Record Cleaners / RCMs

Even brand new records benefit from a good cleaning and will sound better. There are those, in fact, who will argue that a brand new record should absolutely be cleaned first before playing to prevent damage. And by cleaning, I mean wet cleaning/vacuuming. Using any cleaning method that deposits a liquid on the record and does not remove most or all of that liquid with a vacuum is not something that makes much sense.

The Linn/Rega suggestion is absolute lunacy. Think about it. Cleaning the record with the stylus? The stylus, while it is collecting that crap is literally grinding it through the grooves.

You do not need to spend huge amounts of money to get quality record cleaning. A DIY or KAB EV1 with quality fluids and the right approach/technique will equal, if not surpass all of the RCM's short of the Monks and Loricraft which offer a technically superior, more concentrated vac of the record.

In my opinion, records do not need to be "scrubbed". You need to get the proper solvents/fluids deep into the groove to suspend what's there so it can be vacuumed away. "Scrubbing" is probably detrimental in the same way that using a stylus to "clean" your records is.

All that being said, if your records are super clean and you're not planning on buying much in the way of used, or even, new records, you may feel you can get away without an RCM. If you have any kind of committment to buying much vinyl, though, I consider some kind of cleaner to be absolutely essential.

Calgarian: My thoughts are that you just may not have noticed this before. When doing your final vacuum on the machine, just make sure to turn it off, leaving the record on the Nitty Gritty until the vacuum has completely (or almost completely) cycled off. I think you will find that this will completely take off all moisture and any possible "debris" in the moisture along the vac slot, resulting in a clean record.

The KAB traps all the fluid. As such, it can be used with a wet or dry vac and I use it with a Filter Queen dry vac. KAB does not recommend its use with very high powered shop vacs; your central vac would be fine with it.

As to fluid usage, it will probably depend on what system and brushes you are using and perhaps what fluid you are using. I have a scrap turntable (arm ripped off, motor still functioning) beside my KAB for applying the fluid. I use the RRL fluids. Using carbon fibre brushes, you need to get enough fluid on the record simply to have the fluid pooling in front of the brush. Not very much and having the fluid puddling all over the record will not get you a cleaner record than using a minimal amount. I use a pipette/eye dropper to apply the fluid to the record before brushing, about 7-8 decent sized drops from inner to outer edge. $70 Cnd. worth of RRL (Super Deep and SVW) will clean approximately 250-300 records using this method.

The KAB with your central vac will give you both better suction/lift and on top of that much quieter operation. The Nitty Gritty will be deafening compared to the KAB/C-vac combo. On top of that, if you are cleaning a lot of records at once, the Nitty Gritty has a reputation for being prone to overheating. I would be surprised if Kevin at KAB who sells both products wouldn't advise you to buy the KAB under the circumstances. The one drawback with either, as I've pointed out, is applying fluid. With either one it's a pain and you'll be best, as I've said to source a junk turntable for this.

I would talk to Kevin at KAB and see what his advice would be.