The SugarCube Is Here At Last...Clicks & Pops R.I.P.

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by DigMyGroove, Nov 12, 2017.

  1. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    My comments were about *before* they had a product rolled out and available for purchase. We all know they can deliver the product now, of course. But I wasn't going to gamble $1500 on that.
     
  2. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    Really? So, everyone should just wait to buy one? How do you know this?
     
  3. digitalzed

    digitalzed Well-Known Member

    Because I've talked to Dan, one of the owners of the company and they plan to offer other models. I never said wait. Just that there would be lower priced options eventually.
     
    Strat-Mangler likes this.
  4. Wired4Fun

    Wired4Fun Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cary, NC
    Look forward to a version that does what the SC-1 does, for less. Don’t need a component type box, either, which I’m sure adds some cost.

    Would love a $999 version that simply took out the noise. Don’t need to isolate the noise, either. Just on/off/bypass would be fine :)

    But that’s just me and my silly needs and wants :)
     
    Mugrug12 likes this.
  5. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Did he give you an indication as to how long that'd take?
    What do you mean by that? Surely, some type of enclosure would be necessary to house all the pieces that make the SC-1 (or whatever they wish to call its follow-up).
     
  6. Wired4Fun

    Wired4Fun Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cary, NC
    ie. Sized like a node2 and maybe no screen. Just LEDs and an app.
     
  7. digitalzed

    digitalzed Well-Known Member

     
  8. digitalzed

    digitalzed Well-Known Member

    I really believe they understand the need to get their technology to trickle down to other price points.
     
    Wired4Fun likes this.
  9. freedomgli

    freedomgli Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Reston, Va
    I recently purchased a used VPI 16.5 record cleaning machine, some Osage Audio brushes and Audio Intelligent Vinyl Solutions No. 15 and No. 6 record cleaning fluids, some Acquafina bottled water, a few tincture of green soap tattoo cleaning squeeze wash bottles (could use laboratory wash bottles if you prefer) and some poly-lined inner sleeves. Total investment around $600. Very few, if any, clicks or pops after a proper cleaning. It takes 5-10 minutes per LP depending on how dirty it is to begin with. I think I'll stick with my cleaning regimen as it seems to be better value for money spent. It's also good practice to spin very clean vinyl as dirty vinyl causes much greater wear and tear on the record itself and your stylus.
     
  10. digitalzed

    digitalzed Well-Known Member

    This product is in no way a substitute for proper record cleaning. Not every record can be cleaned to the point there isn't any surface noise or clicks or pops. I have records that I can't replace due to the cost or availability that will never be anything more than G or VG and the Sugarcube makes listening to these albums that were cleaned well much more enjoyable.
     
    56GoldTop, freedomgli and Wired4Fun like this.
  11. clhboa

    clhboa Forum Resident

    I'm pretty sure it's been 2k all along. Been watching the price with a keen eye, waiting for a price drop.
     
  12. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    FTR, the Indigo campaign prices were $900 for the SC-1 and $1500 for the SC-2. At those prices, I could definitely see people buying it but not at the current 2K and 3K prices.

    MD has the SC-1 in stock but not the SC-2 which is a "special order".
     
  13. dasacco

    dasacco Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachussetts
    Just thinking out loud, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to rent something like the SC-2?

    You know, for those that might want to get their records digitized and be done with them?
     
  14. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Perhaps but since it's 3K for the SC-2, even with a rental price of $200/user, it'd still take 15 interested users before the company would break even with the purchase price of the product. And you'd need a bunch of those units to ensure you can deliver whenever somebody else is using it at that time.

    I personally doubt there's enough of a market for that. Sounds like a money-losing situation to me, although I'd be first in line to give it a whirl if it'd ever materialize. ;)
     
    Wired4Fun likes this.
  15. dasacco

    dasacco Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachussetts
    Yeah, probably. If they can make that profitable, then they could likely make the units more affordable.

    I'd love one, but like so many others here, can't justify the cost.

    I use Click Repair and it's fantastic for my needledrop projects, and I like your idea of the RT/laptop setup. One of these days I may give that a shot.

    BTW, years ago I had the SAE 5ooo unit. It wasn't even close to what the ClickRepair software does.
     
    Strat-Mangler likes this.
  16. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    I basically said this same this on this thread on Analog Planet site and here is the response from SweetVinyl.


    Just thought we would jump in and provide a little feedback from the team here at SweetVinyl. First thanks to Michael for spending the time and putting the SC-1 through the paces on his amazing system and all the effort he has put into covering our project over the last several years.

    On the pricing front, we were left in a dilemma as we believe the basic systems should be less than we are at right now for the SC-1 and SC-2, inline with our original pricing model.

    However digitizing analog in the best systems with little to no perceptible difference comes at a price and the cost of the hardware in the system crept up as we refined the design forcing us to raise the list price. As a result our first products can sit in a system like Michael's and improve the experience.

    We did offer very attractive pricing to anyone who came to visit us by adding them to our email list and inviting them to the Indiegogo campaign.

    As there is still a need for a more affordable design point we started working on some stripped down models that will have less hardware features and a step down in the finish of the enclosures which will improve the list price to be at or better than our initial targets.

    We have a lot of work to get the SC-2 out of Beta and into production with track splitting and meta-data tagging working on the units in the field - as well as other software updates to the systems as we make improvements and add features.

    If you are at Axpona, stop by and say hi, we will be on the 6th floor and we have a special demo we will be showing of surface noise reduction on 78 vinyl running on a SugarCube!

    Yours in SweetVinyl.



    Read more at Sweet Vinyl’s SugarCube SC-1 Real Time Pop and Click Remover—Any Good?
     
    digitalzed and clhboa like this.
  17. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    I had forgotten about this thread, but wandering around Axpona today guess what room I should stumble into? First off I would love to have one of these. Of course in a perfect world it would be the SC-2, but I'm really not in a spot where I could even go for the SC-1. That being said a couple of impressions...
    (I'm going to throw out a qualifier before I start; my hearing is far from perfect and I don't consider myself a true audiophile. Go to my profile page and see what my setup is and take that into account when reading my very short review.)

    First off, they demoed a Steely Dan lp that was full of noise. The click and pop remover did a fantastic job removing the distractions with no real discernible loss in sound quality. The 78 rpm Rachmaninoff was a bit of a different story. The click and pop removal sounded just fine. The surface noise removal however seemed to add a slight cloud over the music. Almost muddying the sound. It wasn't bad but it was almost as if some of the high end had been covered up. Slight, but noticeable.

    The two gentlemen from Sweet Vinyl were extremely helpful, answered ALL questions thoroughly, and obviously knew what they were doing. IIRC they even addressed pricing concerns albeit very briefly.

    My only real beef was that the turntable that they used for the 78 rpm record was a very inexpensive TT. I wish I could have heard the record on a higher end table to see if the quality came through.

    All in all I was very impressed and if and when that price point comes down I would love to own one. If you go to Axpona be sure to stop in and see them.
     
    DR.J, digitalzed, 56GoldTop and 4 others like this.
  18. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I listened to a demonstration of the SC-2 at a local audio retailer this morning and I have to say I was very impressed. I heard an early 60s recording, original DG pressing, of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. The vinyl itself was in excellent condition for its age with a minimum of visible scratches. I could hear clicks and pops when the SC-1 was in bypass mode and these disappeared when the unit was enabled.
    The demonstrator then put on a very beat up Liberace record that was painful to listen to (I am speaking of the audible clicks and pops, not of the musical quality :)) in bypass mode but again when the SC-1 was enabled, they pretty well disappeared - I could hear a few which made the record's condition sound like a VG+ disc, enjoyable for all practical purposes. Again, this was a very beat up record with at least one deep scratch I could feel spanning the radius of the playing surface.
    The price in Canada is $2600 - steep but personally worth considering.
     
    digitalzed, 56GoldTop and clhboa like this.
  19. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    Just curious--does anyone know how it performs with non-fill? I'm assuming that it would recognize the non-fill sounds as surface noise, but they do have a different sound than pops or clicks from scratches, so I wonder.

    In general, the Sugarcube sounds very intriguing to me. Like most commenting here, I have a record cleaning machine, and I strive to limit my collection mainly to LPs with very little in the way of surface damage, so for at least 70-80% of my collection, the device would be irrelevant. But for the remaining 20-30% or so--many/most of which might have annoying clicks/pops/crackle on only one or two tracks (so the digital conversion could be turned on for only those tracks)--this is very tempting indeed. The question is whether one could get pristine copies of those albums for less than the cost of the device. It's hard to say, in that most of the less-than-pristine LPs I have are vintage pressings that often sell in or around the 3 figure range when one can find them in truly pristine condition. Plus, there's the time commitment involved in finding pristine first pressings, auditioning them, returning the inevitable over-graded ones, etc. If the Sugarcube can turn a VG record into solid VG+ or even NM, this could be a game changer for fans of vintage pressings, and possibly even cost-effective at its current price.

    That said, like many others, the emotional difference between $1400 and $2000 feels pretty big to me. I'm definitely going to want to wait a while for potential price reductions down the road before jumping on board.
     
    digitalzed likes this.
  20. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    My PC pretty much does the exact same thing although it doesn't look as neat. Cost is about 1/4 if you get a decent audio interface.
     
  21. clhboa

    clhboa Forum Resident

    When I spoke with Sweetvinyl on the phone I asked the guy if it would take away the crackling noise on for example, a noisy late 70's MCA pressing that I had bought recently still sealed. He said he knew exactly what I was talking about (as far as those crappy MCA pressings) but no, the SC-1 would not take care of that type of noise as it's a different kind of sound than scratches. If it would I very well might have bought one already.
     
    Adam9 and NorthNY Mark like this.
  22. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    Thanks--this is disappointing, but very good to know!
     
    clhboa likes this.
  23. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    sincerely no offense but i have zero use for this device and do not understand the fanfare.
     
  24. digitalzed

    digitalzed Well-Known Member

    Have you heard an SC-1 or SC-2? Your PC cannot do what they do.
     
  25. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    What software did you listen to to make such a statement?
     

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