@pacvr if I may… “Mr. Antin volunteered his time to prepare this document and is a retired Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Technical Warrant who from the late 1980’s for 20-years was the NAVSEA technical authority for MIL-STD-1330 Precision Cleaning and Testing of Shipboard Oxygen, Helium, Helium-Oxygen, Nitrogen, And Hydrogen Systems and MIL-STD-1622 Standard Practice for Cleaning of Shipboard Compressed Air Systems. During the early 1990’s he led the NAVSEA effort to mostly eliminate chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) solvents from these military standards. His efforts were successful and are documented in MIL-STD-1330D and MIL-STD-1622B, and acknowledged with an EPA Ozone Protection Award 1995, two US Patents US 5427729 and 5520837, and NAVSEA Engineer of the Year 1997. The procedures and discussion detailed herein follow many of the fundamentals and practices that were developed for MIL-STD-1330D and MIL-STD-1622B. After his turn at precision cleaning, Mr. Antin professionally moved on to other unrelated projects before retiring in 2019 after 44-years of combined U.S. Navy experience as a Sailor, Defense Contractor and Civil Servant.” (Quoted from his article “PRECISION AQUEOUS CLEANING OF: VINYL RECORDS 2nd EDITION”) available from thevinylpress.com
Yeah, I frowned at that cardboard stuff too The package in the slot has 4 single cardboard pieces inside a plastic bag. Once I (gently) removed the first piece of cardboard (1 of 4) from the lot, the rest (3 of 4) came out pretty smoothly
I did read paragraph XIV.5 (5.1-5.3) of the Precision Aqueous Cleaning manual regarding rotation speed in relation to the flow rate. And as noted above, the Humminguru even spins at 2 rpm! And, to make matters potentially even worse, most (if not all) of the records I spun through this machine are not perfectly flat and therefore are swinging (gently, but still) from left to right while rotating . This would create even more flow, not? Furthermore, as I understand paragraph XIV.1.b, it's basically "fluid agitation" which does the cleaning in the Humminguru (@40kHz) . And with XIV.5 in mind - considering the 2 rpm - it can't be much else than fluid agitation, but correct me if I'm wrong. What I am wondering is: does the record in the Humminguru actually have to rotate at all? Of course, in order to clean all of the record it has to rotate somehow. But would it work (and be safe) to disable the rotating wheels (or slightly elevate the record so that the record doesn't spin) and to manually turn the record? For example, 2 minutes in one position for US cleaning and then turn a quarter for another 2 minutes. And this then two more times as to have covered all of the record surface with each spot an accumulated 4 minutes of US cleaning. (Or am I saying something stupid?).
I just got mine today! It was ordered at the official public launch day...... it is my Christmas and Birthday present.......
Given the info about rotation speed, it’s a bummer HG has such a high rotation rate for its US tank size. It’s a well designed unit otherwise. It’d be interesting if it could be slowed down somehow. With other rotation type devices for DYI US cleaners, an alternative power device had been mentioned to slow it down. Not sure it’s advisable on a machine like this however.
Yes, the more flow the record generates the greater the reduction in the cavitation intensity. Does the record need to automatically rotate - no. But if you leave it in the same position too long you risk overheating the record. With, the small water volume, the 60W ultrasonic power is ultimately converted to heat - so the water heats as does the record heat. But, move to a manual spin, and much of the convenience is lost. They are using a VDC power supply which indicates the spin motor (and fan motor) is VDC, and it's not difficult to reduce the VDC voltage to a motor and that will reduce the spin speed; nice thing about DC powered devices. However, replacing the power supply with a variable power supply such as Amazon.com: SHNITPWR 3V ~ 24V 3A 72W Power Supply Adjustable DC 3V 5V 6V 9V 12V 15V 16V 18V 19V 20V 24V Variable Universal AC/DC Adapter 100V-240V AC to DC Converter with 14 Tips 5.5x2.5mm 4.0x1.7mm 3.5x1.35mm : Electronics would also impact the ultrasonics, so I would not see this as an option.
It’s a shame they didn’t address this in the design process - seems like a very simple thing to reduce the current the roller motor sees. I’m just using mine as a powered wash between the VPI and the degritter and anecdotally it works great for that.
i have searched for solutions to use in the guru and will try the following recipe using distilled water, triton x and isopropyl alcohol only. Ultrasonic Cleaning
yes. cancel after the wash cycle, drain and rinse fill, then full cycle. this will be for used records. for new records i will add a few drops of triton x and use a 5 min full cycle no rinse.
Just got mine and purchased some degritter cleaning solution to use as surfactant (the ratio is .6 ml for each HG tank). The record I was looking forward to testing was a remaster of 'Song Cycle, ' by Van Dyke Parks. New, it's a beautiful, deep-groove 180g LP; loaded with ticks and pops. I put it through 3 5-minute cleans, and a 10-minute dry. It went from near-****e to near-silent. From my limited use and research, I would recommend a (very little) surfactant and multiple washes for desired results.
Thanks. It may be an option for some stubborn used records, at least for me. I will run some tests and measure how warm the water will get after four consecutive 2-minutes clean cycles. At this point I still get the best results with a manual wash first. I'm not ready yet to experiment with other fluids than DIW.
Hi everyone - machine arrived yesterday, so I’ll offer up my initial thoughts. As everyone has said, set up was straightforward. I’ve watched a few videos and read reviews, so I didn’t have any issues related to how far I was or wasn’t pushing in the buttons. All the controls felt normal to me. Do be sure to keep a finger on the top of the water tank lid when pouring back into the machine. I made the common mistake of tilting too far; the lid pops off and water went everywhere. A mistake I’ll only make once. I started with a used LP I picked up recently that’s in a very standard VG condition – some loss of luster, light marks and scuffs. The record wasn’t terribly dirty but was in uncleaned condition with very light dust/dirt in spots and a few fingerprints around the edges. I use a sticky record roller with light pressure to remove any larger surface debris. I could still see tiny dirt grains that appeared to be in the grooves and would not come off with a surface wipe. I filled the machine with warm distilled water (95-100 degrees). I’ve heard mention of “degassing,” so I ran a two-minute clean with just water, no record. I then put the record in for a 5-minute clean, no drain/dry, immediately followed by an auto 5min wash/5min dry. The HumminGuru did a wonderful job, removing all debris that was previously visible. The surface looked completely clean, no dust or spread-out fibers as some have mentioned. There were a few drops of water after the 5min dry, so I let the record sit on a drying rack for a bit. I’ve yet to try the 10-minute dry. It’s still a VG record, but at least to my naked eye, it’s a considerably cleaner LP. For that, I’ll give the machine an overwhelmingly positive initial review. The only set back. In my excitement with the results from the first LP, I went to the heavy hitter section and pulled out my 1959 Art Blakey Blue Note. For whatever reason, using the same amount of water, the label dipped into the bath. After a quick adjustment, I placed the record again and pushed start. No matter where I touched or nudged, the LP would not spin. Having read some reports, I believe this is because of the “flat edge” of some early Blue Notes. I’ll try again this evening and give it a manual 1rpm spin if I must. So, while not perfect, I think the HumminGuru will be a great addition for 99% of my LPs.
Some further thoughts on manual spin. The unit has two 30W transducers one firing either side of the record. I doubt that these transducers produce any kind of uniform cavitation throughout the tank; noting that the KL Audio and Degritter both use 2/side and offset so the record surface in line with the transducers is fully covered. So, any manual spin would have to be small increments - something less than 1/3 of the record at time; this is rapidly becoming impractical. In hindsight, and just thinking out loud, I wonder whether they would not have been better off is only using 2 transducers to mount them on the bottom firing vertically upward. However, if you first pre-clean your records, and then use the unit for final clean/rinse/dry, it should be acceptably effective and very convenient. Neil
The HumminGuru arrived yesterday, 16 days after order. Well packaged, with excellent English manual and thoughtful maintenance additions. Makes a good presentation on opening. Have several hundred marginal classical recordings from a large collection bought 2 years ago. These were stored with anti-static sheets in closed boxes and brought out last night to test the cleaner. A minor surprise is that the anti-static sheets did powerful work and most recordings sounded better than when originally stored. Previewed and cleaned 10 records last night and another 10 this morning. The results were uniformly the same – minor improvement in clarity (especially in crescendos and louder passages), noticeable improvement in timbral accuracy (audiophiles misuse the term “tonality”), and, especially, more static noise appearing as clicks and pops. It's good and bad here. Tried all of the methods described above: warmer water, double cleans, use of Tergitol in the first cleaning followed by a rinse clean. None of these made much difference. Then cleaned a set of three records with no drying and put them in a rack to self dry. This made more of an improvement and one of them, a Mahler symphony, turned out exceptional. So my experience echoes those reported above and can generally conclude that the machine is well made and somewhat underwhelming in performance.
The noticeable improvement the HumminGuru makes in timbral accuracy raises a broader issue experienced recently. After turning to records and cassettes for my listening pleasure the last 3 years, found that digital feeds were unattractive. Great accuracy and quiet, but harsh and lacking in long-term listening appeal. So would turn to some of my large JRiver collection, listen for 15 minutes or so, then return to analog. Based on info here in the Steve Hoffman site, and other reviews, have just acquired a Denafrips DAC (Ares II) a Korg B1 tube amp (Nelson Pass DIY kit) and a M2x transforming amplifier (another Pass DIY kit). These are used together to listen to digital feeds and “analogize” their sounds. Does it work? In spades! Have been listening for 2 weeks to this playback chain and large orchestral sounds are shockingly good – lots of the analog punch with listening ease and superb soundstage and clarity. With the HumminGuru improving timbral accuracy, decided to do a test of analog versus digital to see if the analog advantage of better timbral accuracy and realism still took place when compared to the Denafrips improvement. SO...took an original, analog recording of Beethoven Symnphonies (Szell/Cleveland Orchestra), cleaned it thoroughly with the HumminGuru, and compared it closely with a CD reissue (by Sony) of the exact same performances (that are, of course, exceptional). And the news? Not even close! The analog still sounds significantly more accurate and real than the digital – despite the increased listenability of the Denfrips. SO(2)...won't be abandoning my analog preference but will benefit from the increased listenability the Denafrips chain brings to the digital table. Good news all around.
Not sure how well it works but Audio Intelligent Vinyl Solutions makes an enzymatic concentrate for ultrasonic RCM's.
To those folks who are having issues with increased static after the 'Guru' cleaning, I question whether you should be throwing the album on the platter and playing it immediately after the US clean. Maybe a better practice is to store it for a day or so and then see if the static will dissipate. This is what I have done in the past with all of my LP cleaning, because with vacuum cleaning, exactly the same thing occurs if you throw the LP on the platter immediately after a clean. A significant increase in static is noticeable.
Strange - the degritter eliminates all static. Like 100% gone so I don’t think this is an ultrasonic issue.
I think it could be a cleaning issue with drying, regardless of the type ( US or vacuum). Probably greatly impacted by how dry the climate is at the time.
Perhaps the fan CFM differences could account for some static differences. OR, perhaps the Degritter chemicals leave some sort of anti-static compound behind?
