Record cleaning!

Hi!

Many people have asked either personally or electronically what record cleaning fluid and machine I use to clean my LP collection since they sound pretty good even on not-so well cared used copies I’ve collected 2nd hand.

For more than 25 years my record cleaning machine or RCM has been VPI’s 16.5. Currently I’m on my second one since the first one I bought used (from a good old friend who passed away several months ago) gave up the ghost about 15 years ago.

For record cleaning fluid I use my own concoction of distilled water, 91% Isopropyl Alcohol, and a small squirt of Kodak’s Photo-Flo 200 fluid to ensure that the water film gets penetrates well into the LP grooves.

My formula for my record cleaning concoction is as follows:

FluidVolume
Distilled water183.4 ml
91% Isopropyl Alcohol51.6 ml
Kodak Photo-Flo 2001.2 ml
Record cleaning fluid ratios for a 235ml plastic bottle

It is perfectly fine to deviate from the above based upon the type of Isopropyl Alcohol available. The higher the Isopropyl Alcohol percentage, the less amount you need to use. It’s just a matter of remembering your High-School Chemistry class and do some math to adjust the volumes based on the capacity of your plastic bottle and Isopropyl Alcohol concentration.

If you need any help on the above don’t hesitate to contact me.

Enjoy!

Vic

Pandemic and other stuff

Wow, it’s been 4 months since I’ve posted something! My fault, sorry about that but February was a very hectic month for me since I was resigning to a 12 year stint on what was left of an international bank after it was acquired by a local financial institution.

Go back to late summer 2019, I received a message from an ex-peer from way back when I worked for a U.S. technology company between the late 80’s and early 2000’s, asking me if I wanted to return to the company since they were looking for IT professionals with my expertise (old school Mainframe administrators with programming, networking, data management, and Information Security backgrounds). I told him I was interested and in February 2020 I received the offer and proceeded to resign to my position as Information Security Officer and Business Continuity Coordinator. Started working in March and its been three amazing months doing what professionally I like the most.

This pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty and havoc all over the world resulting in strict recommendations to stay home unless absolutely necessary. Many corporations and people have finally realized that working from home is a real option (more than 20 years for them to figure this out but Micro-Managers are an incredibly resilient pest which need to have total control and up-to-the-minute oversight of what their direct reports are doing, and that is the worst environment to work at. Believe me, I did for the last 4 years. Thankfully my new job requires me to work from home so I don’t someone looking over my shoulder every 10 minutes or some other ‘peer’ watching over from my back and telling my boss.

Now returning to turntables, people have realized that now they have more spare time since, working from home lets them more efficiently manage their daily schedule, and has allowed them to clean their houses more thoroughly, and find stuff that has been stored in their garages or closets for many years, many of these being turntables!!! ‘Wow, a turntable!!!! I forgot I had this one in storage!!!’, only to connect it and find out it does not work. That’s when I come in.

Since March I’ve received more than 20 turntables to check over and repair, most of them Technics vintage models, Project, Music Hall, AR, Clearaudio, Chinese SL1200 MkII clones (BID?), Linn, Sanyo, you name the brand. I was able to repair all but one of them (the Sanyo’s power supply motherboard was burned beyond repair). Also, many customers have decided to upgrade their turntables (new cartridge, new bearings, etc.) since they spend more time listening to their cherished vinyl LP collection.

Keep on listening to your vinyl LP collection, for sure it has taken you many years to get it where it is, and for sure there are still some treasures still to find and enjoy.

Happy listening!

Vic

Options

Most of my work is around setup and fine-tuning of Linn Sondek LP12 turntables, including the installation of the full suite of upgrades made by Linn. In fact, I own a Linn LP12 turntable with all Linn components (Ittok LVII tonearm, Arkiv MC cartridge, Cirkus subchassis/bearing, and a Lingo 2 power supply.

A while ago I did own a non-Linn subchassis (Greenstreet) which I consider provides an excellent price/performance value and significantly raised the performance level of my LP12 for a relative small investment at that time, and surprisingly maintained its ‘Linn sound’ signature. Some customers were aware of this and have come to me looking for advise regarding alternative upgrades (non-Linn) since they have read much about then in internet forums. In some cases I have made clear my point of view stating that if you like the Linn sound you should stay on Linn’s upgrade path, but there may be other options which may provide a satisfying musical enjoyment experience without a significant investment, and maintain the characteristic ‘Linn sound’.

As such we are pleased to announce that we have been appointed as dealer/representative for Puerto Rico of the Dynavector line of moving coil cartridges, and StackAudio line of Linn LP12 upgrades.

Dynavector was founded in Japan back in 1975 and is highly regarded as a manufacturer of one of the finest high-performance moving coil phono cartridges in the world.

StackAudio manufactures a series of affordable Linn LP12 upgrades which are focused on the source (the turntable). Everything flows from the source, and obtaining a pure clean signal is paramount to realizing the finest musical experience from any system.

These brands are excellent options for Linn LP12 owners who want to follow an alternative upgrade path for their Linn LP12 turntable, at a very reasonable cost.

Vic