Loricraft Record Cleaning

The Hannl Micro arrived, and my 1st impression was WOW! I had seen the Nitty Gritty and the VPI and they look functional, the Hannl looks like a "high end" turntable. It has a gloss black and brushed aluminum finish and you don't have to hide it in the utility room when you are finished cleaning.

The power cable plugs in the bottom and there is a master power switch next to it. The front panel has the on-off switch with built-in led. There are two front panel push-buttons to spin the aluminum platter left or right. Two more push-buttons control the five speeds of the platter, and led's light at the highest and lowest speed. The final two buttons are for the vacuum motor, and it also has five speeds with the highest and lowest marked with led's.

The full size aluminum platter has a rubber mat to hold the record, and comes with a very heavy record clamp with built-in rubber gasket to prevent fluid from getting to the album label. The platter motor has incredible torque... feels like a winch motor. The platter would rub your fingers raw before you could slow it down.

The vacuum pickup is nicely made with soft velvet strips that contact the record. Two additional replacement sets are included. The vacuum pickup sits above the record on soft rubber rings which allow you to gently push it to the record surface and then it springs back by itself. The vacuum pressure can be set at five different levels and of course the noise of the vacuum pump is at five different levels as well. The noise is much less than the VPI machine and you can easily talk to someone standing next to you. I don't think it is so quiet that I could enjoy listening to music while cleaning a record, but I don't play my music really loud.

Additionally, they supply a record cleaning brush, a small squeeze bottle to apply fluid, a large micro-fiber cloth and a bottle of X2000 cleaning solution. Not sure what the X2000 is and I bought a bottle of L-Art du Son.

Cleaning a record is really fun with this machine. Place a record on the rubber platter mat and use the clamp/record protector to hold it down. Apply some fluid, brush a few revs to the left and a few revs to the right to scrub and loosten the dirt. Then vacuum to the left one or two turns, and to the right one or two turns. Voila... a nice clean record.

I cleaned a few clunkers first to test the results and they were better than I imagined. Next was a good one, the Thelma Houston Sheffield recording. I'm not sure what she is doing these days, but for about 15 minutes she was right there performing.

I'm sure I will give some steam cleaning with the RCM a try one of these days, but for now I'm more than pleased with the results of the machine.

Finally... a tip of the hat to Cytocycle who made me aware of the Hannl machine, also Joe at The Cable Company for friendly service, fast shipping and a great price, and the Audiogon list members... without you I'd still have dirty records!

Thanks for the good comments. I haven't owned a record cleaning machine to this point, but I still feel that it's the way to go... at least for me. Also, I know that if it makes a lot of noise, my wife will throw both of us out and I don't need any more damage to my ears from a "shop vac" solution.

I'm probably much like everyone else here, in that I will end up buying what I want regardless of the cost (Just a few more P&J sandwiches for lunch). Maybe there is a used machine out there, maybe not. I'll see what turns up.

Again, thanks for the responses... they all help.

Paul
pkubica@digital.net

I appreciate the info, especially on the Clearaudio. It also looks like a very good machine.

For those who are using it... is there any problem transferring crud from one record to another. It would seem like they have some type of "lips" that must touch the surface of the record and as a result, must touch the dirty solution that's on the record surface. Is it a constant cleaning chore? How well does all this work on the lower end "Smart Matrix"?

It would seem that the thread keeps the loricraft head out of the dirty solution... or is there a cleaning issue as well.

Crem1: Thanks for your input on Steam Cleaning. It may be a good "In addition" to a RCM. The problem for me is that I'm an engineer, and run a production company. All day long, everything is a process. When I finally get home, and on the weekends, I'm not looking for another (process) job. I want to relax and listen to some good music. Cleaning the record is necessary, and I don't want to make it an activity unto itself, or a search for the "Holy Grail". I want to do the best I can with the least mess, fuss and noise.

Rfogel8: My condolences on the forced-air furnace issue. I live in Florida on the ocean... no furnace issues and with our humidity, no blue-arc's coming off my fingers as I grab a doorknob.

Cytocycle: I'll also take a look at the Hannl RCM.

Thanks to all!
Paul

Thanks to everyone for the good dialog on record cleaning machines. I went through the info carefully and checked all the machines again. Cytocycle offered a tidbit on the Hannyl RCM, a machine that I hadn't heard of before. Their machines look very good.

They clean much like a VPI, but have a much quieter vacuum motor. They also have grounded the pickup arm to help eliminate static. They are also very nice looking machines and fall into a reasonable price range (Hannyl Micro is under $1400.).

One of their dealers is The Cable Company and they seem like a good group to work with. I'll order one tomorrow and should have it in a about two weeks. I still have to pick out a good cleaning solution, brushes and of course some new clean sleeves. I can't wait to give my old Sheffields a cleaning.

Paul

Yioryos: I agree with you completely... the units look really good and I'm sure will do the job. Like you, I have a small collection of records, probably less than 500 titles, but at least half of them are really good and worth the effort. I have mostly all the old Sheffield direct to disc, and MFD's half speed masters. I think cleaned properly they will sound stunning. I ordered the Hannl machine, L’Art du Son cleaning fluid and several hundred new clean sleeves. I'll know more in a week or two.
Paul

Dgad... congrats on getting the Hannl RCM. I have mine a few weeks now, and it's hard to imagine being without it. The x-2000 fluid that came with it is OK, but the L'Art du Son does a much better job. Make sure you find some really pure water to mix with it. I found some reagent grade water and it makes the records shine after cleaning. I also bought new inner sleeves for the freshly cleaned records.

I just got 300-400 used records from friends as a birthday gift, so I've been busy cleaning them and cataloging them in Music Collector. Lots of good hours of music ahead.

Paul

Dgad,

It's a commercial program at www.collectorz.com. I have the Movie Collector Pro and also the Music Collector Pro. The Music Collector Pro is of course oriented toward CD's, but it still does a great job on records. You enter the name of the album and it will search several locations on the internet for the album data. Most time it finds the equivalent CD, but that's OK. On CD's you can even scan the bar code, or put the CD into your computer drive and it will read the info directly.

It then imports the album cover, track info, etc into its' data base. You can then manually edit anything. Then like a good data base, you can search on any field.

The software comes from the Netherlands and I've been using it for 4-5 years. The probably have a free trial version that you could download. Give it a try.

Paul