best value - record cleaning machine

DIY if you can or KAB EV-1 if you already have a decent vacuum. I think you need a junk turntable for application of fluids with the KAB for best results but we're talking free or next to nothing for that.

You can also integrate steaming into the cleaning process as well for next to nothing after you get going. In the end, as long as you can vacuum the fluid effectively off the record, it's all about technique and quality of fluids.

In that sense there really can be no argument that DIY or the KAB are the best value, although automation will save you some time (but not necessarily give you a cleaner record) and, in the case of the Loricraft or Monks give you a bit more peace and quiet.

Frankly, based on my experience, I fail to see how the Loricraft or Monks can be considered a "high value" RCM but maybe I'm just a cheapskate. I paid $160 for a KAB EV1 3 years ago and have cleaned 2,500 records in the past 3 years with it. I doubt very much if I spent the price of a Loricraft to buy those 2,500 records and, although I've gotten rid of a lot of those, I'd say that 1,000 of them, though, remain in, and form the core of my collection. Many of the others were traded to dealers for other new and used vinyl.

I think cleaning technique and fluids have much more to do with obtaining a clean record than the RCM itself. Personally I don't like using stiff brushes or scrubbing records based on some bad experiences doing so; I use only carbon fibre brushes for wet cleaning and only Mo-Fi Super Deep (no SVW-I eliminated it a long time ago and feel it's a waste of money and a very poor final step) and ultrapure water combined with steaming in a 3 step process. I use a KAB EV1 combined with a high quality domestic vac with a junk turntable to apply fluids and steam on. Noisier, certainly than a Monks or a Loricraft, but it does the job, and as a manual unit I can do bi-directional vacuuming with it, something you cannot do with the automatic machines.

I've had records cleaned on a Monks before. Granted, the Monks and Loricraft are more sophisticated in terms of the vacuuming process, but they're also tweakier. I also don't think they clean a record any better; then again, I don't think the RCM actually does much to clean the record. I think that's a function of the fluid interacting and suspending dirt in the grooves so it can be vacuumed away.

You can listen to records while you clean with a Monks or Loricraft but you certainly won't be bringing a Monks out into the listening room everytime you want to clean records unless you want a hernia. Perhaps the Loricraft is lighter and more compact and easier to haul around.

I had a chance to buy an older, beat up Monks for $800 just before I purchased my KAB and didn't bother. It was going to need parts and work to get it going and I just wasn't up to the hassle. I don't regret the decision in the least and have no intentions of ever buying anything beyond the KAB. Yes, the automation might save me some time, but in the end I think Audiofeil makes a valid point about "manual" cleaning ultimately being more effective (and probably time consuming)-the automatic car wash analogy is an appropriate one I think.

As I said, maybe I'm just cheap. I drive a Toyota Camry SE; I'm sure the Lexus 350 is a better car on what is essentially the same platform. But to me the Lexus is not better value and I could afford it if I wanted to spring for it.