New ultrasonic vinyl cleaner in the works: Humminguru

Russ I said:
I feel a bit crazy for posting this, but here goes....

I’ve now cleaned 62 records and listened to a bunch of them, and I think I must be losing my mind because I’m ready to classify this as one of the most significant upgrades to my audio system I’ve ever made. I went into this thinking it was all about eliminating pops and clicks, but I realize now it’s not about that at all, because they’re not completely gone and I don’t really care! (Will pick up a Zerostat, though, since I’m guessing static is at play.) No, this Humminguru is about the music, man. Here are some of the records I’ve cleaned and played: An OG copy of Carole King’s Tapestry, an OG UK pressing of Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride, an early Club edition of The Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up (just one track played: Disney Girls), 2015 Grundman Famous Blue Raincoat (Jennifer Warnes) from Impex, OG pressing of Thunderclap Newman’s Hollywood Dream, early pressing of Suzanne Vega’s Solitude Standing, 2015 Blix Street 45RPM pressing of Eva Cassidy’s Simply Eva, 1978 Japan reissue of Boston’s Boston. In every case, what I’m hearing with the music makes me think about when famous paintings are restored, how the colors become brighter and more vivid, the details more defined, and the overall effect more stunning. Record after record, those damn platitudes I read/hear all the time about people “hearing the music for the first time” keep running through my head and I’m realizing that I haven’t really had this kind of a consistent “upgrade” feeling about any piece of equipment I’ve ever bought. Every record sounds like it’s had a bit of a MoFi treatment, where so many of the elements of the music have found their own space, everything is clear and well-defined, and it all just sounds so. damn. good. In fact, listening to Famous Blue Raincoat, I would even swear there used to be some sibilance where now there is none. Is that even possible? And then last night I played An Overview of Phenomenal Nature, by Cassandra Jenkins. I’m sure I listened to the record when I first got it, but mostly I’ve listened to this music digitally, with decent earbuds. I’ve heard the entire album at least 10 times, and a couple of the songs are on some of my playlists, so I’ve heard them (especially Hard Drive) 20 times or more. I’ll be damned if listening to the cleaned record didn’t reveal things I was completely surprised to hear—this album is even better than I already knew it was, and her voice is so intimate it was like her lips brushed my ear as she spoke/sang her words! I’m leaving on a trip in a couple of days that I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and now I’m feeling like a kid on Christmas morning who’s being dragged away from Santa’s drop to go visit relatives. This is possibly the best kept secret of audiophilia. And I guess my other (endless?) upgrades are finally paying off. How’s that for a sound investment?
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Finally, the out and out rave I’ve been waiting to read! Ultrasonic record cleaning truly is a game changer. Congratulations on hearing it. My opinion is that the more revealing your system is, the greater the benefit of a machine like the Humminguru.
 
OMC said:
Finally, the out and out rave I’ve been waiting to read! Ultrasonic record cleaning truly is a game changer. Congratulations on hearing it. My opinion is that the more revealing your system is, the greater the benefit of a machine like the Humminguru.
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Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it with my own ears! Seems you've been poking this bear for a bit, and now I know what it's been about. 🍻
 
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Reactions: OMC
LILLESTROEM, In Transit!

This means that my HG is quite close indeed, on the other side of Oslo, in the hometown of our big football rivals Lillestrøm. I hope it gets out of there as quickly as we do after away derbies, because I really do not want it to catch anything...

Jokes aside. Delivery today would be two days earlier than expected. I have a stack of records ready for it, among them a couple of surface noise fests (Phoebe Bridgers, Kevin Morby, last Super Furry Animals reissue): will be interesting if it does help those kinds of records. That would be a win for me.
 
espendo said:
LILLESTROEM, In Transit!

This means that my HG is quite close indeed, on the other side of Oslo, in the hometown of our big football rivals Lillestrøm. I hope it gets out of there as quickly as we do after away derbies, because I really do not want it to catch anything...

Jokes aside. Delivery today would be two days earlier than expected. I have a stack of records ready for it, among them a couple of surface noise fests (Phoebe Bridgers, Kevin Morby, last Super Furry Animals reissue): will be interesting if it does help those kinds of records. That would be a win for me.
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Excited to hear how it goes, mostly with records but also customs. Are you a Valerenga fan? I pretty much live around the corner but haven't quite got into them yet. Bit too flashy for an Oldham Athletic fan (remember Gunnar Halle?!)
 
Russ I said:
I feel a bit crazy for posting this, but here goes....

I’ve now cleaned 62 records and listened to a bunch of them, and I think I must be losing my mind because I’m ready to classify this as one of the most significant upgrades to my audio system I’ve ever made. I went into this thinking it was all about eliminating pops and clicks, but I realize now it’s not about that at all, because they’re not completely gone and I don’t really care! (Will pick up a Zerostat, though, since I’m guessing static is at play.) No, this Humminguru is about the music, man. Here are some of the records I’ve cleaned and played: An OG copy of Carole King’s Tapestry, an OG UK pressing of Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride, an early Club edition of The Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up (just one track played: Disney Girls), 2015 Grundman Famous Blue Raincoat (Jennifer Warnes) from Impex, OG pressing of Thunderclap Newman’s Hollywood Dream, early pressing of Suzanne Vega’s Solitude Standing, 2015 Blix Street 45RPM pressing of Eva Cassidy’s Simply Eva, 1978 Japan reissue of Boston’s Boston. In every case, what I’m hearing with the music makes me think about when famous paintings are restored, how the colors become brighter and more vivid, the details more defined, and the overall effect more stunning. Record after record, those damn platitudes I read/hear all the time about people “hearing the music for the first time” keep running through my head and I’m realizing that I haven’t really had this kind of a consistent “upgrade” feeling about any piece of equipment I’ve ever bought. Every record sounds like it’s had a bit of a MoFi treatment, where so many of the elements of the music have found their own space, everything is clear and well-defined, and it all just sounds so. damn. good. In fact, listening to Famous Blue Raincoat, I would even swear there used to be some sibilance where now there is none. Is that even possible? And then last night I played An Overview of Phenomenal Nature, by Cassandra Jenkins. I’m sure I listened to the record when I first got it, but mostly I’ve listened to this music digitally, with decent earbuds. I’ve heard the entire album at least 10 times, and a couple of the songs are on some of my playlists, so I’ve heard them (especially Hard Drive) 20 times or more. I’ll be damned if listening to the cleaned record didn’t reveal things I was completely surprised to hear—this album is even better than I already knew it was, and her voice is so intimate it was like her lips brushed my ear as she spoke/sang her words! I’m leaving on a trip in a couple of days that I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and now I’m feeling like a kid on Christmas morning who’s being dragged away from Santa’s drop to go visit relatives. This is possibly the best kept secret of audiophilia. And I guess my other (endless?) upgrades are finally paying off. How’s that for a sound investment?
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Wow, thats AWESOME to read and, and crazily enough I am listening to Nantucket Sleighride as I type this...
While I have not (yet) had the same experience I hold hope.... but will say that I had a "bit more pleasing" results this weekend going a bit "out of bounds" on the process (warmer water and adding a bit of something).

Right now, my biggest complaint, is that the HG has put me into a place of "only listening for flaws," had to step back a little bit this weekend and "enjoy the music" again and not "listen so critically."

Great to hear of HG success'!

Ben (polypetalous)
 
polypetalous said:
Wow, thats AWESOME to read and, and crazily enough I am listening to Nantucket Sleighride as I type this...
While I have not (yet) had the same experience I hold hope.... but will say that I had a "bit more pleasing" results this weekend going a bit "out of bounds" on the process (warmer water and adding a bit of something).

Right now, my biggest complaint, is that the HG has put me into a place of "only listening for flaws," had to step back a little bit this weekend and "enjoy the music" again and not "listen so critically."

Great to hear of HG success'!

Ben (polypetalous)
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I do think that phenomenon you mention will fade as the novelty wears off.

For my part, I'm excited to have a solution that's unobtrusive enough to be left out without irritating my spouse, and painless enough that I don't stockpile records for a month and half between cleaning sessions. :LOL:
 
kvetcha said:
I do think that phenomenon you mention will fade as the novelty wears off.

For my part, I'm excited to have a solution that's unobtrusive enough to be left out without irritating my spouse, and painless enough that I don't stockpile records for a month and half between cleaning sessions. :LOL:
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Agreed, and one FACT I cant highlight enough is how Quiet the machine is... I actually "cleaned" records while my whole house slept, never woulda thought THAT possible with an ultrasonic/automated cleaning machine.

Ben (polypetalous)
 
polypetalous said:
Agreed, and one FACT I cant highlight enough is how Quiet the machine is... I actually "cleaned" records while my whole house slept, never woulda thought THAT possible with an ultrasonic/automated cleaning machine.

Ben (polypetalous)
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You're not kidding. I thought the Shop Vac on my Squeaky Clean was going to gradually deafen me.
 
polypetalous said:
Agreed, and one FACT I cant highlight enough is how Quiet the machine is... I actually "cleaned" records while my whole house slept, never woulda thought THAT possible with an ultrasonic/automated cleaning machine.

Ben (polypetalous)
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mine is not very quiet at all. definitely more quiet than a vacuum machine, but mine is quite squeaky and high pitched. i've had to put mine in in a bathroom that's off of my office and had to close both sets of doors to not hear it in another room. i can't be in the same room as mine.
 
MikeH said:
mine is not very quiet at all. definitely more quiet than a vacuum machine, but mine is quite squeaky and high pitched. i've had to put mine in in a bathroom that's off of my office and had to close both sets of doors to not hear it in another room. i can't be in the same room as mine.
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Very possible you're more sensitive to the high frequencies than I am!
 
kvetcha said:
Very possible you're more sensitive to the high frequencies than I am!
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ultimately it's not a HUGE issue for me since i can set and forget it. but i definitely wouldn't call it quiet. was almost wondering if something is wrong with mine with all the people here saying they have it on in the same room cleaning records haha. it's fine during the drying part--just the wet clean is where it's really high-pitched.
 
MikeH said:
ultimately it's not a HUGE issue for me since i can set and forget it. but i definitely wouldn't call it quiet. was almost wondering if something is wrong with mine with all the people here saying they have it on in the same room cleaning records haha. it's fine during the drying part--just the wet clean is where it's really high-pitched.
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I find by the time I'm across the room the high-pitched noise has dispersed enough that it's no longer piercing.
 
MikeH said:
mine is not very quiet at all. definitely more quiet than a vacuum machine, but mine is quite squeaky and high pitched. i've had to put mine in in a bathroom that's off of my office and had to close both sets of doors to not hear it in another room. i can't be in the same room as mine.
Click to expand...

MikeH said:
ultimately it's not a HUGE issue for me since i can set and forget it. but i definitely wouldn't call it quiet. was almost wondering if something is wrong with mine with all the people here saying they have it on in the same room cleaning records haha. it's fine during the drying part--just the wet clean is where it's really high-pitched.
Click to expand...

Well, "could be" age... my 19-year old son CANT be in the room with the HG running the ultrasonic either....
Though I have had ~2-runs where it seems like one transducer hit an "odd frequency" that all of a sudden made more of a shriek/dentist drill level buzz, only happened twice though.
In my house, with door to music room closed, seems nearly silent... though I guess that's "me" saying it others may disagree (my son)

Ben (polypetalous)
 
Joe Mac said:
I’m not saying it’s perfect by any means but it sounds like there are some dynamics in there, there is now negligible distortion and the pops and clicks are down to a couple a side rather than all over!
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Just cleaned my copy and it still has pretty awful distortion, but it’s pretty clearly an artifact of the pressing (Kyoto and Halloween are particularly bad). Most of the pops and clicks are gone or significantly reduced.

Such a shame, cuz I adore the album.
 
kvetcha said:
I hear rumors that the newest pressings fixed these issues. Might have to experiment.
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i have the TTL and the "blue with swirly silver" pressings. i'll have to dig them out and clean them and report back. i do remember spinning them and thinking they weren't bad compared to how much people hated them, but then listened on high-res digital and the mastering was very different.
 
MikeH said:
i have the TTL and the "blue with swirly silver" pressings. i'll have to dig them out and clean them and report back. i do remember spinning them and thinking they weren't bad compared to how much people hated them, but then listened on high-res digital and the mastering was very different.
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The distortion on my 'Red and Swirly' copy is brutal. It sounds like someone is playing her vocals on a speaker running through an oscillating fan.
 
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