Australian HiFi – May 2019

‘Proudlymanufacturedandhand-

assembledinPittsburgh,Pennsylvaniasince

1975.’Sosaysa noteinthemanualforour

thirdrecordcleaningsystem.

Well,that’sclearenough.TheSpin-Clean

systemhasbeenaroundsincethepinnacle

ofvinyldominanceinhomeentertain-

ment.Presumablybackin 1975 it wasa Mk

I system.Again,thisis a wellthought-out

cleaningsystem.Themainbodyis a bright

yellowtubforwashingyourrecords.Thisis a

bitlongerthana 12inchLPis wide.Thetub

flooris curved.Ateachendareslotswithroll-

ers.Yourrecordsgoinvertically.Therollers

keeptherecordvertical.

Youfillthetubtothemarkedlevelwith

distilledwaterandthreecapfulsofthe

includedSpinCleanfluid.Therecordlabel

staysclearofthewater(butyoushould

becarefulofdrips,sokeepa papertowel

handy).Twocleaningpadsareheldvertically

byslotsinthemiddleofthetub.Youpush

yourrecorddownbetweenthemuntilit is in

placeonthetworollers,thenrotateit three

revolutionsoneway,threerevolutionsthe

Keepsomepapertowelshandytoclean

up.Withcareyoucanavoidanyspills,but

whytakethechance?Also,you’llneedto

comeupwitha wayofapplyinga controlled

amountoffluidtothesurface.I triedpouring

it carefullywitha smallcup,butthatmadea

mess.ThemethodI settledonwasusingan

eyedropperwhichI pickedupfora fewbucks

fromthelocalchemist.I couldtheneasily

applyasmuchoraslittleasI wanted.Usually

onefulleyedropperwasenough.

PERFORMANCE

Thismachineprovideda rangeofresults,

fromnothingnoticeabletoa hugeimprove-

ment.Again,it alldependedonhowfilthy

therecordwas.

Takethesnippet(Graph5)fromthe

AuntyJackalbumfromthemid-70s.This

is oneI pickedupinanantiqueshop,but

it soundedasthoughit hadcomefromthe

garbagedump.Thelow-levelnoisemostly

remained,butaftera scrubwiththePro-Ject

VC-Scleaner(Graph6),thejarring‘scratches’

weregone.Clearlytheyweren’tscratches

atall,butpatchesofdirtstretchingacross

severalgrooves.

Yet,anyfiddlingwitha recordcanpoten-

tiallyadddirt.Ascananyexposuretoair...or

anyfailuretoremovefluidasthoroughlyas

onemighthaveintended.Whoknows?The

album‘ShortMovies’byLauraMarlingwasa

newacquisition,newvinyl.It hadclicksand

popsrightfromthestart(Graph7).

Intheseven-secondsample(Graph8),

youwillheara largeclickremovedabout

threequartersofthewaythrough,anda

smalleronerightattheend.Yes,bothwere

removed,buta smalltickwasalsoaddednear

thestartofthesample.Thatcouldwellhave

beena speckofdustlandingonthegroove

afterI puttheLPontheplattertorecordit

post-cleaning.Whoknows?

Thatsaid,thePro-Jectcleanerwasa net

positiveevenforthisverynewalbum.

Pro-JectVC-SRecordCleaningMachine

$899

InterdynPtyLtd

(03) 94263600

03

SPIN-CLEAN RECORD

WASHER SYSTEM MKI

ON TEST

64 Australian Hi-Fi ŘˁʊǒǔǞƖƋɁȧ

Graph 7. Short Movies – Laura Marling – prior to cleaning.

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