, and the implosion looks like:
The one challenge with UT cleaning is bath management. Small units like the HG with only 400-ml, its easy (relatively cheap) to refresh every 5-7 records, but its filter, like the DG, is very basic and will not keep the bath clean, so every record after the 1st sees water that is not as clean. The better DIY will use at least a 1-micron filter with the best using a 0.2-micron absolute filter that can keep the bath clean for upwards of 4-weeks before Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) reaches 5-10-ppm. Otherwise with DIY the devil is in the details if you want to get the best you can from what you buy, and the book goes into those details.
Take care,
Neil
PS/Direct link to book is here Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records-3rd Edition - The Vinyl Press., and while at the site, read some of the recent record reviews by Bill Hart, he is exploring the not frequented artists; and Bill is good writer and worth a read.
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