CES 2013

Record Doctor Manual Vacuum Record Cleaning Machine Returns

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 9, 2013

The venerable Record Doctor record cleaning machine, which resembles a Nitty Gritty minus a record spinning motor has been out of production for a few years now but thanks to the vinyl resurrection (it's gone way beyond a revival don't you think?) it's being resuscitated with a hoped for price of around $200.

COMMENTS
dolsey01's picture
Submitted by dolsey01 on Wed, 2013-01-09 12:03

This is bad for KAB,it will make the EV-1 a hard sell at it's current price but great for audiophiles on a budget.  It's hard to plunk down $400 and up on a RCM for people with small collections or a tight budget, but having been both, you need a RCM!  It's part of the price of admission.  Start with a spin doctor for $80 and grab one of these down the road as your collection grows and you'll have the cleanest records on the block and have spent less than $300.  Having said that, after you have spun 50-100 LPs on a spin clean, you'll be dreaming of a fully auto RCM.

dhaskell's picture
Submitted by dhaskell on Thu, 2013-01-10 06:37

Hmm, the ev-1 still kind of interests me because there's no need to throw out the fluid. 

 

Still this does look awesome. 

qwerty1234's picture
Submitted by qwerty1234 on Wed, 2014-11-05 06:08

And he will be taking to to track for the first time this weekend, when he gets behind the wheel in the first practice session. It started us thinking about other people who were the youngest ever when they completed their achievements in sport.
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Jim Tavegia's picture
Submitted by Jim Tavegia on Wed, 2013-01-09 17:34

Looks great to me. 

Jim Tavegia's picture
Submitted by Jim Tavegia on Wed, 2013-01-09 17:34

Looks great to me. 

vinyl listener's picture
Submitted by vinyl listener on Wed, 2013-01-09 19:03

... this back.

Tony Meador's picture
Submitted by Tony Meador on Wed, 2013-01-09 20:59

When we moved to the new casa 9 years ago, my old record doctor mysteriously vanished. I didn't really realize until after I had bolted all my LP shelves to the walls in the closet and though about where am I going to put that thing and have it plugged in? What thing?!? AGH!

I didn't replace it right away - then I couldn't believe they didn't make them any more!

Sorry, but the new Nitty Gritty machines are just a bit too expensive. My wife is already wanting to commit me to Betty Ford for my audio/photo/moto addictions.

And I could care less about time involved - I consider it part of the "ritual". What's the hurry? The electricity and Scotch ain't going nowhere.

Brother John's picture
Submitted by Brother John on Wed, 2013-01-09 22:12

I Purchased The Original Record Dr. from Audio Advisor many years ago for about $100.00 and found It  impossible to Vacuum Turn the LP's manually myself. I remember testing it out on old badly abused vinyl that was made even worse by the combination of the machines powerful vac and Its terrible manual execution! So at $200.00 It's not at all a bargain. Just the Opposite, Record Dr. Is an poorly designed device that threatens to ruin a good number of collectors valuble records.

Brother John's picture
Submitted by Brother John on Mon, 2014-11-17 06:57

A number of people I've talked with over the past year have bought the above unit and report only positive experiences with it so I must retract my above statement and consider the possibility that I either received a defective unit at the time or I didn't follow operating Instructions properly. So my apologizes for the above negative remarks about Record Dr.

Paul Boudreau's picture
Submitted by Paul Boudreau on Thu, 2013-01-10 02:47

FYI, the Nitty Gritty 1.0 & 2.0 models are completely manual (I cleaned maybe 4000 LPs with my old 1.0 between 1983 and 2011).  The NG 1.5 is the beginning of the "assisted" models (bought one in 2011).

http://www.nittygrittyinc.com/1.0_2.0.htm

TMink's picture
Submitted by TMink on Thu, 2013-01-10 06:56

is that this machine works quite nicely! I am quite certain that it requires more work and involvement than more expensive machines, but I am also quite certain that this little beast works and will clean your records for less money but more involvement.

 

Trey

tbromgard's picture
Submitted by tbromgard on Thu, 2013-01-10 08:51

I still have my record doctor from 20 years ago. It works great-just used it last night to clean a bunch of lps. Its a great budget purchase for those without a vacumn lp cleaner.

gorkuz's picture
Submitted by gorkuz on Thu, 2013-01-31 14:48

Brother John, Anyone Else,

Get a KAB roller bearing and cure the Record Doctor. Makes turning the record under high vacuum a breeze, entirely a different experience. I almost tossed mine out eventualy after actually fingernail scratching a valuable record while fighting the awful original design. Finger used to slip out of that benighted smooth finger dimple. There should have been at least a spin-knob there, but they went cheap(est). The bearing is cheap, goes on in moments and after that spins easily. if only I'd done that before ruining a record costing more than the bearing/cap combo...

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