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29 October 2024
Introduction
When you step out of the shower, don’t you feel good being so fresh and so clean? No? Well, your records do. And there are plenty of products offering to valet your vinyl collection; so, what made us take on the Record Doctor’s new VRCM (vacuum record cleaning machine)?
The Doctor Is In the House: Dual-Sided Cleaning Efficiency
The Record Doctor X does have one clever jack in its box – it vacuum cleans sides A and B simultaneously thanks to the additional under-mounted vacuum. That makes the job fast as well as thorough. Our demonstration unit arrived with a bottle of cleaning solution, the supplied Record Doctor Goat Hair Brush and a short and sweet user guide in eleven simple illustrations.
It’s an extremely simple unit to operate, but applying the fluid, not too much / not too little takes, a bit of practice. You are good to go once you’ve learned to spread the solution evenly with the brush and without any drips.
First Impressions: Clean Cuts and Clear Sound
Our first attempt was chanced on a particularly grubby copy of Ultimate Rave – an LP which its loss would be more merciful than mournful – after heavy fingering by 90s bedroom DJs fed on pizza and chicken nuggets.
Seeing your reflection in the glistening side of a newly cleaned LP record may or may not be a welcoming sight, but it is an indicator your vinyl is about to sound like it did back when your reflection still was a welcoming sight.
Unfortunately, the Ultimate Rave LP survived its ablution, and although we still didn’t like the tracks on it, we had to concede that it sounded a tad better.
Okay, so let’s clean something we wanted to listen to. Stevie Wonder’s Hotter Than July was clamped onto the Record Doctor’s spindle – Stevie’s buoyant first bound into the 1980s; tracks full of that energising heat like the summer’s finally swung open its gates, and we go dancing through. Now, after deftly applying the cleaning solution smoothly to both sides, we dropped the overhead vacuum into place and ran the machine three turns clockwise, then, at the flick of a switch, three turns anti-clockwise. We checked our reflections (yep, still cute); put the record on our Clearaudio Concept and lowered the needle. Stevie sounded clear, punchy and fresh – just like the music should on that fabulous 40-year-old album.
Bass was tighter, midrange snappier, top-end sweeter, less pops and less clicks. The effect was akin to a modest stylus upgrade, but we’re also likely to add a few hours to our newly installed Ortofon Quintet MC cartridge’s lifespan.
We even cleaned a ‘clean’ record – just for the grin. In the Air Tonight’s famous tom entreé did sound more like that equally famous chocolate-eating gorilla was going at Phil Collins’s drum kit.
Practical Design and Functionality
Although it did a remarkable job cleaning our records, the Record Doctor X’s practical design is suitably unremarkable: a faux-carbon fibre block with two switches – one for power, one for speed, a spindle (with clamp) and the two felt-lined vacuum sweepers.
Underneath is a drain plug for expelling the spent fluid, which, given its reassuring heft, is something you may prefer to defer for as long as possible (after cleaning around 25 LPs).
If there was one thing that might be executed better, it’s designing the brush to be placed bristles up without toppling on its rounded handle. That would prevent fluid dribbling from the goat hair to the tabletop. A useful and essential foam gasket clamp screws down over the record’s label, protecting it from fluid ingress and securing the record while using the applicator brush.
In use, the unit’s noise can be excused since the Record Doctor range owes its effective cleaning to its powerful vacuum motors. There is a solid reason: a powerful motor is essential to drive the record between the two vacuums – double suction means double power. The Doctor himself tells us adding a muffler (they tried using one) reduces performance and increases cost. In any case, engineering could never reduce noise enough to listen to music while pampering your records on any decent VRCM. It should not be a deal breaker.
Maintenance and Consumables
All consumable parts can be replenished – the brush, sweeper felt, and, of course, the cleaning solution, and all are readily available.
Final Verdict: A Clean Bill of Health, a Worthwhile Investment for Vinyl Enthusiasts
Whether you’ve inherited or are building a collection of classic vinyl, you will likely be investing in vinyl’s lush sound. Those old LPs that got their original owners grooving can groove again after a spin on a good machine like the Record Doctor X’s dual-side VRCM.
Once a few LPs were refreshed, the thought of listening to the rest of the collection after a round on our Record Doctor X suddenly had us mourning the end of our lunch-break test session.
We thought a unit of this price and performance is a reasonable accessory for those with the passion, enthusiasm, and space to complete their vinyl setup.