I'll readily admit, I was always a bit of a lazy record cleaner. Oh, I had my trusty VPI 16.5 like everyone else, I always gave my record a swipe with a carbon fiber brush before play, and good god I always kept my stylus clean. Yet after a time, after listening to different cleaning fluids, all that, I got bored with it overall. I'd stack up records to clean and never get to it, there was always something better to do. I'd only clean if something I loved started to show signs of pops or ticks.
So I listened to everyone I trusted, read reviews, heaven help me I even looked at forums, and decided to settle on the KL Audio cleaner. It's the ultrasonic one, the other one, as opposed to the Audio Desk. The Audio Desk certainly seems to get the press, and the glowing recommendations, which come to find out is all ad dollars driven. The first generation were junk, plain and simple. Broke and couldn't be repaired. I was told it was akin to a plastic toy. There is a new and improved version out, already. Hmm. Hence my move to the KL, built like a tank, only requires distilled water unlike the Audio Desk which uses proprietary cleaning fluids, meaning more money. I've mentioned the KL Audio before, and I'll probably keep talking about it. My friends and customers who've been over to use it can't say enough about it - all good, by the way. The ultrasonic doesn't reinfect the record like vacuum type cleaners do. No matter how much you try and separate scrub brush, wet brush, dry brush and wet wand/dry wand, the vacuum cleaners like VPI and Okki Nokki and Nitty Gritty, etc. always infect the moving parts, and always leave a sound of the particular cleaning fluid your using. The first time you hear a record cleaned ultrasonically, you'll be amazed at the loss of smear that comes using other cleaners. It's a wonder. And come to find out, you can repeatedly clean a record ultrasonically and will continue to improve. Now one thing I will recommend is to keep your vacuum type cleaner to use as a first step, especially for those garage sale types or a certain retailer in St Louis who swipes with the famous dirty cloth. Then use the KL Audio and hear what your record was supposed to sound like. Even for new straight out of the shrink. All those stamper release compounds, those tiny bits of paper sleeve, a host of things in there that your grandmother always warned you about, they need to be removed before you play that new record. My grandmother always said you never one another person's underwear. Im sure she'd say the same about uncleaned vinyl.
Not cheap, at $4000, yet neither is your record collection. I've been spending much of this winter cleaning. Me, cleaning records. Several of my friends asked who I was, they never heard of me cleaning so many records in a short amount of time. With the KL I'm addicted. I've got my new cleaning station set up and it's been fun. I'm sure many of you agree that record cleaning was really never any fun. Get the KL and let it change your mind, and your collection, maybe even make your grandmother happy.
So I listened to everyone I trusted, read reviews, heaven help me I even looked at forums, and decided to settle on the KL Audio cleaner. It's the ultrasonic one, the other one, as opposed to the Audio Desk. The Audio Desk certainly seems to get the press, and the glowing recommendations, which come to find out is all ad dollars driven. The first generation were junk, plain and simple. Broke and couldn't be repaired. I was told it was akin to a plastic toy. There is a new and improved version out, already. Hmm. Hence my move to the KL, built like a tank, only requires distilled water unlike the Audio Desk which uses proprietary cleaning fluids, meaning more money. I've mentioned the KL Audio before, and I'll probably keep talking about it. My friends and customers who've been over to use it can't say enough about it - all good, by the way. The ultrasonic doesn't reinfect the record like vacuum type cleaners do. No matter how much you try and separate scrub brush, wet brush, dry brush and wet wand/dry wand, the vacuum cleaners like VPI and Okki Nokki and Nitty Gritty, etc. always infect the moving parts, and always leave a sound of the particular cleaning fluid your using. The first time you hear a record cleaned ultrasonically, you'll be amazed at the loss of smear that comes using other cleaners. It's a wonder. And come to find out, you can repeatedly clean a record ultrasonically and will continue to improve. Now one thing I will recommend is to keep your vacuum type cleaner to use as a first step, especially for those garage sale types or a certain retailer in St Louis who swipes with the famous dirty cloth. Then use the KL Audio and hear what your record was supposed to sound like. Even for new straight out of the shrink. All those stamper release compounds, those tiny bits of paper sleeve, a host of things in there that your grandmother always warned you about, they need to be removed before you play that new record. My grandmother always said you never one another person's underwear. Im sure she'd say the same about uncleaned vinyl.
Not cheap, at $4000, yet neither is your record collection. I've been spending much of this winter cleaning. Me, cleaning records. Several of my friends asked who I was, they never heard of me cleaning so many records in a short amount of time. With the KL I'm addicted. I've got my new cleaning station set up and it's been fun. I'm sure many of you agree that record cleaning was really never any fun. Get the KL and let it change your mind, and your collection, maybe even make your grandmother happy.
my new cleaning station. And just sleeves - no brushes, bottles of fluids, rags in sight. Requires about half a jug of 99cent distilled water. Water change depending on load and usage. A simply remarkable product.
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