Vinyl Junkies …

Kraftwerk reissues next month - have a few of them on order:

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/kraftwerk-coloured-vinyl-reissues/

Does anyone know if ultrasonic record cleaners are any good? Or the best good value vacuum or DIY options? Thanks.

They've been getting discussed in the Audiophile thread. I have a Project vacuum because it's cheap and I've had it replaced twice under guarantee, they have been generous in that respect.

I don't think I would want ultrasonic only and it's difficult to get ultrasonic that handles 7", in my experience they are the dirtiest.

I'm happy with the job the vacuum does. Reduction in static helps records stay a bit cleaner. It's an added expense, time consuming and noisy but for me worth it.

Cheapest way is the soap on a finger method... You'll need a sink, a clean tea towel, some old fashioned soap (no perfumes etc, just basic soap)... Wet record and soap with tepid water (try and avoid the labels), get some suds going on the soap and then follow the grooves around the record with your wet, soapy finger... Rinse under a strong cold tap, repeat until you've got all the gunk out then dry as much as you can with your tea towel and place in a dish rack to dry completely... I've done hundreds of 45s like this, works a treat, the difference in appearance and sound quality can be incredible...

Now have had access to large ultrasonic baths and have used them on records laid flat. The labels peel off and the records come out cleaner, all the mould and dirt are gone. This is not a cheap ultrasonic bath, and I would not have had access to it normally. The records I cleaned came from boot sales and were mouldy. Don't have an amazing needle nor and amazing deck so no idea if it makes that much difference.

The specific record ones I have seen only do a certain area of the record and then you turn the record to a new area, then that gets cleaned. Not sure the ultrasonic baths are anything special such as multiple harmonic transducers.

If I needed to clean records now, I'd use car shampoo as there is little abrasive material in there and just to break the surface tension of the water, and a carbon fiber brush to clean the worn record material from the groves.

Never thought about the audiophile thread as I don't consider myself one. I'll give it a look, Ta.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

My records are mainly from boot sales and auctions so their condition is variable to say the least.

I'm considering something like this http://audiorevita.pl/ or the ali equivalent.

If you're hoping to transform a lot of variable condition records into great sounding records I think you might be disappointed by any cleaning method. One thing I've found is cleaning records can make you more sensitive to pressing faults and mechanical damage, so you end up wanting better quality records.

Another reason not to buy 12s! 😂

My mate Nick at Intoxica has one of those big turntable things with the fluid and the hoover attachment, they do a great job but a bit spenny... Just run it through as many times as it takes...

In fact, I remember when my mate Joss was doing Saturdays there for a while, Nick would get him on the cleaner all day... Oh, how we laughed about it in the pub later... He'd whine like a little bitch, we'd be under the table laughing our arses off... #csb

I don't think that's my style to be honest, I have a serendipitous approach to collecting vinyl. I'm just after a quick way to make records half decent from people eating their breakfast off them.

Funny I did pick up a couple of Specials 7s a few weeks ago. First 7 inches I've bought in years, you just have to get up and down so often to flip them over.

Understandable, I'm trying to tame my buying anyway so not buying from fairs and the like has been part of that. Something like the project for a few hundred or the type you linked for similar money will speed up the process. It can get expensive keeping in record cleaning fluid though, especially the big ultrasonic baths. The other problem with ultrasonic is drying, I like the vacuum drying the record so it's ready to go back in the sleeve.

That's half the fun! LPs can be great, obvs, but I wanna hear banger after banger... That said, I haven't had a good 45 session in absolutely ages, gotta change that...

That was meant for @Airhead BTW...

I'm considering something like this http://audiorevita.pl/ or the ali equivalent.

Is that really less hassle than the @>>>>>> method (I do it with washing up liquid and a soft brush) ? You have to measure and dilute the cleaning solution first, deal with the buzzing noise, still need a drying rack afterwards...

I've got a few thousand records to get through though so I think I'd rather just have something cleaning in the background and be able to spend more time listening and mixing. I'd kind of imagined the ultrasonic bubbles 'really getting in there' but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I can't tell you anything about the ultrasonic process but like you I had a lot of records to clean so it started to make sense. It's not really a background process, although the more you pay the more automated and silenced it gets. It's noisy and you need a workstation where you can have it all going on. All those wet records have to drip somewhere and even the vacuum gets wet where water inevitably spills off the disk. So you got fluid bottles, towels, racks, brushes you need good light to see what you are doing, it's a crazy rabbit hole.

I don't regret it. It does help to enjoy them, they can't always be saved from a hard life but it's good with a lot of debris.

Does anyone know what "Item arrives in packaging that reveals what's inside. To hide it, choose Ship in Amazon packaging at checkout." means for vinyl bought on Amazon?

I did check the "ship in amazon packaging" box with three seperate vinyl orders lately.
All three LPs came in a cardboard thingee like you see below. It didn't reveal anything; well it was just blank cardboard all around and a tiny sticker which said what record was actually inside.
Those three carboard things were all inside other packaging:

• one just inside a white plastic bag
  
• second inside a padded paper evelope
  
• third in a massive fucking cardboard box with excessive cushioning
  
  

All three records were brand new and plastic wrapped and absolutely mint.

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Take it you got rid of these ages ago?

If you have a look at the Steve Hoffmann Forum there are threads full of this kind of thing. Amazon clearly don't have a proper policy in place. I've only bought 1 or 2 imports from Amazon, weird really I never look even for CD prices. Must make a note to start looking.

Would you not use Discogs for something like this?

Frankly I don't care what they wrap the corrugated fiberboard thing in, as long as they use one of these.

I like to get stuff from Discogs or local classifieds etc. but some albums are just really cheap on amazon - like a new, limited edition Kind of Blue in blue vinyl for €16,- including shipping..

Haha, think I jinxed it now.. another album I ordered came without the corrugated thing now (just in a plastic bag, with no padding whatsoever), surprisingly it still looks very good, just one corner is a little bumped.
It's a 2LP gatefold one, maybe they don't have corrugated wraps that fit those? Or it's just bad luck..

From what I've heard it's a lottery. However they are very good at accepting returns until you reach a fairly high number and then they stop accepting your orders. At least that's what I've seen recorded.

Is it the Columbia version in Blue? I got hold of the MoFi version a couple of years ago and it's great. Such a good album though, even the cd's are worth having.

Yea, lottery can be frustrating - yet I also had a lot of faff with classifieds, Discogs is often expensive and there's this shit with the shipping rules that quite a few people can't wrap their head around apparently - and local record shops are just a pain these days because of Covid (walked by one earlier today and there were three people already waiting outside in the cold because there's a maximum of two customers allowed inside these days).

Oh and yea it's the blue marbled version, this one.
Fucking love that album.