Spin Doctor

In my March Spin Doctor column, I gave an overview of my experiences cleaning records over the last 50-plus years and the advances in record cleaning technology over that time. My review of the HumminGuru NOVA ultrasonic record cleaner focused on that increasingly popular approach to record cleaning, using ultrasonic cavitation instead of scrubbing the record with a brush. But if there's one thing I've learned in that half-century of playing around with audio gear, it's that it can be a mistake to embrace a new technology just because of its newness, dismissing what came before as obsolete. The vinyl record itself is a good example of a technology discarded as obsolete, then embraced again by new (and old) generations. You can add vacuum-tube amplifiers, analog tape, and much else in our hobby to that list.

The oldest of those two record-cleaning technologies is hardly obsolete. Most of the machines still cleaning today use the brush-and-vacuum approach. But I'm starting to see a split in the market, the top end dominated by ultrasonic cleaners. Vacuum machines are mostly, though not exclusively, considerably lower in price, usually below $1000. Ultrasonic cleaning is clearly the flavor du jour, but something has been bugging me about ultrasonic cleaning from the start.

Cavitation cleaning has an amazing ability to scrub out deeply embedded groove contamination—ultrasonics are usually better at this than scrubbers—it's the differences in how these two types of machines dry the cleaned record that leave me scratching my head a bit.

With a cavitation cleaner, contaminants get knocked off the record by the cavitation microbursts, then dispersed in the water surrounding the record. When the cleaning cycle is complete, you either remove the record and allow it to air dry or leave it to the machine to drain the water before the record is dried with fans blowing air over the record surface.

The problem is that this wet coating is still the original wash water, before it has been passed through filters to strain out the dissolved solids to prepare for the next record. As the water evaporates, any dissolved solids are redeposited right back onto the record surface—where else could they go? This is probably why most cavitation machines use a lot of water—1.2 gallons in the case of the Audio Desk Systeme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner Pro X—giving the dirt a greater volume to disperse into. It's also why, with the HumminGuru and its small—7oz—capacity, I found I had to replace the water after ust a few records. This is why people who dive deep into ultrasonic cleaning often recommend running the record through a second "rinse" cycle using pure water without surfactants. The common thinking is that this will remove surfactant additives left behind after the initial wash. I'm convinced it also helps clean off some of the dirt re-deposited during the initial drying cycle.

With a vacuum-type machine, the evaporation problem doesn't exist. The cleaning fluid isn't reused, and the wet record is vacuum-dried. All the suspended dirt is sucked away with the fluid and discarded when you empty the machine's waste fluid container.

Enter the Loricraft Professional Record Cleaner (PRC) (footnote 1).

The vacuum-style cleaner group sports two basic types. Most are what I call slot vacuum cleaners, which suck fluid off the record surface through a slot, covering the whole playing area at once. This is how VPI, Nitty Gritty, Record Doctor, Pro-Ject, and a host of other machines work. The other type is string style, which have a nozzle that sucks fluid from a small area of the record at a time as it travels across the surface much like a tonearm. The main proponents of this method are Keith Monks and Loricraft, although Keith Monks has eliminated the string on their latest models.

While the machines from these two companies have many similarities, Loricraft thinks of its cleaners as inspired directly by Percy Wilson's original Record Doctor, which I discussed in Spin Doctor #22. Loricraft was founded in 1992 by Terry O'Sullivan, a highly respected builder and restorer of classic Garrard 301, 401, and newly manufactured 501 turntables. Loricraft's PRC bears a striking resemblance to the original Keith Monks machines from the 1970s and '80s, though the Loricraft machines are built to a higher level of fit and finish. Back in the day, Percy Wilson decided that 80rpm was the ideal speed for cleaning, as it was the right amount of time for the vacuum nozzle to sweep across the record surface before the cleaning fluid had a chance to evaporate. O'Sullivan used a Lenco L75 turntable as the foundation for the first Loricraft machines because the L75 offered high torque and a speed adjustment from below 16 to more than 80rpm.

In the 32 years since those first Loricraft PRCs, the machine has gone through several revisions, culminating in the current PRC4i ($4995) and PRC6i ($5995). The "i" denotes the changes made after O'Sullivan sold Loricraft to English turntable and tonearm manufacturer SME in 2018, changes that leverage their legendary high-precision production capabilities. The PRC4i and 6i are very similar; the key difference is the type of vacuum pump used. The PRC6i's pump is a medical-grade device made by a British company called Charles Austen. The main benefit of the Charles Austen pump appears to be that it runs more quietly, making the 6i the quietest record cleaning machine I know of. When the pump is switched on, it purrs like a very contented kitty. It's so quiet that you can listen to records in the same room you're cleaning records in.

Housed in a large box with beautiful real walnut veneer—black ash is also available—the PRC6i looks a bit like a classic turntable but much taller, with a vacuum arm where the tonearm would be. At the end of the vacuum arm, the suction is drawn through a plastic nozzle with a small hole. The added element—and this is key—is the string, which exits the arm just behind the nozzle then gets drawn into the nozzle by the vacuum force. The string creates a tiny gap between the end of the nozzle and the record surface, allowing the waste fluid to get sucked into the nozzle, creating a tiny vortex inside each groove as it dries the record. The waste fluid, along with the string, gets dumped into a glass jar attached to the side of the machine, which you periodically remove and dispose of. Each time you go to dry a new record side, you push the nozzle into a holder mounted on the plinth next to the platter, which pulls through a few millimeters of fresh thread.

To clean a record, you place it on the platter then turn on the platter motor, which spins the record at a dizzying 80rpm. You then scrub the spinning record using the record cleaning fluid and brush of your choice. The machine comes with a bottle of L'Art du Son fluid, a well-known cleaning solution created by a German chemical engineer and crazed vinyl fanatic named Martina Schöner. Schöner has worked closely with O'Sullivan at Loricraft to refine and promote the Garrard 501. With its reversible platter drive motor, you can scrub the record in both directions, which helps (or so it is said, and I believe it) to loosen and lift deeply embedded contaminants. The vacuum arm also works both ways and can be moved over to the other side of the label to dry a backwards-spinning record.

Once the record has been scrubbed, you move the vacuum arm onto the lip of the record, where a motor drives it across the record in about 80 seconds.

There's a myth that says that the string goes down in the groove—but in fact, at 80rpm, the nozzle dries eight to 10 grooves with each rotation. In reality, the string stays above the grooves; its actual job is to give the nozzle tip enough clearance to create a powerful, concentrated vortex, which Loricraft says evacuates each groove more effectively than a slot vacuum, where the suction is spread out over a much larger area.

The L'Art du Son fluid comes as a concentrate, which you dilute with distilled water. Loricraft says the fluid is light-and heat-sensitive—it comes in a dark glass bottle—so you should only mix up batches small enough to use up in a week or two. I found L'Art du Son gave excellent results as an all-purpose record cleaner, dramatically lowering surface noise on dirty records while enhancing both tone-color richness and dynamics.

One great benefit of a machine like the Loricraft is that it's easy to switch between cleaning fluid formulas depending on whether your record is extremely old and dirty, a shellac 78, or a new record that just needs some debris left over from the pressing plant removed.

While L'Art du Son is an excellent one-size-fits-all cleaner, I experimented with a few of the wide array of options available from Audio Intelligent Vinyl Solutions (footnote 2).

I found their enzymatic formulas, like Formula No. 15, especially effective with old records that have never been cleaned before, although this formula should be followed up by a rinsing wash using AIVS Ultra-Pure Water or their One-Step Formula No. 6 cleaner.

Record after record, the results I got from the PRC6i were impressive, combining the lower surface noise that vacuum machines are typically best at achieving with clear improvements in the sounds of the music that I was struck by when I first started using an ultrasonic cleaner. Combine that with its low, purring noise, which won't have you running for ear-plugs like most machines, and what you end up with is a luxurious winner at a fairly luxurious price.

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Footnote 1: Loricraft Audio, Mill Road, Steyning, West Sussex, BN44 3GY, England Tel: +44 (0) 1903 814321. Email: sales@sme.ltd.uk. Web: loricraftaudio.co.uk. US distributor: Rhythm Distribution. Web: rhythmdistribution.com

Footnote 2: Audio Intelligent Vinyl Solutions, Osage Audio Products LLC, PO Box 232, Hallsville, MO 65255. Tel: (573) 696-3551. Web: osageaudio.com. Email: info@audiointelligent.com.