Paypal and VPI Record Cleaner Question

[tigerwoodKhorns]

I just recieved a VPI Scout that was an Audiogon 9 of 10 that I paid $1,000 for. Sounds great right? The guy "packed" it by putting it in a box loose with peanuts, motor, tonearm and all, then in a larger box with more peanuts. Needless to say when it arrived everything was beat up, including the motor on/off button comming off. Dropped it down to a 6 or less in a hurry. Real shame.

He refunded my money. I already withdrew it to my bank account. Is there any way that he can take the money back out or get a refund? I figure that I need to have the payment clear and withdraw the funds then ship the TT back to him.

Next question, I am ordering a brand new Scout. I can get a VPI 16.5 cleaning maching for $450 more shipped. How good is this machine? This sounds like a good deal. Is everyone here that uses it happy with it?

Thanks,

Chris

[NOSValves]

He can not recharge our paypal account without filing a claim against you with paypal.

The VPI 16.5 is a great record cleaner.

Craig

[edwinr]

The VPI 16.5 is a fantastic machine. I've had mine for a few weeks now. It's very easy to use and works extremely well on very dirty records. Some records I bought recently from a car boot sale were going out to the bin - they were too noisy. But once I gave them the VPI treatment, they went from snap, crackle and pop, to ahhhh........ bliss.

Really....

[Shade]

I have a VPI as well. Great machine. Really is amazing what it can do to a noisy record. It won't perform miracles, but it does do a very good job.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

So for $450 new shipped to my door I should jump on it, rigth?

[drefrank]

I've had my 16.5 for several months now. Very easy to use and does a great job getting the records clean. Here's a site that has a nice "how to" video. Go for it!

http://www.laser-vinyl.com/RecordCare/VPI_HW165.htm

[Wardsweb]

I know several guys with the VPI 16.5 and they all love it. I've seen

it in use and heard vinyl cleaned on it. I would say it's a very good

cleaners and a better bang for your buck than the 17. Now having

heaped praise on the VPI, I just bought a SOTA LPC (LP cleaner). Kind

of fell into a deal for one. Made even better since SOTA just

raised the prices on their cleaners. I'll give a review after I get it

and see how it compares to the 16.5 from VPI.

[rplace]

$450 shipped is a pretty good. Not the deal of the century, but better then most new.

When I was looking the cheapest I could find was from a place in philly it was $425 including shipping. I don't remember the name. I lucked into a NIB from a forum member or I would have gone with the philly guy.

[Travis In Austin]

You will wonder how you ever got by without the 16.5. It is a very effective and, most importantly, efficient. I think you can get an lp as clean, or cleaner, sitting around with household sponges, but with the 16.5 you can do it in 30 seconds.

I highly reccomend the Disk Doctor brushes and cleaning products. If you use Disk Doctor you will need a second arm arm tube and tower. It is a two step process, first you use the Disk Doctor cleaner, vac., then apply distilled water, and vac. with a second vac. tube that is used for rinsing only. You can do it with one vac tube, but you have to rinse it in a container of distilled water each time. You can get all of these products from DCC Blowout, he stocks all of the stuff.

You only have to clean the record one time, after that make sure it is in a nice anti-static sleeve. I bought a ton of MFSL sleeves and each time I clean a record I replace the stock paper sleeve with an MFSL sleeve, that way I know that it has been cleaned. After that you just clean it with a good carbon fiber brush before and after each brush. In Las Vegas I had a lot of static problems, I am not sure where you live in NV, but the whole State is much drier then most. Cleaning can cause static build up on it's own, so a Milty red static remover gun will almost be a must for you. They really do work.

Like others have said, it will not perform miracles. It will make an dirty moldy old record play like new again, but if there are scratches in the vinyl or damage to the groove wall, no matter how pristine it looks, it will still sound lousy. At least you will know there is nothing that can be done and you can donate it to Goodwill.

Throw away the VPI cleaner that comes with it, it's worthless.

$425 is an excellent deal, I think Galen Carol in San Antonio sells them for that, or close to it, and he is a super fine dealer, stands behind his stuff. You have to call for the price, tell him Travis in Austin reccomended you to him. If your 425 connection is in town, try to buy and support local people.

Travis

[tigerwoodKhorns]

You will wonder how you ever got by without the 16.5. It is a very effective and, most importantly, efficient. I think you can get an lp as clean, or cleaner, sitting around with household sponges, but with the 16.5 you can do it in 30 seconds.

I highly reccomend the Disk Doctor brushes and cleaning products. If you use Disk Doctor you will need a second arm arm tube and tower. It is a two step process, first you use the Disk Doctor cleaner, vac., then apply distilled water, and vac. with a second vac. tube that is used for rinsing only. You can do it with one vac tube, but you have to rinse it in a container of distilled water each time. You can get all of these products from DCC Blowout, he stocks all of the stuff.

You only have to clean the record one time, after that make sure it is in a nice anti-static sleeve. I bought a ton of MFSL sleeves and each time I clean a record I replace the stock paper sleeve with an MFSL sleeve, that way I know that it has been cleaned. After that you just clean it with a good carbon fiber brush before and after each brush. In Las Vegas I had a lot of static problems, I am not sure where you live in NV, but the whole State is much drier then most. Cleaning can cause static build up on it's own, so a Milty red static remover gun will almost be a must for you. They really do work.

Like others have said, it will not perform miracles. It will make an dirty moldy old record play like new again, but if there are scratches in the vinyl or damage to the groove wall, no matter how pristine it looks, it will still sound lousy. At least you will know there is nothing that can be done and you can donate it to Goodwill.

Throw away the VPI cleaner that comes with it, it's worthless.

$425 is an excellent deal, I think Galen Carol in San Antonio sells them for that, or close to it, and he is a super fine dealer, stands behind his stuff. You have to call for the price, tell him Travis in Austin reccomended you to him. If your 425 connection is in town, try to buy and support local people.

Travis

Do you have a photo of the setup that you are talking about with the two vacuum leads.

Thanks,

Chris

[Travis In Austin]

You will wonder how you ever got by without the 16.5. It is a very effective and, most importantly, efficient. I think you can get an lp as clean, or cleaner, sitting around with household sponges, but with the 16.5 you can do it in 30 seconds.

I highly reccomend the Disk Doctor brushes and cleaning products. If you use Disk Doctor you will need a second arm arm tube and tower. It is a two step process, first you use the Disk Doctor cleaner, vac., then apply distilled water, and vac. with a second vac. tube that is used for rinsing only. You can do it with one vac tube, but you have to rinse it in a container of distilled water each time. You can get all of these products from DCC Blowout, he stocks all of the stuff.

You only have to clean the record one time, after that make sure it is in a nice anti-static sleeve. I bought a ton of MFSL sleeves and each time I clean a record I replace the stock paper sleeve with an MFSL sleeve, that way I know that it has been cleaned. After that you just clean it with a good carbon fiber brush before and after each brush. In Las Vegas I had a lot of static problems, I am not sure where you live in NV, but the whole State is much drier then most. Cleaning can cause static build up on it's own, so a Milty red static remover gun will almost be a must for you. They really do work.

Like others have said, it will not perform miracles. It will make an dirty moldy old record play like new again, but if there are scratches in the vinyl or damage to the groove wall, no matter how pristine it looks, it will still sound lousy. At least you will know there is nothing that can be done and you can donate it to Goodwill.

Throw away the VPI cleaner that comes with it, it's worthless.

$425 is an excellent deal, I think Galen Carol in San Antonio sells them for that, or close to it, and he is a super fine dealer, stands behind his stuff. You have to call for the price, tell him Travis in Austin reccomended you to him. If your 425 connection is in town, try to buy and support local people.

Travis

Do you have a photo of the setup that you are talking about with the two vacuum leads.

Thanks,

Chris

No, but I will take some tonight and post them on here for you.

Here is a thread that will help. http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=8030&page=2

Here is the link to the extra holder and tube http://www.dccblowout.com/product.asp?pf_id=vpitube%5Fholder

Call Tom and ask him how much a package would be if you got the brushes, the cleaner, and the tube w/ holder. I believe he gives a nice discount if you buy a package.

Travis

[Gilbert]

That is too slick. The video was pretty cool too..... I want one, but at $450 I'll pass for now.

[lwhaples]

Travis, Cool link! Thanks for posting it.

Larry

[Travis In Austin]

Do you have a photo of the setup that you are talking about with the two vacuum leads.

Thanks,

Chris

Here is a photo of the arm wand and tower in place. I am not very smart so I put a red sticker on the tower that I use for the "clean" cycle, and a blue sticker on the tower I use for the "rinse" cycle.

[Travis In Austin]

Here are the two towers, each with its own arm wand, side by side, one is on its side the the other is upside down showing the cleaning strips on the bottom of the wand.

[Travis In Austin]

Here is a shot of the two towers laying side by side, it also shows the inlet to the right that these towers slip in and out of.

[Travis In Austin]

Last, here is a photo of some cotton wipes I use on really dirty records. I buy a lot of records as whole collections, and some folks don't really treat their records all that good. The great thing about the Disk Doctor and VPI is that you can have a very dirty record turn out near mint. Notice I said dirty, not scratched up. Nothing is going to help with scratches or badly worn records. In fact cleaning a badly worn record, one that has played on a saphire needle for example, will make it worse. However, the fact that a records has scratches that you can see does not mean that will be audible.

The Disk Doctor (DD) fluid does not contain alcohol, thus it is safe for all records, including old 78's which can be damaged by alcohol. However, when you buy garage sale, thrift store specials, etc. like I do, you can end up with records that have liquids spilled on them, or other gooey substances on them. I don't want that stuff on my (DD) brushes. In addition, while DD says that you can simply use the fluid full strenght on really dirty records, I have found there is some stuff that is cut better with an alcohol fluid before using the DD process. So when I have a really dirty looking record I use my alcohol based fluid on makeup removal pads and hold it on the record while it spins. I keep using pads until I get one that is totally clean. This photo is of the first two pads on a record I just happend to be cleaning when I took these photos for you. They look worse then in these photos, the yellow goo is probably from smoke, don't know if it is tobacco or pot []. I have pulled goo like this off of records that I have cleaned with the normal DD process. While DD will get a lot of stuff of of records, there are some things that disolve more easily in alcohol and others that clean up better with his water based system.

The point being, despite what DD says about alcohol based cleaners (they are harsh for records), you will want to have an alcohol based cleaner around if you buy used records at garage sales, etc.

Hopes this helps,

Travis

[Parrot]

Here is a photo of the arm wand and tower in place. I am not very smart so I put a red sticker on the tower that I use for the "clean" cycle, and a blue sticker on the tower I use for the "rinse" cycle.

Color coding is a good idea. I think the Red sticker should be used for the Rinse cycle (R for R) and the Blue for the Clean cycle, though. Or better yet, just write Clean on one sticker and Rinse on the other.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Thanks for all of the info. I called your guy in Texas. Really nice guy. After gettign this TT set up I'll put an order in for a VPI.

I see that you just use two different heads on the same riser. I was picturing two risers for some reason.

As far as solutions, I am sure that the premixed stuff is a rip off. Usually some distilled water and a few household chemicals equals the "designer" stuff. Any forumlas out there for a home brew?

[Travis In Austin]

I have a receipe for a home brew here somewhere, I tried everything at one time or another and you should try both. Your home brew vs. the DD. Clean one side with one and the other with the other and see what you prefer. I ended up going with the DD which is not too bad because you mix it 2 to 1 with water.

Travis