To date, I have not been to a used record store that cleans all LP's prior to selling them. In addition, some of those records are on shelves for a long time and will attract dust over time. Regardless, all used LP's should be cleaned properly prior to playing. If you want a clean LP, buy new, although that is not a guarantee either.
LP Cleaning Services
I don’t visit the Analog section section often, so forgive me if this has been covered, but I was unable to pull any thread up that addressed this particular topic.
I am definitely a Digital Guy, but I did recently purchase a Technics Direct Drive table, which I am using with an Ortofon 2M Blue and a phono preamp from Cambridge Audio. I am very pleased with the Sonics. I don’t however intend to buy many lps, if for no other reason than I am in downsizing mode, and am trying to confine it to old favorites (my several hundred lps were destroyed in a flood years ago) that are not currently available digitally.
I recently bought two, from a well respected lp resale shop, and they are both dirty as all get up. I am not blaming the store, as far as I am concerned its caveat emptor. I don’t really feel like investing in an expensive and space occupying lp cleaning machine for cleaning a small handful of lps.
My question is: are there businesses that one can pay buy the lp to clean lps? Preferably with an ultrasonic cleaner? My local googling reveals home cleaning services and the aforementioned lp cleaning machines, but not per lp services. I asked at two second hand lp stores and although they had machines for use in the store for their own purposes, they weren’t making it available to customers.
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@bdp24 calculating drive time to Burbank…. thanks for planting that seed brother |
I wouldn’t expect a used record store to be cleaning their inventory. These are shoestring mom and pop stores and probably carry a lot of unsold inventory. They could be wasting thousands of dollars cleaning inventory that they never sell. Alternatively they might clean it upon purchase and wind up selling it a few years later and it might reacquire some dust in the interim and lead to customer complaints. Ironically one of the two records Purchased looked better in the store but sounded far worse than the other, which had obvious issues on inspection. I appreciate the offers to come to peoples homes and use their machines but I live in Chicago. The store is in Oak Park, Il. and called Val’s Halla. Val probably was reselling lps before CDs came out. She worked hard to keep the vinyl flame going during the CD era, doing her own record days and many community events, lugging playback equipment and records with her despite severe COPD. Hopefully she made a few bucks from the vinyl revival before she died a few years ago. The store was slated to close but her nephew, a true analog apostle, and who has a “regular “ job, is busting his butt to keep it going. Although I don’t intend to buy many records for reasons stated in the OP, I wish them luck. The inventory is well arranged and easy to work with and I can be responsible for my own record cleaning. I suggested to them that they buy a nice cleaner and charge a fee but its a step to far for them |
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