So, I'd first ask, how often do you listen to vinyl? And how do you clean your records now? While I don't know this machine, going from a good cleaning to a great cleaning certainly does bring out more of what is on the record. Anything information not being obtained from the LP is not going to be heard, regardless of how good your equipment is. So you need to clean your records in any event, and the cleaner the better. That being said, regarding the rest of your equipment, I'd upgrade the cartridge first before the turntable, amp, and speakers. You'd be surprised at how much of an improvement you get at the budget end of cartridges. Check out not only Ortofons, but Grados and Denons.
Adding to @AnalogJ list of cartridge recommendations, Soundsmith or VAS also make really great sounding cartridges. I also agree cartridge before TT and amp. If you love your speakers, probably no need to upgrade those. IMO, upgrades for vinyl in order of priority (and if needed) would be: Room (eg room treatments), speakers, cartridge, phono preamp, other. Also, good cleaning of LPs helps to reduce stylus wear. As you probably know, some lps won't come clean as there may be inherent damage in the grooves or pressing errors or some other issue.
VAS carts are great, but they are custom made and will be a great deal more. Going from a $100 cartridge to, say a $500 one will be a huge leap. Not having heard his system but looking at his deets, I'd say he probably has a good budget system. Sure, a better table (a Rega P3, for example, the best bang for the buck at around a grand, in my opinion) will render more involving sound, the most glaring place to upgrade is his Ortofon Red cartridge. The Pro-Ject Carbon can certainly handle a better moving magnet cartridge (with his vintage '70s Marantz receiver having a built-in MM phono stage). I'm going to assume that your upgrade suggestions are your opinion of importance in the audio chain, and not specific to his system?
Thanks to those of you who responded to my question. I have experienced that multiple passes may result in improvements. I have also experienced that multiple passes may not remove surface grime, although the record may play better than it did prior to cleaning. For some of my thrashed old Prestige jazz records that have a lot of superficial surface scuffs and scrapes, after 4 or 5 passed, the scrapes appear to me to be more visibly "etched". But I can still run a wet wipe over the disk and have it come up with visible grime. While my experience has been extremely positive, my conclusion is that other chemical/mechanical means of cleaning need to compliment passes through the US. I just find it curious that HG has no FAQ, comment or warning about repeated cleanings. Why is there no description of discs after 100 passes, for instance?
Agree, that's a huge leap. I didn't see specifics of his system. As I recall, one can "upgrade" the stylus on the 2M series, so that may be an inexpensive option to see if he can hear a difference. If the Marantz is from the 70's, I'd guess the phono stage is pretty good. Depending on the manufacturer, not sure how good on-board phono stages are - I'd assume some are not so good and the manufacturer is trying to capitalize on the vinyl renaissance. Yes, my opinion in the audio chain, not specific to his system.
If you enjoy listening to records, and plan to keep purchasing records, the HG will pay for itself very quickly. Even a low budget record playing system will benefit from thoroughly cleaned records.
The vast majority of my collection has been cleaned the the VPI over the years. I did not have room for both. I mostly buy new or M- used records these days, so the HG can handle those without any issues. Besides, I sold my VPI to someone in my neighborhood, so I have visitation rights if needed.
Now that this has been out a while, no major issues like it falling apart after 100 records? I had a spin clean, currently use a squeaky clean vacuum but it’s starting to fall apart a bit. I’m looking for the ultrasonic step up in cleanest records and also some convenience. I work from home so just putting something in a machine and doing 90pct of the work for me in ten minutes while I keep doing doing IT stuff sounds pretty good especially for the price. The price point is big too. For anything over $500 I think I’d rather get other gear and keep hand turning the vacuum. And I like the idea of ordering via turntable lab, if something is wrong with it out of the box it would seem easier to work with them in country than communicating overseas?
I was one of the people that received mine in the first shipping and I've been using very regularly since. I have no clue how many LPs I've cleaned, but, probably 260-1500. I've liked the results especially when I've actually compared before and after. I bought the accessories kit when I bought the device. So far, I've only replaced the reservoir filter. It could have lasted longer, but, I had just finished a ton of gross filthy LPs that I "inherited" (those LPs got a full surface bath prior to going in HumminGuru though) and wanted to change out the filter. My machine still seems to run as well as it did on the first try. I also haven't noticed any unexpected noises. I'm a big fan of the machine.
I'm still trying to figure out how well this will actually clean. I get that it's a step up from a Spin Clean. But how does it compare to a Loricraft or Monks level of cleaning? The low power and lower US frequency, given what I have read regarding the size of the cavitation bubbles produced with this compared to those made by 120kHz machines, makes me wonder just how good this machine will be and whether my expectations will be too high.
I got mine after years of using a Spin Clean as my main washing tool. My current workflow for new and not filthy* used vinyl is to Spin Clean first followed by a run in the HumminGuru with distilled water only. In between I pat dry the record with microfibre cloths to get any remaining Spin Clean wetness off. I don’t have any experience with other cleaners as a frame of reference, but I find this is good bang for the buck. *Filthy records have a preliminary step of a sink wash and scrub.
My reference is not a Spin Clean, though. It's a Nitty Gritty (Record Doctor) and a Monks Prodigy, both at levels up from the Spin Clean. So I'm posing the question regarding at how high a level of cleaning it does. I wouldn't be surprised that the UG going to do a better job than a Spin Clean alone.
The G Sonic solution is essential imo, I have nothing to compare it to but I honestly can't imagine my records coming out any cleaner on something like a Degritter. Particularly dirty records get two full cycles and my Parks Puffin quantifies it buy bringing them from a D/D- to a B+/A-. If most of your records are new/NM with only a few nasty thrift store ones, the Humminguru + G Sonic is all you need and spending any more money is a waste. Even the ones that I wrote off as being unlistenable were salvaged after a few cycles. I've cleaned 300+ records so far and it's still running as good as it did on record 1. YMMV but I love it and it's the best thing I've ever done for my collection.
I get it, but "imagining" is not enough. It's akin to saying "I can't imagine that a Steely Dan record can sound any better than through the Ortofon Blue 2M cartridge." Maybe, but maybe not. I'm pushing back because I couldn't believe that, with a new record, how much deeper the black background was with using the Monks Prodigy machine with their DisCovery fluid over using L'Art Du Son with my Record Doctor. Now, I subsequently did an experiment with another new record employing the Monks Machine, using the L'Art Du Son fluid on one side and the DisCovery fluid on the other. The DisCovery fluid (which is Monks' own proprietary fluid) resulted in a blacker, deeper background than with the L'Art du Son fluid. The Prodigy with the DisCovery fluid rendered more vivid, richer images, and better dynamics. Unfortunately the Prodigy has been mechanically unreliable, and has been so from the start. I'm getting a partial refund from the dealer and looking for something else, but I'm looking for that level of clean. I'm going to try the DisCovery fluid with the Record Doctor and see what happens. That combined with the HG may do the trick, but I'm trying to get opinions from those who have compared the HG with higher level cleaning.
Probably aren't going to find too many people that fit that description. The HG is for those who don't want to pay/can't afford something better and still get something that's at least 80-90% as good. I'm sure other options that cost more are better but I don't think I'd be able to hear that as most of my records I buy nowadays are new. I'd suggest just buying it and trying it out, you could always put it on eBay for close to what you paid for it and write the rest off as a learning experience.
Yeah, I could do that. When I went for the Prodigy, I was looking for both a better clean than the Record Doctor alone, as well as a more automated process. I'm disappointed in the build of the Prodigy. I'm sure Monks' high end machines are solid and built better, but start at over $3000. And there's honestly little after-market support in the U.S. If they have an issue, there's no service center. But in conjunction with their DisCovery fluid (and I bet the latter also has a lot to do with its cleaning ability), boy, does it do a stellar job. I almost sold my Record Doctor to someone earlier this year to a friend for $25. I had even put on a new set of velvet lips and thrown in some fluid. He had just bought a turntable to get back into vinyl after a long time. Then he changed his mind, saying that dealing with vinyl was too much of a hassle. So I'm going to pull it out and use it with grungier discs. I don't like having to turn the record by hand, but we'll see. If I do get the HG, I'll get the Groove Washer concentrate or that Turducken* surfactant stuff. Clearly, even with the Degritter, best results are achieved with a surfactant.
Next question - what accessories from HG do yall find neccesary? I know it comes with some extra parts, but the extra water tank? 15 extra filters? Extra parts with 5 extra filters and wheels?
For me when I ordered my Humminguru, I ordered it with 7 + 10” adapters. Plus, I ordered an extra reservoir, 2 wheel kits and extra filters. Even though I may not need any of these anytime soon, I like having backups plus the shipping would be cheaper bundling it all together now.
I have a Nitty Gritty (model 2.5 with fluid injection) and a HumminGuru. The HG gets vinyl much cleaner than the Nitty Gritty. At this point, I just use the Nitty Gritty to remove any evident surface dust and dirt, then use the HG to deep clean the grooves.
If I'm just getting the HG with the 7" adapter, it's cheaper to buy from The Turntable Lab. On the other hand, they don't currently have any of the other accessories in stock. If you're going to buy lots of the other accessories, then it'd probably pay to get it direct from China.
I wonder if they'll continue the HG line and maybe make a model that uses 80KHZ, has two tanks, etc kinda like what Degritter is doing (Just not at that price)
That'd be interesting. I do want a machine that's sort of set and forget. I clean records in my living room, which is my listening room. I can't have an overly elaborate setup.
I have a smiliar set up to yours, my RCM is an Almari which is an OEM of Project’s RCM. I use the RCM for cleaning before using the HG, works very well. I have the HG for a week and have cleaned 50 records. HG’s pricing is good, I know it is very manual and for someone who intends to keep my RCM, they complement each other. I use the RCM to rinse after using HG as I put the Ilford Ilfoto into the distilled water. I was deliberating between this and the Degritter, know they are at different price range, I am not so concerned about built quality as the HG sits on a fixed spot and I can handle the manual steps, less moving parts hopefully chances of it breaking down in lower. The local distributor gives a longer warranty period but I hope I do not have to use it…
So in an aside update, I'm getting the guts of my basic Prodigy replaced with the guts of a Prodigy Plus. I'll see if it is any more reliable. That'll happen in November. In the meantime, I'll rely on my Record Doctor. I tried it with the DisCovery cleaning fluid and it did a remarkable job. But I have to turn it by hand, and make sure the velvet lips are regularly cleaned. If I'm not happy, I'll go ahead and get the HG.
Got email yesterday that starting Oct 1 there will be a new shipping option for US customers. It’ll be a boat shipment and then delivered by FedEx for ~$25 instead of $100. This may finally push me to get one. edit: shipping rate is live now. Can get the bundle for $452 shipped…
