ultrasound record cleaning machine damaged my records


I recently purchased an ultrasound record cleaning machine. For reasons which I hope you understand I won’t name brands, because I am not wanting to make bad publicity to anyone but to discuss the matter. 

Previously, I had anather ultrasound machine which broke. I cleaned more than a 1000 records with it, with no concerns at all. The machine broke and, due to its steep price, I decided to go for a less costly solution. 

With the new machine I cleaned 7 records. One of themLeonard Cohen’s “New Skin for the old ceremony”. When listening to “Chelsea Hote”, I remarked a distortion that wasn’t there before. IT was clear on the low notes, like the instrument being out of focus or vibrating. I had some old very worn records which had that problem due to bad stylus. At first I started to think that there was a problem with the stylus of my Lyra Atlas. So I went to another version of the same album I have at home, to check if there was a problem with the stylus. Clean passage. No problem at all. 

As on the previous cleaned record I noticed a similar problem, not so apparent, I decided to clean the second version of the LP on the new machine. Playing it i heard  the same distortion on the same music. Checking out all the 7 records I cleaned, I heard issues on all of them, some less apparent ( the mono ones) and some more appparent. 

I couldn’t believe it but the new machine was damaging my records. 

The combination of my atlas and my SME 312 arm gives some “needle talk” - music heard when with everything muted you put your hear next to the stylus on the record. Doing it, I heard the same rumble distortion that was being amplified by the system. 

 

I used distilled water (not a new one but one which was opened for the previous machine) but it was clear clean. I put the exact amount of surfactant liquid on the mixture of distilled water. I kept all the operating instruction rules. I don’t understand what is wrong, but the fact is this machines damages the grooves on the record. 

 

Does anyone had this problem before? Any help provided?

 

Note: I already contacted the dealer who sold it  and I am going to see him next week. It is a very good a solid dealer.  It I’d like to hear your opinion. 

 

Best regards,

pfmaudio

Find out the power in Watts and the frequency of your RCM. Also disclose the length of time your LPs were exposed, how many LPs in the bath, spacing between them, etc. Then you might get some informed responses. 

 

For more information, the frequency of ultrasound stated in the manual is 40 kHz. The output power (electrical) is 60W   The exposed time is 5 minutes and 10 minutes drying time. The machine only allows one record at a time. The volume of water is 400 ml for 12” records. 

A picture is worth a thousand words. How many pics to tell Neil Antin’s 145 pages of words?

Here’s my 1,000.

 

I also made totally beat LP's from my college days quite listenable again. Surprised me. I think it is getting the grunge out of the bottom of the grooves, where the old stylus never went, and the new advanced stylus's do get.

No such issues with a Degritter here. 40kHz/60W doesn't sound overly powerful. so I wonder if it is a heat issue?

I’ve used the Klaudio US cleaner without issue for years. It sounds as if the OP problems may be from using some US cleaner that’s been adapted from another purpose. He’s being a bit secretive, so it’s impossible to know for sure.