Spin Clean Record washing system MKII - First Impressions

Good day everyone, I finally did it.  I finally broke down and purchased a record cleaning machine.  I have wanted for years to be able to clean my vinyl properly.  I used various pretty effective methods for keeping my records clean, but I wanted to know how much better it could be after a proper cleaning is done.

I broke down and bought the Spin-Clean record washing system - MK II.  It was at first smaller than I expected.  I took a look at the construction and it is pretty nice.  I was able to determine what all the notches were for and so forth without having to look at the manual, so the design is pretty straightforward.

I purchased the bonus pack with the system because I have a lot of records to clean.  The bonus pack came with extra pads, and extra lint free towels to dry the records with.  I was glad that I purchased the extra towels when I got into cleaning the records. Also included is a 32 oz bottle of the cleaner along with the 4oz bottle that comes with the standard kit.  I will be glad I bought the bonus pack in no time.

When I took a look through the manual I read that it would be best if the towels were prewashed before using them for the first time.  So, I got them in the wash following the directions and got them dried before I started cleaning records.  I took some time to go through the manual while I was waiting for the laundry to complete.

 I realized a short time later that I had forgotten to pick up some distilled water for the cleaner.  The directions say that you can use tap water if you do not have distilled water to use.  With all the junk in tap water, I decided to go the pure route and drove to the store and purchased a couple gallons of distilled water. 

So, I filled it up with distilled water to the designated level and poured the cleaning solution where the instructions told me to do so and I got out some record boxes and decided to clean what I wanted to listen to for the next couple days.

Now it was time to do some cleaning as I pulled the cleaned and dried towels from the dryer.  I had read a couple blogs about getting the labels wet when using the spin-clean.  Before I started I read through the manual so I did not run into any issues.  However, I kept in mind what I read and never stopped moving the record once the cleaning had started, that way run-off would not drip onto the label.  I was successful in keeping water off the labels, but I had to develop a system that would not use up all my towels on the first couple records.  Use a junk record to test your process before you start cleaning the good ones. I cleaned two from the junk pile just in case I had issues.

The instructions say you can clean 20 - 50 records with one bath.  I was able to clean 30 albums and I could have cleaned more, you should keep an eye on how dirty the water gets.  I stopped at 30 records as that is all I wanted to do at one time. The water was not terribly dirty, but I had enough records for the listening tests I planned.

I air dried the records for about 20 minutes after wiping them down until mostly dry before playing or putting them in sleeves.  I started with a piano record that was on the disposal pile to see how it sounded.  I was overall pretty impressed as surface noise was very low.  There was still some, but my assumption is that the record was worn, as I have very few records that I purchased new, and it is possible that it was well-loved in the past and played over and over again.

I then played something I am pretty familiar with to see if I noticed any differences.  I put on ELO Discovery LP.  I used a crappy VG version of the LP that I had on my disposal pile.  I put it on the table and it played very respectively.  I will not say that it eliminated noise or anything like that, but I was pretty impressed with the overall sound quality coming from that somewhat scratched up record.  The noise was significantly low, and the pops and clicks were there from the scratches, but it still sounded pretty darn good!

My records were pretty clean overall, but the water got pretty dirty so the device is quite effective at getting dirt out of the grooves.  One piece of advice that I used was to clean the record with a brush before getting it into the bath.  Loose stuff that you can remove before it goes in the machine will aid you in keeping the water cleaner for more records.

My strongest recommendation if you purchase this product is to read the instruction manual and follow the instructions.  If you ruin your brushes you may do damage to your records, so please follow the instructions.

If you have LPs, and you are on a budget, this machine is for you!  Grab some extra towels to put the records on while you dry them and go for it!  I have seen machines for $600 that make allot of noise and cost allot of money, but don't do any finer job of cleaning a record than the Spin-Clean.  This little machine at less than $150 is a bargain in my opinion.  I tend to take care of stuff so I expect this to last for many years.  I would recommend the bonus kit which has the extra pads, the larger bottle of cleaner solution and the extra towels.  I am still going to pick up an additional set of the rollers and more towels before very long.  I got mine at Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor - www.needledoctor.com


Seriously Sweet and Effective record cleaning!

Peace Out!

Jeff

Associated Equipment
Technics SL-B3 turntable
Denon DL-110 MC cartridge
McIntosh C-27 Preamp
McIntosh MC250 Amp
PSB Image T-6 Speakers

Denon DL-110 experience

     I am sitting in the man-cave and feeling that I have been neglecting my collection of vintage stereo phono cartridges.  I pull out a discussions in percussion LP which has some finger prints and other dirt on the surface.  I spend some time doing my cleaning ritual.  I spin dry these as I use an alcohol-based cleaner which evaporates without leaving residue.

     I look on the shelf and decide that I am going to play the JVC straight-arm turntable with a Shure M91ED cartridge.  I can hear you now, "that's not a fair comparison, what are you thinking..." and I agree.  It's not necessarily the comparison of the cartridges that this post is about, it is actually entirely different.

     I remove the Shure M97xE, which I use as the daily driver on the JVC straight-arm turntable, and inserted the head-shell containing the M91ED.  I ensured that the LP was dry and appeared clean, so I lowered the needle into the groove and what do I hear?  Snaps and pops.  I am tracking at .75gm with this cart, which is its recommended force on a clean LP.  I think to myself, darn, this LP is noisy, that is a very cool sounding song so I continued listening to it.  I could hear the promise of some awesome piano that seems to be shrouded behind other instruments on this record.  The LP was AWESOME sounding!

     I started thinking that maybe there might be a way to get better sound out of this LP so I got up.  I walked over and dismounted my Grado Mono cartridge from the Technics 'table while the JVC was still playing the LP and grabbed the Denon DL-110 cartridge and installed, balanced and set the VTF and the anti-skating.  I moved the LP from the other turntable and started it up.  What did I hear after the initial touchdown?  Quite a bit of silence, just the tiniest amount of background noise, but the pops and clicks were GONE!  I actually mean gone.  Oh, I could hear that little bit of background noise here and there between tracks, but it was amazing how much better the LP sounded.  This record was amazing, it was a jazzy-Spanish percussion-based stew of awesome sounds great rhythms and cool stereo imaging.  I could hear the piano that I faintly heard on the Shure loud and clear with the Denon, along with other instruments and percussive instruments that I cannot even guess.  It sure was cool sounding though!

    Nothing against the M91ED, Shure fans. This was not intended to slight that awesome cartridge maker and those fine stylus.  As a matter of fact I have M97xE, M91E, M91ED, M95ED, V15RS cartridges that are currently mounted on head-shells that I use every now and then.  Some of them even have the original stylus, and I love to listen to these on perfect or warped records in the case of the M97xE.  On not perfect but excellent records (unscratched but noisy) the Denon does wonders to eliminate those little pops and clicks! (SAS Aftermarket Styli are available, which should elevate performance of these carts! - edited 031614).

What did I learn, as I have mentioned before, is to use different needles for different things.  As it turns out, this needle was the perfect addition to my collection.  The largest bonus was this is exactly what I purchased this needle for!  Playing not so perfect on the surface but clean deep-down records that just need some deeper penetration into the grooves to extract the information.

Mission Accomplished!

Listen to some music today.

Jeff


Update 03/23/13:
This cartridge has become my daily driver for the most part.  I have put a couple hundred listening hours on this cartridge and I am watching eBay for a good price on one so I can have a backup.  The sound of this cartridge is very nice, I have compared it to a V-15 RS that I have, which is basically a V-15 III.  I have no problem using the cartridge on the MM setting on my preamp, it is quite loud enough for most phono inputs.

Update 03/16/14:
This cartridge is the finest that I have.  It is true to the music and has an ability to play records that other cartridges will reveal surface noise much quieter than expected sometimes.  If the record is damaged, you will hear it, but that nice stylus goes very deep into the grooves and bypasses much of the damage caused by earlier plays.  This would be an awesome combination for vinyl archiving.

Mono Cartridge Affordability?

I currently have a Grado MC+ Mono Phono Cartridge.  I was looking on ebay and found several mono cartridges for over $200 each, some were over $1000.  I want to step up to a better mono cartridge, but I cannot see paying that much for one.

Mono recordins sound sweet and are less noisy.  I have over 100 of them currently and expect that number to expand as I continue to collect older recordings of Jazz and continue to find mono versions of early rock and roll records.  I have found no loss of enjoyment listening to mono recordings, and seldom miss the stereo effect of records.  I found the mono releases of the Beatles to be more satisfying than the stereo versions because of the musical information that is lost in the stereo mix.  I have quite a few old Jazz recordings that are mono and I absolutely refuse to play a mono recording with a stereo needle!

The Grado is a good cartridge, but I am thinking that like the MC cartridge that I finally purchased, there must be more sound in the grooves that can be extracted with a better mono cartridge.  I have no beef with the sound of the Grado, but as always, I am looking for more!

I was on ebay and saw a Denon, which I have the DL-110 MC stereo cartridge, which I got for around $160, but the mono Denon cartridge was over $200.  Is it worth it?  Does it sound good?  Will it be a vast improvement in the listening experience of my mono recordings?  I wish I knew!

I read a review of a mono cartridge made by Ortofon and it costs over $900, I am not ever going to have the disposable cash to spring for one of those puppies, so I am hoping to find a reasonable mono cartridge that is better than my Grado for around $150 or so. 
Is it possible?

I HOPE SO!

Keep listening!

Jeff

Denon DL-110 Phono Cartridge evaluation

                I am not going to bore you with details of its frequency response, specs or other information.  I am here to tell you how I “feel” the cartridge performed.  I played various types of music on various qualities of LPs over a three-week period. 

Break-in
               

     The first thing I did after mounting and aligning it was to put on a great quality record and put a bunch of hours on it before doing any critical listening.  I broke in the turntable over a week period and was able to put approximately 20 hours on the cartridge before I started listening.  I have a repeat function on my turntable so I enabled it to auto-repeat and let it go while I worked on various projects around the house. 

How much force to use               

     I started the listening project on the 15^th of the month and ended on the 31^st.  I tried three different VTF (Vertical Tracking force), the amount of force pressing down on the stylus (needle) playing the record.  You want this to be within manufacturers specifications.  The range of force was from 1.5 Gram to 2 Grams.  I tried three settings within that range, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 Grams of force.  I felt that the 1.5 Gram weight produced a more noisy sound, this was still extremely slight, but I could pick it out from the recording I was listening to.  When I adjusted it to 2.0 Grams, I noticed that there was more pronounced  bass and a more warm sound, I knew there should be more performance that this cartridge could provide, so I tried 1.75 Grams of force.  I was rewarded with a very nice sound, extremely low, if any noise when playing excellent quality LPs.  The high-frequency material was nicely presented and sounded excellent, there was quite a bit of bass present as well.  It was a very-nicely balanced sound.  I found this to be my favorite sound produced by this cartridge, so I have left it at 1.75 for the entire test from that point on.  I also never removed the stylus from my turntable during the test. 

Listening               

     I started listening with some old favorites that I know pretty well.  The first LP that I mounted was a near mint, original pressing of Alan Parson’s Project’s Greatest Hits.  I like this LP because of all the electronics in the mix.  The sound was awesome; I immediately noticed the absence of any surface noise.  I liked the sound.  I also noticed that the sound provided by this cartridge sounded larger than my actual speakers.  I was pretty happy overall and this was the first LP!  I then threw on a VG+ copy of Boston’s first LP.  I like to use this LP, because of the dynamic range of the recording; it starts very quietly and works its way up to loud.  I appreciated the extra low surface noise with this record quite a bit.  It was not even as near perfect an LP as the Alan Parsons LP, so I was pretty happy indeed.  I read in the manual that clean records are a must with this cartridge.  So I cleaned the records pretty well before playing each.  Over the next few nights I spent some time listening to some of my favorite LPs.  Dire Straits – Communiqué, Triumph – The Sport of Kings, Yes – 90125, The Cars, Styx – Crystal Ball.  These are some of the comments that I made while listening.  “Sound six feet wider than the speakers”; No extra noise on quiet parts and pauses in the music”; Hardly any pops or clicks, WOW!”;  “ Some deep scratches cannot be avoided”.  I spent some time listening with my daughter and she said it “sounded awesome”.

Impressions               


     I loved the cartridge!  I read on websites that it has a sound of its own; I did not find that to be the case, I believe that I was hearing the record itself instead of the cartridge.  The sound was very nice, especially on very well kept and clean records.  The cartridge does NOT like scratched up records.  I have a lot of records from G+ to NM- to LPs that have been played only a few times.  As good as this cartridge is I still need to have a variety of them to choose from.  (For an in-depth discussion see my Blog post regarding the need to have more than one cartridge to choose from).  It has dethroned my former best aligned cartridge, it sounds fantastic!  The sound is much bigger and more precise than my Shure M97xE, all of my Grado Prestige series, (with the exception of the mono cartridge), and it sounded quite a bit better than my Shure V15RS.  I realize that I don’t have a truly expensive MM cartridge to really do a comparison, although I believe that $150 for the Denon is comparable in cost to what the Shure V15RS cost back when it came out in 1982.  I would also put this in the same category as the Shure M97xE that I have a few of.  Again, I will need other needles for listening to crappy records, or when I need a change.  I believe that I will be getting another MC cartridge down the road.  My pre-amp has a setting to switch my Phono input from MM to MC, so I will be set at least in that respect.

Lessons Learned               


     I learned how crucial alignment of a phono cartridge can be.  I watched a video to learn how to align it properly.  Michael Fremer, vinyl aficionado, explains the how to and the way to do it of turntable setup.  I followed the instructions, used the tools I had and worked for a while on aligning the cartridge.  (This made me go through nearly all of my current cartridges and re-do their alignment if needed, quite a few did!).  I learned that my perception of the “hype” surrounding MC cartridges was not “hype” but in this case, an eye (ear) opening performance to behold. 

LPs Listened to during the test period:


Alan Parsons Project - Greatest Hits, NM-
Boston - Boston, VG+
Dire Straits - Comminique, VG++
Triumph - The Sport of Kings, Just Opened
Yes - 90125, VG+
The Cars - The Cars, VG++
Styx - Crystal Ball, VG+
The Association - and then along comes the Association, VG++
Sonny Rollins - Pure gold Jazz - VG+
HSAS - Through the Fire, Just Opened
Judas Priest - Turbo, VG++
The Great Hits of Ray Charles Recorded on 8-Track Stereo, VG+
Styx - Grand Illusion, VG+
A few assorted 45rpm records, ranging VG+ to NM

Rating:

4.5 Beers - SOLID! - Revealing, Awesome, on perfect records it is nice, clear and detailed, and for what I consider not an insignificant sum of money it is an amazing bargain!  I would recommend this cartridge as a solid entry-level MC cartridge.

Posted 3 weeks ago