Analog Gear News

Allsop Brings Back the Orbitrac

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 11, 2016

We started lobbying Allsop to bring back the Orbitrac almost as soon as its demise was announced. We got no response so started a campaign on musicangle.com to no avail.

For those unfamiliar, the Orbitrac is a record cleaning accessory. It was part of Michael Wayne's pre-cavitation obsessive record cleaning regimen and probably still a great way to start cleaning very soiled and/or contaminated records, before using cavitation or vacuum cleaning for that a matter.

We gave out the corporate email address so readers could lobby for it. Then sadly Brett Allsop was killed in a single car automobile accident back in the spring of 2010. A reader forwarded this email:

My name is Linda Pilon, I am personal assistant to the Allsop family. Brett Allsop passed away in a single car accident back on August 18th, I have attached a copy of the local newspaper article about Brett. In regards to the record cleaner we do not have any plans at this time to restart production on this item. Regards,
-- Linda Pilon
Corporate Administrative Assistant
Allsop, Inc.
PO BOX 23
Bellingham, WA 98227-0023
T 360-734-9090x371 F 360-733-4302
linda.pilon@allsop.com www.allsop.com

Don't know if Linda is still at Allsop, but finally, the Oribtrac is going back into production:

COMMENTS
AnalogJ's picture
Submitted by AnalogJ on Sun, 2016-12-11 21:04

I don't see any retailers carrying at the moment (in the US, anyway)

PAR's picture
Submitted by PAR on Mon, 2016-12-12 03:47

It is a nice thing that old valued accessories are being put back into pproduction. A vibrant market must be the reason.

Also good to see from the video that the foldable work pad has been retained. I have found it so useful for general record fettling duties beyond use of the Oribitrac itself.

Even as a user of a cavitaion machine I can still see many uses for a new Orbitrac.

JohnEcc's picture
Submitted by JohnEcc on Tue, 2016-12-13 07:48

Just discovered an Orbitrac 2 with bottles of cleaner and brand new replacement pads. Also found some
TM-7XH SuperFluid. Michael what do you think of using a couple of drops of Torumat on pad and then rinsing with distilled/reverse osmosis/water of choice for used dirty records?

Wimbo's picture
Submitted by Wimbo on Tue, 2016-12-13 23:18

but just in case,I find Biodegradable White board cleaner first, then distilled water or similar does a very good job.
Both times using separate directional brushes or pads.

flatmap's picture
Submitted by flatmap on Tue, 2016-12-13 08:29

According to the youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5SaGF-2JLI
they will be displaying at CES 2017, Booth # 30912 LVCC South Hall 3.

orthobiz's picture
Submitted by orthobiz on Wed, 2016-12-14 16:50

Hope they don't find themselves smudging the newly cleaned records.

Paul

atomlow's picture
Submitted by atomlow on Mon, 2016-12-19 08:00

I have one of these Orbit record cleaning kits I purchased in 2005 or so. While it's decent the SpinClean is a much better setup to effectively clean records. I never was very confident this really cleaned my records all that well and it's hard to keep the pads clean. There's also a chance of damaging your records if you slip up.

Brother John's picture
Submitted by Brother John on Thu, 2016-12-22 23:47

that I got from you Michael and it still works flawlessly.

In_Dreams's picture
Submitted by In_Dreams on Tue, 2016-12-27 21:58

I did have the Orbitrac for a while in the 00s but sold it on eBay since it wasn't getting used. I felt the set-up of it was a bit tedious when I could clean faster with a Nitty Gritty. I wouldn't mind re-visiting the product now that I have more time to engage with it. I do still get excellent results though with my vintage Discwashers and *real* D3 and D4 fluids (still in my stock) for those records only needing a little touch-up. Enjoy!

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