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Now that I am mining used records.... Rickie Lee Jones album looked clean and gave it a light wet wipe with the felt brush. Record looked clean. First track sounded good, by the 2nd distortion was creeping in. Wiped bunch of crud off the stylus. I had a spin clean in the Amazon cart but then saw this and some positive reviews in the forums. What do you think? Relatively inexpensive ultrasonic cleaner.

https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Ultras...8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
 
John - been tempted by that for a while.
Heard that you must follow a wet cleaning with a vacuum cycle to get the gunk off before it dries- so you need another cleaner to follow-up.
Also, the really top ultrasonic record cleaners run at 120kHz and claim 40kHz are insufficient but that might just be spreading FUD.
SO - tempted more by a Record Doctor, Pro-ject or VPI vacuum based cleaner. Use that for the basic cleaning. Add a ultrasonic if still not good enough.
Hard to decide.
If you buy it you gotta let us know what you think.
 
Last edited:
FredA said:
John - been tempted by that for a while.
Heard that you must follow a wet cleaning with a vacuum cycle to get the gunk off before it dries- so you need another cleaner to follow-up.
Also, the really top ultrasonic record cleaners run at 120kHz and claim 40kHz are insufficient but that might just be spreading FUD.
SO - tempted more by a Record Doctor, Pro-ject or VPI vacuum based cleaner. Use that for the basic cleaning. Add a ultrasonic if still not good enough.
Hard to decide.
If you buy it you gotta let us know what you think.
Click to expand...
I ordered it. Amazon has generous return policies so there is little risk.

I am just going to try a cleaning solution of distilled water and Triton X100 at first. Then add a drop or two of drops of Dawn if I need more detergent. Then I would do a 2nd pass of just water and X100.
 
Also the best part of this purchase is I can tell my lovely wife I bought her a jewelry cleaner.
 
For vacuum cleaning records, I bought a Squeaky Clean and it works very well. Best price for a vacuum cleaning system for records that I've found. I had bought a Vinyl Vac before, but was not happy with how much of a hassle it was to use.

One of these days, I'm pulling the trigger on that Vevor.
 
Tubes from Ukraine
Got 10 6N2P's from a seller in the Ukraine that I have bought tubes from in the past. My way of supporting Ukrainians. The 6N2P is a Soviet military tube with characteristics equivalent to the 12AX7. Some praise them, some don't. We'll see. Love what was in the package...

IMG_20240309_110548182.jpg
1710005514317.png
 
Phono amp in Hammond Chassis. Sounds incredible. Something magical about MM cartridge driving 12AX7 V1 tube.

IMG_20240310_202200846.jpgIMG_20240310_202206326.jpg
 
Verdict is in on the Vevor 6L US Cleaner

Best purchase I made in a long time! For a test I had a MFSL Alan Parson's I Robot LP I haven't l played in about 20 years. It had a lot of scratches and pops, which surprised me as I thought I took good care of my LP's. I unboxed the cleaner, mixed up some cleaning fluid which consisted of 1 gallon of distilled water and about 2 mil of Triton X-100. Heated the fluid to about 30C, and cleaned for 15 minutes. Dried in the supplied drying rack, put the record on table, dropped the needle and dead quiet. Well almost but the change was stunning. I must have pushed alot of crap in the groove with all those light felt pad LP cleaning I did over the years. I highly recommend this gadget. Downside, its noisy as hell (high pitch squeals), put it in another room and use ear protection if you turn in on in a confined space like a powder room.

Cleaning my new used Rickie Lee Jones album now.
IMG_20240312_195343625.jpg
 
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One thing i noticed is after cleaning there is no static on the LP after playing. I think the minute trace of Triton X-100 has something to do with that. The effect may not last that long but we will see.
 
Just bought a new mat for my VPI mostly due to static.
The pro-ject 1mm thick cork was often statically glued to the backside of an album after play.
The rubbing of the stylus during playback must be sufficient and the cork a good enough insulator.
Pretty amazing hold.
So I predict your lack of static will be temporary.

Got a leather mat - said to be slightly conductive.
Hope to give it a spin tomorrow.
 
jderimig said:
One thing i noticed is after cleaning there is no static on the LP after playing. I think the minute trace of Triton X-100 has something to do with that. The effect may not last that long but we will see.
Click to expand...
One way of making an antistatic surface is to wash it with a weak solution of detergent and let it air-dry (do not wipe!). I am sure you are right regarding the static after cleaning.
 
FredA said:
Just bought a new mat for my VPI mostly due to static.
The pro-ject 1mm thick cork was often statically glued to the backside of an album after play.
The rubbing of the stylus during playback must be sufficient and the cork a good enough insulator.
Pretty amazing hold.
So I predict your lack of static will be temporary.

Got a leather mat - said to be slightly conductive.
Hope to give it a spin tomorrow.
Click to expand...
The conductivity of the mat won't help with the charge on the playing side of the LP. Grounding one plate of a capacitor doesn't discharge it. Perhaps I am totally wrong. Let us know what happens.
 
So your theory is the charge is all on top and is holding onto the mat underneath through the record?

Work hosed my calendar - no listening today.
 
FredA said:
So your theory is the charge is all on top and is holding onto the mat underneath through the record?

Work hosed my calendar - no listening today.
Click to expand...
My physics is rusty but I remember that electrostatic behavior is very un-intuitive.
 
Already thinking about mods to my cheapo US cleaner.

* The records turns too fast (2 rpm). If there is flow on the surface that tends to work against the cavitation. Its a dc motor so maybe I'll try a 5v wall wort or get a cheapo chopper motor controller. Or use an arduino to on off the rotation. US cleaning is most effective if the parts are not moving.
* Do try to clean more than 2 records at the time. Need some space between the planes to let standing waves form.

I think..
 
SAGA on Tonearm Cables
The AT VM540ml cartridge has a highish inductance of 460-550mh depending on the source of the specs. Which means the capacitive loading can matter if its too high. There is nice discussion of this on this website:

https://www.hagtech.com/loading.html

AT recommends total max capacitance load of 200pf.
30 years ago when I got my table the late Bobby Palkovic, Merlin speakers, rewired the cable from tonearm to RCA with Distech Silver cables upon his recommendation. He did kind of a hack job more on that later. I measured the cable with my new capacitance meter and the 1m cable measured over 400pf! This in addition to the tonearm wiring and the miller capacitance of the 12AX7 phono preamp brought the total capacitance to over 550pf. It still sounded ok but a bit bright as you would expect from the paper linked earlier.

So I bought 6ft length cable made from Belden 1505F coax (~20pf/ft) with RCA terminated at each end. Cut it in half and terminated in a male 5-pin DIN connector that the Grace 707 uses.

The hack job. Here is a pic of the kludge that was replaced. Bobby used a female DIN and used what looks like snips from other component leads to mate with the female tone arm connector. It sounded good for 30 years or so but not pleased. Male tonearm DIN connectors are not common, Rega uses them and the Grace is not quite the same pin diameter as the Rega male DIN, but it was close enough. A little pin bending to make is probably ok.

So now I have about ~240pf of load. This will result in a bit of treble rise but probably ok as it compensates my highs hearing loss I probably have. Sounds much better. Better imaging, less shrillness, better balance of lows and highs.

Pic of old hack job...
IMG_20240323_135827672.jpg
 
Static remover - Bargain

OK I know you guys love your Zerostats, its a great gadget, but >$100, We can do better.

So after 5 days of exhaustive testing I happy to say that this device for $7.99 does a superior job. Just remember to mute or turn down the volume of your phono amplification while you are zapping the vinyl. It works fabulously!

Screenshot from 2024-04-02 17-11-41.png
 
Finally got my chassis top plate from SendCutSend for my Sweep tube amplifier build. Time to move from my pine board of death amplifier to something that resembles an actual chassis. Pic of the project, interim process.

IMG_20240425_200328397.jpgIMG_20240425_200426754.jpgIMG_20240425_200527976.jpg
 

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