To Loricraft users

Cmk and Tbg,

I tried it. 0g downforce I mean.

It works great! Of course you already knew that.

Thanks for the tip.

I sold my VPI 16.5 and took delivery of a Loricraft PCR3 3 days ago. I made the change mainly because of concerns related to transferring contaminants from record to record. The Loricraft solves that problem in the vacuuming step by using a moving string as the contact point between record and vacuum nozzle. The VPI has nylon strips on a vacuum tube that contact repeatedly each successive record, potentially spreading dirt, and if the record came from a dirty enough environment, brown tar like goo. I think the Loricraft does a better job in the vacuuming step, concentrating its power at one point rather than spreading it out over a tube the width of a record. But the problem still remains of your cleaning brushes and if you are cleaning a really dirty record, spreading the bad stuff to the next one. How do you Loricraft users address this, or am I being too concerned?

Something I miss from the VPI is the ability to use the vacuum port to clean the brushes. I would (thanks to 4yanx for this) vacuum the brushes (and vacuum tubes contact area)after each record and every fourth record rinse them with their respective fluid (RRL SDC or SVW) and then vacuum them. So I at least felt like I was keeping those items clean. With the Loricraft I’m looking at my brushes after a couple records thinking I wish I could vacuum off whatever is on there.

So I’m still in the trial stage. It’s a beautiful machine and it gets more of the fluid off the record I’m sure, but I don’t know yet if it’s worth the cost. I cleaned some older records with it that were a little noisy after the VPI and they still were after the Loricraft. These are 40 years old and it’s probably not dirt causing the ticks and crackle. I don’t know for sure, but those and other records may have sounded a little better in some nebulous way that I’m not able to identify.

I rinse the nylon brush with distilled water occasionally. I had to stop using the DD brushes as the AudioTop evaporates too quickly to use them.

I certainly have records that the Loricraft fails to remove all pops, but I frequently find that records previously cleaned with the VPI sound more transparent once cleaned on the Loricraft.

If a record is obviously grungy I do a first cleaning pass with RRL Deep Cleaner and a Last brush. That removes the worst of the junk before I use the good DD brushes.

It's not hard to rinse a Last brush and even vacuum it with the Loricraft nozzle, and they're cheap enough to toss when they get soiled.

Like Tbg I rinse the DD brushes periodically during a cleaning session. I then brush them off using the long-bristled Loricraft brush, which I don't find useful for anything else except spreading Premier spray cleaner.

Congrats Jeff
May I suggest you give the fluid a little more time to soak into the grooves and use the Loricraft brush to scrub a bit.

I don't use RRL or SVW, but on the first cleaning, I will use a detergent - just 2 drops, with an alcohol solution, which I find helps to remove whatever grudge was there - there's some foam but not much.

Then the 2nd rinse/clean with the Buggtussel Vinyl Zyme Gold, to remove whatever was left by the first wash and to protect the LP surface.

I've not found a single LP which does not benefit from this thorough cleaning, even new LPs cleaned previously on the VPI sound better after the Loricraft. There is more subtle detail in the instruments, vocals, little things you didn't notice before suddenly appear.

Now I'm so used to it that if I don't hear the same level of detail, I will clean the LP again. Repeated cleanings do help, even with the Loricraft.