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From: dca@edison.UUCP (David C. Albrecht)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Re: Phono Cartridge and Cleaning Records
Message-ID: <474@edison.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Apr-85 08:48:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: edison.474
Posted: Thu Apr 25 08:48:11 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Apr-85 23:36:37 EDT
References: <1282@watdcsu.UUCP> <1382@hou4b.UUCP>
Organization: General Electric Company, Charlottesville, VA
Lines: 30

> On this subject:  Musical Heritage Society advertises a cleaning machine for
> about $300.  They quote a glowing review in one of the golden-ears
> publications.  Has anyone had any experience with this unit?  It sounds like
> it's similar in principle to the K.M.  By the way, why are such machines
> so expensive?  Granted they have to be gentle, but wow and flutter specs aren't
> very critical, are they?

I finally broke down and bought a Nitty Gritty unit 340$ (ouch!) and maybe
I can say a few things about them.  Probably there are many reasons why
these cleaners are so expensive but I will speculate a little about it.

The thing has a 2.5hp vacuum motor which ain't cheap or quiet (check out
the vacuums at Sears sometimes) it also has a injector to automatically
apply fluid to the venturi felt cleaning lips, a rotation motor and
capstan, and a spify genuooiine oak case.

Even if all these components were mass marketed the unit I am sure
would still cost $150-$200 just looking at compareable vacuum cleaners.

It is not mass market, however, but rather addressing a rather small market
which tends to spend big bucks to buy status items to display in their
living rooms (some people call it esoteric audio, I call it status items).
They probably figure the more they charge for it the more bozos would
buy it ;-).

But seriously, given the cost of the materials and the size of the market
the price is only slightly outrageous.

David Albrecht
General Electric