One of the long pending projects was to streamline my record cleaning routine. So I had my eye on the Spin Clean and an RCM. I was highly doubtful of the claims that it cleans best and one reviewer even claimed that a record cleaned previously on the Nitty Gritty came out cleaner. However it seemed like a fast way to clean, so ordered it. The Spin Clean landed on Monday. I wanted to check two things. 1. Would it clean records cleaned with Disc Doctor fluid better? and 2. How it would do by itself.
It does remove a lot of dirt and the water becomes quite cloudy and when I drained the plastic tub, there was what looked like silt at the bottom. But take this in context of the following two points which is the real proof of the pudding, the sound.
For point 1., no difference whatsoever. Discs cleaned with the Disc Doctor remained the same. There is a bit of crackle on a few discs which in my experience quieten down after repeated plays. These crackles remained on cleaning with the Spin Clean.
For records that were uncleaned, the Spin Clean did about the same job as the Disc Doctor and my previous concoction of iso/RO water/detergent. Really mouldy records still had some faint marks but played ok. I cleaned 10 discs and there still was a bit of crackle, the kind that shows up in silent passages and in between tracks, but is masked by normal music. There was no big crackles or pops. It remains to be seen whether the remaining crackle disappears with an RCM, which is on the way and should arrive in a few weeks.
The biggest benefit of the Spin Clean is the ease and speed with which you can clean records. When I get the RCM however I intend to add an RO water rinse cycle before vacuuming cos I've got vinyl OCD.
Overall opinion:
+ Well worth it for the speed factor. This can add up if you have a huge collection to clean and are of the lazy persuasion where exercise means thinking of doing some work.
- Doesn't really clean to dead silence. The same cleaning ability as other fluids, homemade liquid mixes. So if you're comfortable with the usual iso/distilled water mix and clean in small batches, you aint missing much so don't let the online reviews take you in.
Me? I got exactly what I hoped for. Speed and the same cleaning ability as my current method. So overall happy.
It does remove a lot of dirt and the water becomes quite cloudy and when I drained the plastic tub, there was what looked like silt at the bottom. But take this in context of the following two points which is the real proof of the pudding, the sound.
For point 1., no difference whatsoever. Discs cleaned with the Disc Doctor remained the same. There is a bit of crackle on a few discs which in my experience quieten down after repeated plays. These crackles remained on cleaning with the Spin Clean.
For records that were uncleaned, the Spin Clean did about the same job as the Disc Doctor and my previous concoction of iso/RO water/detergent. Really mouldy records still had some faint marks but played ok. I cleaned 10 discs and there still was a bit of crackle, the kind that shows up in silent passages and in between tracks, but is masked by normal music. There was no big crackles or pops. It remains to be seen whether the remaining crackle disappears with an RCM, which is on the way and should arrive in a few weeks.
The biggest benefit of the Spin Clean is the ease and speed with which you can clean records. When I get the RCM however I intend to add an RO water rinse cycle before vacuuming cos I've got vinyl OCD.
Overall opinion:
+ Well worth it for the speed factor. This can add up if you have a huge collection to clean and are of the lazy persuasion where exercise means thinking of doing some work.
- Doesn't really clean to dead silence. The same cleaning ability as other fluids, homemade liquid mixes. So if you're comfortable with the usual iso/distilled water mix and clean in small batches, you aint missing much so don't let the online reviews take you in.
Me? I got exactly what I hoped for. Speed and the same cleaning ability as my current method. So overall happy.
