Record Cleaning Machine Reviews

Loricraft's "String" Based Record Cleaning Machine

Michael Fremer  |  May 1, 2018

This video was shot a few weeks ago. The editing was completed today, the day SME announced it had purchased Garrard and Loricraft. Just a coincidence but a neat one! For those who don't know: Loricraft's Terry O'Sullivan is a Garrard 301/401 idler wheel drive expert who rebuilds and restores them for customers world wide.

O'Sullivan also designed this "string" type vacuum machine. By buying Garrard and Loricraft SME now has an idler wheel drive expert "in-house" and an excellent line of record cleaning machines—something SME has never manufactured or marketed.

Perhaps there will soon be new Garrard idler wheel based turntables manufactured by SME. For now though, there are these record cleaning machines. Even though this one is a few years old and has since been superseded, the video shows how they work and how quiet they are.

COMMENTS
volvic's picture
Submitted by volvic on Tue, 2018-05-01 17:13

No way SME won’t start making and perfect idler technology with their machining know how. Look forward to their first product with Loricraft. Shoutout to Audio Intelligent Vinyl Solutions for their great products. Use them, love em. Don’t own or affiliated with them, just a happy customer.

rshak47's picture
Submitted by rshak47 on Tue, 2018-05-01 18:33

about 12 years, cleaned 1000's of LPs with it and nary a problem. I use Osage brushes to spread the cleaning fluid on my records. It's not a cheap machine, but well worth the money.

eugeneharrington's picture
Submitted by eugeneharrington on Wed, 2018-05-02 01:12

The one thing I can see emerging from this takeover is that Loricraft prices will take a significant hike ... upwards. When the owners of Crystal Cable bought SME, maybe two years ago now, all products across the range were increased by 20%. It is possible that with SME's great machining prowess and engineering 'savvy', they will bring these Loricraft RCMs to a state of the art standard of engineering and performance. While everybody extols the great advances that Ultra Sonic cleaning has brought to vinyl record maintenance, I still would not be without a wet cleaning system. It gets rid of all the 'goo' before the record ever gets near the Klaudio RCM, in my case, keeping the filters reasonably clean for a long period. Thank you for posting this, Michael. Hope to see you in Munich, next week. www.vinyllpcare.com

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Thu, 2018-05-03 13:09
The owners of Crystal Cable are still Edwin and Gabby. The owner of SME purchased a small "interest" in Crystal Cable but not full ownership.
pdlp67's picture
Submitted by pdlp67 on Wed, 2018-05-02 01:42

Michael, thanks for the video. I have owned a Loricraft machine for over 10 years and can thoroughly recommend it.

Does what you say about mould release compound mean there is no benefit cleaning new records?

OldschoolE's picture
Submitted by OldschoolE on Wed, 2018-05-02 07:56

While there is little to no concern about "mold release agent" for new records, there are other contaminates found on new records. First of all, if you have ever seen a record pressing plant, any pressing plant, they are not labs. They are very dirty places that you would not want to let your cleaned records air dry in. (I'm totally against air drying, by the way).
Secondly, new records come in paper inner sleeves that are rather dusty and generally no good for the records in general. So while you may think you could get away with a dusting from a carbon fiber brush or what have you, you still don't know what may be stuck in the grooves. So it is best to play it safe and clean new records as well.
That's my opinion anyway.

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Thu, 2018-05-03 13:10
CDs are pressed in a "clean room". Record are pressed in a "dirty room", so it's a good idea to clean new records too!
anaBlog's picture
Submitted by anaBlog on Wed, 2018-05-02 08:30

My favorite demo so far. In the past, Mr. Fremer has used humor to good effect, but here he adds "cheesecake" to arouse and even a suspenseful 30 second "chase scene" toward the end to keep my heart pounding. There was something about record cleaning too, didn't quite catch it.

OldschoolE's picture
Submitted by OldschoolE on Wed, 2018-05-02 12:46

A real cliffhanger, I even found myself yelling at the screen saying "Michael, its right there behind the bottle"!Thinking I was trying to help somehow. What made it is that it was real and not planned.

PAR's picture
Submitted by PAR on Fri, 2018-05-04 04:19

A very amusing video and a great machine ( I too have a PRC4 and an Audiodesk Pro).

However time to climb into Pedant's Corner and mention that although Keith Monks developed the machine commercially he was not the originator of the idea.

It is usually held that the original machine was designed by Percy Wilson, the then technical editor of " Gramophone" magazine. Monks licensed the invention from him.

Although it is true that Wilson claimed it as his idea and that he had toted the machine around a number of audio shows in the day, there is previous history of the invention which does not involve Wilson as its actual originator but rather as someone who, er, "promoted" himself as such.

Andrew L's picture
Submitted by Andrew L on Thu, 2018-05-10 13:00

It's more of a "thread" based RCM than "string" as you describe it. Have used my PRC3 for 10 problem-free years.

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