Can anyone help identify this LP cleaning machine?


I am in the process of deciding which record cleaning machine to buy but I have a question. Several years ago, I used a machine at a hifi shop in Berkeley that customers could use to clean their albums. It was a heavy-duty commercial type but I do not recall the brand. What made it different from the designs I see for sale at Audio Advisor that use a vacuum "bar" (VPI, NittyGritty, et al), is that after cleaning, for the final drying stage it used a traditional tonearm with a small suction cup tip and a cotton string that would track each groove like a stylus for vacuuming out the cleaning fluid.

The record would spin backwards and you would start at the center of the wet LP and a very light spring tension on the tonearm and the record groove would guide it out while it vacuumed each groove dry.

The records I cleaned on it (they charged $.25 per side) are the quietest in my (modest) collection. Unfortunately, the shop has been gone for many years. Will the "consumer grade" designs work as well?
john_z

Showing 1 response by tonykay

It was a Keith Monks system and the shop was dB Audio on
Shattuck (at Blake). FYI, another Berkeley shop "Music
Lovers" has moved just behind where dB used to be. The address is 2106 (I think) Blake. It's a good shop with
great equipment (and some used stuff). I learned this from the guys at "The Soundwell" on University. who are moving
soon after many years in the same location due to the
recession. Very sad!