Record Cleaning Machine Reviews

During my initial two years of record collecting, my dumb self rarely bothered to clean my records, and as an 8-year-old, I didn’t think grabbing records by the grooves it affected anything. Three years into the hobby, I began, with a MoFi brush and ONE solution, obsessively hand cleaning my LPs (as well as handling them properly). However, I never owned a vacuum record cleaning machine (RCM) until AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer gifted me one this summer and requested this review.

In this short video AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer provides a short history of Allsop's Orbitrac record cleaning device.

AnalogPlanet.com editor Michael Fremer describes the features of, and shows you how to use Pro-Ject's recently updated VC-S wet vacuum record cleaning machine. The usual occasional hilarity ensues. Though in the video it appears that more than 2 revolutions are required to dry a record, 2 will do it for most records.

If you were preparing to archive your LPs to CD-R, what would you do first? Right. You'd scrub your records and whip your turntable into shape—maybe even upgrade your cartridge and/or phono section. In March The New York Times's "Circuits" section published "Janis and Jimi, Come Back from the Attic," an article about digitizing and archiving vinyl that I don't think even mentioned the word "turntable." Obviously, analog is news unfit to print.

Cleanervinyl.com's cavitation-based record cleaning system consists of the One single LP powered cleaning device ($189), the Pro ($389), which allows you to simultaneously clean up to a dozen records, and the $129 Dry, fan-based record dryer. You also need to get a PS-30A Ultrasonic Cleaner, which sells on EBay for around $150 or $169 through Cleanervinyl.com.

If there’s a better looking record cleaning machine than Pristine Vinyl’s ViVac RCS, I’ve not seen it.