Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner--hands down the best one-step cleaner!
I owned the VPI 16.5 RCM for 12 years and cleaned 3000-4000 lps with it. Then i owned the Loricraft PRC-3 for 5 years and cleaned another 1500 or so Lps. The Keith Monks uses the same approach as the Loricraft.
3 months ago i purchased the
Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner and have cleaned about 600 Lps with it.
there are other RCM's....and then there is the Audio Desk Systeme. nothing else is close as a one-step machine.
--it is literally one-step and push one button to start, and it's quiet enough to listen to records in the next room while another record is being cleaned. so you are listening while cleaning which is the very best thing about this unit.....
you happily use the damn thing all the time! who cares about a good RCM which takes you away from listening, is a pain to use, or is too loud to be comfortable to use? not me any more.
--so how good a job of cleaning does it do? you place the lp upright into the machine and press the start button. you can vary the cleaning time based on how long you hold down the start button. first; the well fills up with the cleaning solution. then the Lp starts rotating and the 4 brushes rotate. the machine uses both friction from the brush and
ultrasonic noise to clean the lps. it then blow dries the lp. this is significant. vacuuming Lps adds static to the record surface which attracts dirt. blow drying does not.
the result is a very clean Lp, particularly the deep cleaning of the grooves which lower the noise floor of the Lp. the Loricraft type machines do do a slightly better job of the removal of loose fine particles; however they don't do as good a job in the deep groove cleaning.
maybe in a perfect world you'd have 2 of these machines or a Loricraft machine sitting there to do a final rinse. for ultimate cleaning to perfection it would take 2 machines. but my perspective is get as close as you can with a RCM which allows you to
listen to more music.
i know of some issues with the early production run of these machines. mine was produced in March of this year and i've not had an issue with over 600 Lps so far. think about it......how much music would you have had time to listen to if you had cleaned 600 Lps in the last 8 weeks? with any other RCM the answer would be 'almost none'! with this machine i've listened to more Lps "as i'm cleaning them" than i ever have listened to before when not cleaning them!
it does take a few Lps to get the hang of it....there is a learning curve like anything else. it's not cheap; but it does what it proports to do.
i could not be happier.
