Most of the work in cleaning records is in getting them out, moving them around, and putting them back away again. The actual cleaning is only a part of the process. And yet most guys for some reason focus in on this one thing and feel it is worth spending thousands to have this one box that all it does is what you can do yourself with a brush for $3.
The thing about cleaning records, it is all about getting every last trace off. So you use a machine, the last thing it does is wipe the record with the same brush that has been used on a hundred records. In other words it smears the same crud around, only thinner, less of it. Unless you wash and rinse the vacuum tube between records, which no one ever does.
So if you are going to buy a machine you either pay twice what you're talking for one that does it right, or you do without, or you do like me and only use something like the VPI to suck off the final rinse. Because by then the records are all pristine, so the vacuum bristles stay pristine. No one does this, I doubt you will either. I just like to put things out there because I find people do pick up on these things.
Use this approach, buy the Walker Enzyme, maybe a cheap used VPI, and have money left over for something that will make a much greater difference, a good phono stage like the Decware ZP3. Recommending phono stages just got a whole lot easier because the best one under $10k the Herron at only $3k, they are all gone. Pretty sure. You might get Keith to sell you the last one. But it is probably gone. He was down to 2 last week. Anyway, the ZP3 is what you want. You can get it and all your cleaning goop easily under $3k. With maybe money left over for a nice high output Soundsmith cartridge. Now you are talking killer combo, all for only about $3k.
