Wilson Vortex Cleaning arm for VPI clean machines


Has anyone had problems with these? I bought one several weeks ago and was careful (as always) to set it up exactly as stated in the instructions and had problems the whole time. In fact, I am sending it back.

I believe the it actually scratched my records with a needle-burn type scratch at the same spot on several records. Back to regular VPI wands.
macdadtexas
I did return mine as well. It definitely caused a bit of damage to some records, sadly. I did take time to set it up, carefully, several times, but it seemed to have a nick in the tube that got build up in it, even after being cleaned with steam and wiped with a dust free cloth. Back to the VPI tubes, with much better results.
It's definately worth the time (and frustration) to set it up properly. You do need a few throw away lp's (I have too many) but once you dial it in, it's an awesome improvement.
Thanks yes, don't know what I was thinking, I meant the Walker. K, sounds like it's not a slam dunk improvement and I am not the only one having it, thanks for the responses.
I returned mine. I felt the same as you. It is doing more damage than good. For about the same money I returned and bought at DedicatedAudio.com the walker tube and got 3 VPI elbows and tubes one for each of the steps in the walker prelude system. That eliminates the cross contanimation of fluids I use one for step 1&2 and one each fro 3 & 4. That seems like the best solution to what may note even be an issue with cross contanimation. As fars at the cork isse I use a LP12 felt mat and adjusted the arm accordingly.
Some have had good luck as Rushton indicates and maybe it is better following of instructions or differences in VPI machines as they have made some changes thru then years.
Hi Macdadtexas, assuming you mean the *Walker* Vortex wand, there has been a fairly lengthy set of reports on it in another thread, with some mixed results. Several people report using it with good results (I'm one) and a couple report using it and not having good success. A friend of mine told me he'd experienced something that sounds similar to what you've reported. He found that his issue came from continuing to spin the VPI past a single rotation so that the wand was vacuuming against an already dry surface. Once he stopped his VPI with just ONE rotation, he never experienced the issue again and he's continuing to use the Vortex because it makes such a great sonic improvement over using the stock wand. I've never been able to re-create that problem here.

Sorry to hear of your difficulty with it. Thanks for sharing.