Vinyl Accessories - Skip It or Buy It!

I have not bought anything from a stereo salesman, not since Jafco, 1974.

Compromise is right. The cleanest records I know are the Hot Stampers from Better-Records.com they are cleaned using the Walker Enzyme 4 step method on a very expensive RCM that uses a cleaning wand that continually feeds fresh cleaning thread so all dirt is continually lifted off the record. This eliminates the major problem with all other RCM designs which is that the cleaning brush is always building up crud, ultimately smearing it all over the supposedly clean records.  

Granted the crud we are talking about is not visible. But totally invisible crud does make a difference! My records scrubbed with Disc Doctor looked really clean. Same records after same cleaning process only with Walker Enzyme sound better. Not night and day, but definitely better. Not necessarily more quiet, but more fine detail.  

The downside is the VPI RCM is only used to suck off the final rinses. Because otherwise, crud smear. So a very laborious process, a good 3 min per record, almost all hand labor. 

But, I didn't have to spend $4k on the fancy RCM. Compromise. 

The sweeper is really more for anti-static than dust. People who have them notice a noise improvement that seems to be based more on eliminating static than dust. Mike has one, or something like it, and loves it. 

RCM, people think they're getting a record cleaner when really its just to vacuum off the final rinse of records that have already been cleaned. That's because when you talk about getting records absolutely perfectly clean you simply can't do it with the same brush they were just washed with. These machines should all come with at least three brushes. One to vacuum the wash off, one for the rinse, and another for final rinse.  

The best most cost-effective solution I have found is the Walker Enzyme cleaning system. Don't buy the kit, it costs a fortune. Buy refills of the cleaning solution and the Enzyme. Use your own bottles, brushes and filtered water. I vacuum the final rinse off with my VPI but you could probably get about as good result with a clean folded 100% cotton towel. 

The cheap test for static is a $2 can of Static Guard anti-static spray for laundry. I spray this stuff over my cables and around my turntable. Not a big improvement but worth it for those special records.