This doesn’t address the original poster’s inquiry as much as it does the rationale for spending the money on a service like PVF rather than buying one’s own machine, cheap, mid-priced, or a high end model.
I’m not personally endorsing PVF, however, as I haven’t used them yet. I’m just sharing some feedback I’ve heard about them, and giving my rationale for personally using a service such as theirs, which may be relevant to how some other people here would analyze the matter. So here goes:
Over on the one of the Vandersteen forums there was a long-running discussion over the past year or two as I recall, about PVF’s services and outcomes. The positive feedback re. the service was universally positive there IIRC. The Hoffman Forums (crazy as they can get), could also be a place to search for feedback on cleaning services, PVF or other; and if the feedback there is similar to elsewhere, well, you have convergent validity at work.
Obviously PVF is not cheap, but we’re audiophiles, so most of us simply ask ourselves, "Is it worth it for my circumstances?" In my case, I predict it will be for me; though I could afford a high end U/S machine, I plan to try PVF out for these reasons:
1) I don’t have an enormous collection of LPS and I maintain my them well and don’t generally buy used ones nowadays, so the service, even in the long run, many not cost so much more than buying a high-end machine, which I would otherwise buy because I want the most convenient, effective result.
2) Even high-end cleaning machines can malfunction or break down, which usually means it becomes an unsolved chronic problem for me, given time and focus constraints on my part; and I’ve had some back luck with new and used gear in recent years, and REALLY don’t want to build or risk in that additional potential hassle. Others’ valuation on this point (which applies to mechanized approaches and obviously not to something like a Discwasher) obviously may vary. But given my evolving neurosis about dealing with equipment malfunctions, this is a substantive part of my calculus here.
3) Even if the machine has a long-functioning, healthy life of use, I’ll still save time using a service like PVF, and I’m not getting any younger and I already devote too much time to the audio end of this hobby. My collection, though not huge, IS large enough that it would take a while to get through all of the LPS I have.
4) All the feedback I’ve heard/recall, from the Vandersteen forums, here, and elsewhere, suggest that PVF’s results should exceed what I would get from my efforts, even if just by a small margin, and perhaps by a substantially larger one, on most LPs I’d send to them.
5) Evidently LP cleaning makes even ’clean’ LPs sound better due to molding agents or whatchamacallit during the manufacturing process that often remains as residue on new lps. I haven’t cleaned an LP since the 80s or 90s, so it’s hard for me to recall; but this is what I keep hearing.
6) I talked a while back, and for a while, with the owner of the business and he did strike me as a thorough and serious individual, and a bit obsessive re. these matters in a positive manner.
