New ultrasonic vinyl cleaner in the works: Humminguru

I just listened to one of the first records I ever acquired, a copy of DJ Shadow's Endtroducing that a friend gave me as a gift. It's been wet-washed before, but several years ago. Decided I would run it through the HG afterward and compare.

Initial listen had fairly pronounced surface noise. Of course, since it's a sample-based record, there's tons of pop-and-click that's inherent to the recording, and we're not concerned with any of that - only the noise in the quiet areas between tracks.

Post-HG results are...good! It's not a drastic, night-and-day difference, but that excessive surface noise is definitely way, way reduced. Pretty much everything that's still there appears to be an artifact from the original samples. I am pleased.
 
MikeH said:
Wouldn’t be surprised if he spent $5k on a cleaner that does the same thing that a $380 machine does…nothing is ever going to have 100% positive reviews.
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No unfortunately no $5k cleaner here, I am a pretty modest hi-fi fan... this is my FIRST and only record cleaning machine (aside from a Spin-Clean).

kvetcha said:
I'm listening to his review now and I dunno, doesn't line up with my experience so far at all. He's comparing it to larger, more expensive ultrasonics that use more transducers without noting that they also use four or five times as much water and have a correspondingly larger volume to energize. He doesn't like the use of distilled water, which is something you can easily fix by adding a drop of surfactant (as I do) to break the surface tension.

I'm genuinely curious if some of the issues he ran into are the result of static from air-drying in a low-humidity environment. Especially since he then immediately wet-cleaned it with spray and fixed the issue.
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I don't rule out anything, and you are right that static "could: be playing into it... It is getting to be the "dry season" here with the furnace starting to run etc. That being said I can typically tell when I am having static issues, either records wanna stick to my platter and/or my chimp like arm hair will be jumping around as I handle the records.
Didn't notice it on this particular record/session, but again all things are possible.

and yes I DO think a surfactant "at least" is needed to aid cleaning.. my videos though really ONLY focused on "as manufacturer recommends" use.

kvetcha said:
I don't think polypetalous is being malicious at all, but he is convinced that ultrasonic cleaning won't work with only distilled water, which is simply not true. In fact, it's one of the major benefits of the technology.

That said, he is correct that really truly cruddy records would benefit from either a pre-wash to get off the serious gunk or an extra long wash cycle. I think a drop of surfactant and a ZeroStat would solve a lot of his issues.
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I appreciate that, this series of videos did NOT play out like i expected...
I began with the intention to NOT in part my opinion much and just kind of take viewers "on the ride of discovery" as I first use the HumminGuru.
Then people kept asking for "before and after results" and my opinion, so ultimately I could ONLY share what I had experienced.

I TRULY hope my experiences with the HumminGuru are unique.
There's a lot to like about these machines, I just haven't found the "wow" or consistency I was hoping for... yet.


Ben (polypetalous)
 
Ok. I’ve cleaned maybe 15 or 20 records so far and this might seem like a dumb question; which I think I know the answer to.

When reusing the water, I should be pouring it back into the tank through the white filter right?
 
folsom_lives said:
Ok. I’ve cleaned maybe 15 or 20 records so far and this might seem like a dumb question; which I think I know the answer to.

When reusing the water, I should be pouring it back into the tank through the white filter right?
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that's what i do! that's where the water gets filtered as far as i can tell. i just take the water tank out and pour it back in slowly to the main tank through the spout in the water tank. i'm an idiot and tried to pour it too quickly once without holding the lid on the water tank and it spilled everywhere.
 
MikeH said:
that's what i do! that's where the water gets filtered as far as i can tell. i just take the water tank out and pour it back in slowly to the main tank through the spout in the water tank. i'm an idiot and tried to pour it too quickly once without holding the lid on the water tank and it spilled everywhere.
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Yeah the first time I tried to dump the water in it did that thing where it all just runs on the outside of the tank and off the bottom. I think I’ve got it down now and hardly spill a drop.

Those sloped edges around the top of the unit were a very smart move. Would have been very messy otherwise.
 
MikeH said:
that's what i do! that's where the water gets filtered as far as i can tell. i just take the water tank out and pour it back in slowly to the main tank through the spout in the water tank. i'm an idiot and tried to pour it too quickly once without holding the lid on the water tank and it spilled everywhere.
Click to expand...
I must be even dumber since I did the same, and then a couple times more when I thought there was little water enough that I could just stand it by itself to finish pouring...
 
polypetalous said:
No unfortunately no $5k cleaner here, I am a pretty modest hi-fi fan... this is my FIRST and only record cleaning machine (aside from a Spin-Clean).



I don't rule out anything, and you are right that static "could: be playing into it... It is getting to be the "dry season" here with the furnace starting to run etc. That being said I can typically tell when I am having static issues, either records wanna stick to my platter and/or my chimp like arm hair will be jumping around as I handle the records.
Didn't notice it on this particular record/session, but again all things are possible.

and yes I DO think a surfactant "at least" is needed to aid cleaning.. my videos though really ONLY focused on "as manufacturer recommends" use.



I appreciate that, this series of videos did NOT play out like i expected...
I began with the intention to NOT in part my opinion much and just kind of take viewers "on the ride of discovery" as I first use the HumminGuru.
Then people kept asking for "before and after results" and my opinion, so ultimately I could ONLY share what I had experienced.

I TRULY hope my experiences with the HumminGuru are unique.
There's a lot to like about these machines, I just haven't found the "wow" or consistency I was hoping for... yet.


Ben (polypetalous)
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Hey, welcome to N&G! I almost expressly invited you to come visit but didn't want to seem pushy. :)

MikeH said:
that's what i do! that's where the water gets filtered as far as i can tell. i just take the water tank out and pour it back in slowly to the main tank through the spout in the water tank. i'm an idiot and tried to pour it too quickly once without holding the lid on the water tank and it spilled everywhere.
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Feeling a bit silly. I had assumed the water was being deposited into the tank via the filter, so I was taking off the top of the tank and pouring the water back in unfiltered! Just looked inside and realized the tank is drained in through the top of the tank and not the spout.
 
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MikeH said:
snip. i feel like there's more detail present now but that could just be a placebo effect since i don't focus on any of the pops and clicks anymore.
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No placebo effect at all. To me, quieter surfaces is a really good thing but the greater amount of musical detail coming through is the real reason the ultrasonic cleaner prevails over a vacuum system. 👍
 
polypetalous said:
Thank you for the welcome, seems like a great place here...
Really just wanted to express that I too was surprised (and bummed) by my experiences/results with the HG.
And I dont discount anyone else saying that their experiences are contrary to mine.

Ben
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Definitely give some surfactant a shot (there are folks here who have a surfeit of various lab-grade product they are willing to sell off). Hope you stick around and enjoy the community!
 
MikeH said:
i've noticed the biggest difference so far in some of my record city purchases. they weren't cleaned when they arrived so had some pops and clicks. i ran them through my VPI and still heard pops and clicks so i figured maybe it was just the condition. ran them through the humminguru and they are dead silent now. i feel like there's more detail present now but that could just be a placebo effect since i don't focus on any of the pops and clicks anymore.
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This is what interests me the most - can it clean-up used LP purchases (like those Beatles records from RC.jp)? Looks like I'll definitely be getting one of these when they go live for the general public.
 
Turbo said:
This is what interests me the most - can it clean-up used LP purchases (like those Beatles records from RC.jp)? Looks like I'll definitely be getting one of these when they go live for the general public.
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In my experience, yes. But nothing can fix a worn groove, so you've gotta be sure there's a well-kept record under there.
 
kvetcha said:
In my experience, yes. But nothing can fix a worn groove, so you've gotta be sure there's a well-kept record under there.
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this is what i'm finding too. it's not a miracle worker. and sometimes it's hard for me to know whats something that can be fixed by an ultrasonic cleaner vs what's just bad in the grooves but not visible/feelable. I got the new Connan Mockasin record and there's some repetitive noise on one of the tracks for about 30 seconds. was hoping the Humminguru could clean it up but no dice. it did remove some other pops and clicks though.
 
kvetcha said:
In my experience, yes. But nothing can fix a worn groove, so you've gotta be sure there's a well-kept record under there.
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For sure. For the few records that come to mind, I'm thinking about the potential to remove pops and clicks (that presumably originates from dirt). Hiss and distortion could be a different story.
 
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