The wand on the Okki Nokki ONE is metal whereas the one on the original was, I understand, plastic. I cannot see the metal one on the Okki Nokki ONE warping!
That's good info. I was on Okki Nokki's website just now and it seemed they were still listing the plastic arms, but a second glance shows they also have aluminum arms in the same black color which fooled me at first. This means they might even allow owners of the old model to upgrade to a better arm now. The positive vs. negative reviews from long term Okki Nokki owners seem to hinge on if they have the versions with the metal arm or not. I will say though that I did have the vacuum motor itself go bad on the ON as well, but my main problem was in the arms so moving (back) to metal is a step in the right direction for Okki.
I think that the replacement wands that you saw are for the old machines and am not convinced that the new wands will fit the old machines; probably a question for the local distributor. The Okki Nokki ONE build is outstanding and the vacuum runs very quietly, things for which I was prepared to pay a slight premium. I think that the vacuum motor is new also, but that ought to be straightforward to replace in the unlikely event that it failed later. It is also worth remembering that the Okki Nokki ONE does 12, 10 and 7" out of the box whereas the Pro-ject VC-S/VC-E 7" kit is £100 and as far as I can see there isn't one for 10", which would be a deal breaker, alongside the exhaust issue, for me. Also remember the included small and full-sized platters with the ONO. For me the decision was easy and I am very pleased with the unit.
I've noticed a few people commenting on the 7" and 10" sizes. Can't you get around it by covering the slot in the wand up to the right point with a sheet of plastic and taping it to the top of the wand?
Two reasons: 1. I suspect that to ensure that the seal is airtight, as it would have to be to be effective, you would damage the covered part of the felt. 2. I simply cannot be @rsed with botching things like this when there are properly engineered solutions available.
1)I am not sure how much the felt would be damaged by temporarily placing a sheet of plastic against it. When cleaning 12" it would still have the record pressed against it instead which should damage it too. 2)With he second point I can understand your view and that's a different story. I personally wouldn't even bother with 7" but that's me. Luckily I don't have any great problem with noisy records so in my case any machine won't get much use which makes the VPI suggested previously a very expensive machine for my actual needs. I do like the idea of the lid to keep everything clean but the difference in price is too much.
I had really set my heart on an ultrasonic cleaner that a guy in the UK makes and sells for a bit more than the Project ALU. I had contacted him a couple of times saying I was close to buying and asking for info, but when I finally came to it he didn't reply; maybe thought I was a time waster. I then was able to get a good discount at Juno for the ALU. I'm so glad I did. The US may be more effective on really dirty, old records, but it is so easy to do a quick clean on the ALU; not having to worry about draining the fluid from the tank, etc
That was a big sell point for me too. My dealer tried to push me to the Krimuss ultrasonic system, but I told him the collection was simply too large to commit to the time for ultrasonic. I worry that if it's that time consuming it will somewhat suck the joy out of vinyl. Especially since the Krimuss process is so hands on.
A question for Pro-Ject owners... I just received my open-box VCS-2 ALU from Music Direct and my initial impressions are positive, however the motor is kind of noisy, making a bit of a grinding noise. Is this normal behavior?
Yes it sounds a bit grinding (rotation motor) I think there's a kind of gearbox present which makes the noise. Grtz Peter
As long as it's normal, it doesn't bother me either! I've cleaned and played a handful of dirty '60s and '70s LPs so far, and the playback has very quiet. Very pleased so far! It's also visually elegant, so it's not ugly to look at, and that's good too.
I just cleaned a record from 1963 that was covered in a thick layer of greasy funk, using L'Art du Son fluid. I cleaned each side twice, to make sure it was completely cleaned off. It's amazing how quietly it plays, there are only a few barely audible ticks in between tracks, and no surface noise. Very impressed!
I would not call it grinding noise but it is certainly loud and when I switch on the vacuum I Put ear muffs on. I think I've cleaned about 12 records and so far I am very happy, simple, quick and effective. I've haven't touched the project liquid yet, I've been using a bottle of MOFI I already had. I would like to work out some kind of cover for it.
Kind of a loud mechanical whirrrrr, right? I'm guessing they prioritized a motor with torque over quiet operation. The vacuum drowns out the noise from the motor anyway.
Yes kind of that noise, I think it reminds me the motor of the washing machine. Yes the vacuum drowns it but for me the vacuum goes beyond what I can take particularly because you are so close to the machine when in use but I am pleased regardless.
Here's another question... is it really necessary to switch off the mains power on the back when not in use? Isn't switching off the motor and vacuum sufficient?
Is not necessary but for the sake of safety it helps to reduce chances of a problem. This applies just to anything electrical, first thing that comes to mind is faulty/dangerous items there is plenty of shoddy workmanship and badly designed electronics. If the thing is not supervised and there is any problem with it you could have a fire, electrocution, etc, the least active circuitry the better. Even safer, just leave it unplugged. Then you might also have busy little hands in your house, a kid may switch on the visible switches and hurt themselves in the most unbelievable manner. As I've said in the beginning , theoretically there shouldn't be a need to switch it off but having worked in electronics, my experience tells me that if I unplug something completely then I have one less thing to worry about.
What I do with very dirty records when using L'Art du Son fluid is to let it soak for 3 to 5 minutes before vacuuming. I never have to wash it more than once doing it this way. I’ve used this method to fixing skipping too.
