I am still loving mine. I always clean my records before playing, so, I hadn’t been able to hear a before and after comparison. I played a 60s record that sounded really awful and thought, it certainly couldn’t hurt to pass it through the Humminguru. I could not believe how much better the LP sounded afterward. What I thought was record damage turned out just to be dirt or whatever that I must not have been able to get off with my old manual cleaning. Up until now, I just thought that I’d been very lucky with my used LP purchases, but, I guess the Humminguru has been taking care of me this whole time. I was skeptical that ultrasonics really made much of a difference and just figured at least this machine will knock off surface debris. I only use distilled water. I have a question though. What does the water filter in the water reservoir do exactly? If we’ll be dumping that water out, why would you need to filter anything?
I do believe that good vacuum machine cleaning prior to the HG is going to get you to at least what the DeGritter and the KL levels are. IME, both vacuum and US are needed for the dirtier LP's in one's collection, whereas maybe US is sufficient for the newer LP's, although probably still not quite as great as both methods if you really want to get LP's pristine.
I think the filter is there to collect detritus that collects on the way to the reservoir, remembering that folks re-use the water in that reservoir. I have noticed that this filter does actually collect crud even though i rarely re-use the water. ( I actually use the two tank method, one for when I am using the Groove Washer US surfactant and the other solely for clean rinse).
The filter works on the water if/when you pour it out of the drain tank back into the wash basin. If you're not reusing the water, you can pull that filter and its housing out of the top piece of the tank with no ill effects. (The water pumping out during the drain cycle comes through the holes in the top of the tank - if you remove the tank and feel around the top of the chamber it slides into, you can feel the openings for the hoses coming from the pump that match up with those, and a little further back, the switch that detects whether the tank is in place or not.) Meanwhile, I'm up to around 1500 discs cleaned and still going strong - any concerns about build quality have been put to rest, and then some.
Yes it is certainly the new quality, low priced player in the market. Makes the Vevor crowd look very average (I was on my 3rd one of those, before this came along).
I have no doubt a vacuum or spin clean in addition to using this would better a Degritter if you have an extremely filthy record. It would make the process a little clunkier than simply using a Degritter, but would still be a third of the price (thinking $500 for a vacuum clean + $500 for the Humminguru). Sometimes you need some elbow grease to really clean a record. There have been reports of people who have had the Humminguru since launch with no issues so I'm hopeful, but it remains to be seen (for me at least) if the machine will stand the test of time. If it remains a reliable workhorse, there is no reason to buy a Degritter unless you have a house full of nasty records and don't want to have a two-step process or if $3,000 means very little to you.
Depends on how you are using the machine. If you are simply using distilled water alone, I do not clean more than 10 records before replacing. But it is more important to degass the water -- run it with no record for a 2-minute cycle. Then the cavitation can proceed at a more efficient level. Here's what I do. Heat 350ml of pure water in the microwave for 30 seconds to get it to about 95 degrees. Then pour it into the Guru, add two drops of tergitol, and degas for 2 minutes. Then run a set of ten records through this solution, five minutes at a time, with no watertank business. After 10, empty the used water into the watertank with the top button and discard. Start with another 350ml of pure water, heat to 95 degrees, and degas this for 2 minutes. Then run the same set of 10 records through this rinse stage. One cleaning stage and one rinse stage and the results are pristine. Seems like a bit of bother at first but the method becomes easy. You will notice a great difference in the Guru's performance between just pure water and using a cleaning stage.
The two I have have already cleaned more than a thousand records and they work flawlessly with well-designed operational keys. You don't need an additional PCM and more expensive US devices are, for me, a waste of money.
Reverse osmosis doesn't appear to get quite as much of the dissolved solid material out as distillation (though it's still much better than tap water), but as long as it's not depositing anything on the inside of the machine it seems like it should be okay (even the Humminguru site basically says 'use your own best judgement' on this point). You might get some distilled water and do some listening/needledrop comparisons and see what you think. (I can get gallons of distilled water from the local supermarket for a bit over a dollar each, and since I'm cleaning multiple records with a change of water, that's not a huge outlay. YMMV.) The noise seems to depend on the disc itself - I've had a few that have been obnoxiously loud, but almost all are tolerable enough I can be in the same room with the cleaner while it runs. The machine also seemed to 'break in' a bit, so you might give it a few dozen discs and see what happens. If it stays loud, try removing the drive and idler wheels and make sure there's nothing wrapped around those (I got a hair around the drive wheel at one point, and it got noticeably louder until I figured out what was going on and removed that). Minor warps (particularly dishing) should be fine. However, if you can't rotate it all the way around by hand, the machine won't be able to either. I'd be inclined to avoid putting anything with a significant edge or saddle warp in.
I just use these from Amazon: Amazon.com: 100 LP Sleeves Combo Pack (50 3 mil Outer & 50 Master Inner Sleeves) 33 RPM 12" Vinyl Record Sleeves Provide Your LP Collection with The Proper Protection - Invest In Vinyl : Electronics Like them because you can see either side of the record to choose the right selections. This is for inner and outer sleeves, you can find one or the other separate at the same site. Have experimented a great deal with the drying options and find that air drying works best for me. So, after cleaning all ten records as described above, they are put into a record rack and allowed to air dry. This eliminates the static that the machine drying sometimes causes and I leave them sit overnight. This extra time seems to improve the playback and do not know why. If a quick play is needed, just use the machine dry.
I use RO water in my US (Degritter) with no issues. I make it myself as I use it in my aquarium also. It’s a 6 stage unit - zero TDS.
Mine's three stage and not quite zero. In the teens. And the filters are old. I don't drink out of it anymore.
In my winter home I have a RO setup that takes the very poor city water and reduces it to about 12 TDS. Then I pour this into a ZeroWater cleaner that takes it down to 0 TDS. At my summer home, the water has very high TDS (215) and Zero Water can only bring that down to 3 TDS. The Gurus at both places work fine and I don't see any additional residue contamination on the "summer Guru." Suspect that your RO by itself is enough. The ZeroWater system comes with a TDS measurement tool that is very useful. If you measure the discarded water after the cleaning stage you get a quantifiable number to assess how dirty that set of 10 records was. Then if you measure again after the rinsing stage, you see how much more distilled solids were removed. Gives you some idea of the state of the records being cleaned and, whether another rinse might be helpful (for me, >8 and I try another rinse).
Because the Degritter is built an industrial machine and runs on much higher wattage. I have both and the HG is cool but it feels like a toy in comparison.
I don't have the HG but my generic tank has me running out of the room as fast as I can after I hit the start button. It's a hideous sound that makes fingernails on a chalkboard sound like sweet violins.
So I have some Groovewasher surfactant on the way. Is it absolutely necessary to do a rinse with this stuff? Does it leave residue? I guess I bought this to be simple and now it is getting complex. I may just skip the Groovewasher all together if it is going to complicate things.
Nope - I run a wet (with the Groovewasher stuff) and dry cycle and that's it. No residue at all. I will gladly take the option that feels like a toy at almost $3,000 less. I get that cost isn't a factor for some, but the price difference is the epitome of "diminishing returns" when everything that has come out of my Humminguru so far sounds perfect.
I'd love to hear about this. I have a Degritter, but being prematurely retired because of leukemia, options are financially limited if and when it fails. I keep on trying to make plans for a future that I hope for, rather than one I might reasonably expect!
