It’s winter, it’s cold and the trucks are out salting and gritting the roads.

Imagine that annoying bit of grit that makes its way inside your shoe, getting into your house and magically making its way into the grooves of your precious record collection. Too far fetched . . . maybe?

Now, Madonna is hardly a role-model I would normally turn to for quotes, but in this case she has a point when she says, “Let’s get into the groove...” and in the context of this months blog we would agree and that is why we are talking about the product referenced in the title, the Degritter Mark II.

Degritter Mark II

I can personally vouch for the need to clean your records, especially if they’re mine!

You don’t have to be playing an album by ZZ Top to have Billy Gibbons beard make a guest appearance on the end of your stylus! We’ve all been there and exclaimed, “Where on earth did that fluff come from?”.

Whether you own pets or not, an unfortunate fact of life is that we all shed skin and dandruff that forms house dust and this settles on surfaces. Records have an uncanny knack of acquiring electrostatic charge, especially when you take records in or out of a sleeve, whether they be albums by Van de Graaf Generator or not, so it’s not surprising that dust, fluff and grit find their way into places one might not consider being at risk of contamination.

So how to deal with this frequent occurrence for record collectors?

True Grit...

I’m sure John Wayne had a record collection and a turntable and wished he’d been able to purchase a Degritter Mark II back in the day. He may have avoided the eye injury necessitating an eye patch after a piece of grit spun off his 78’s ;)

But seriously...

Jesting aside, let’s get into the Degritter Mark II in some more detail. Designed and manufactured in Estonia, the Degritter Mark II has been making waves (pun intended) in the record playing community as an excellent cleaner, with some astounding sonic benefits, which we’ll discuss later.

Ultrasonic cleaning architecture...

The ultrasonic cleaning tank that’s in the Degritter Mark II is purpose built for vinyl records. The tank has two ultrasonic transducers on either side emitting 120kHz ultrasonic vibrations, evenly distributing the cleaning energy across the record’s surface.

The driving frequency of the Power Drive ultrasonic generator sweeps between 120-125kHz. This evens the cavitation energy distribution in the water, minimising losses and giving a uniform cleaning action.

ultrasonic motors on the Degritter Mark II

Clever features and simple operation...

Amongst the features the Degritter Mark II has are: Active filtering, record safe temperature control, smart drying and a post wash rinse option using a separate water tank.

No salt required - Degritter Mark II in use...

We’ve been keen to get the Degritter Mark II into action here at Audio T Brighton.

Your first requirement will be to obtain some distilled/deionised water to fill the tank. This is relatively inexpensive and available in the major supermarkets. Failing that, it is available for online purchase and a 5 litre bottle would be a good starting quantity, especially given the enthusiasm you’re likely acquire once the listening starts, post-washing.

I’m not going to go into every last operational detail in this blog because there is an extensive instruction booklet. However, the operation is very intuitive using the buttons on the front, which have a nicely damped and quality feel. The Degritter Mark II exudes quality and has the nicest feel of any record cleaner we’ve used in store here at Audio T Brighton.

Once the tank has been filled and the small, pipette amount of supplied cleaning fluid added and mixed, we were off...

Degas...

First step is to Degas the water, which uses the ultrasonic motors to remove small bubbles that may be in the water and hinder the cleaning process.

Quick, Medium and Heavy cleaning...

There are 3 levels of cleaning for the Degritter Mark II; Quick, Medium and Heavy lasting for times shown in the images below - we opted for Medium, which takes 8min 45secs(ish).

Degritter Mark II cleaning process...

As is shown in the sequence above, the Degritter Mark II has several distinct cleaning phases. The washing phase involves a slow rotation of the record with a small bi-directional oscillation thrown in for good measure. There are some “suds” from the cleaning surfactant as the process continues, but these are not excessive and water doesn’t cross the record surface to affect the record label when in use and it appears that the oscillation helps with the prevention of this.

Noise levels are quite reasonable compared to the pneumatic drill sound levels I’ve experienced on some record cleaning machines.

The drying phase is noisier, as one might expect, and similar to the sound of a hair dryer, but never excessive and dries the records very well, with no residue left on the surface of the record.

And that’s it! All that remains is to remove the record and start cleaning another, which you will want to do after listening to your shiny, spick and span record.

Where the rubber meets the road...

Or should I say, “Where the needle meets the groove.”? Madonna, eat your heart out!

I have to say that I was somewhat skeptical about the sort of enhancements to sound that the Degritter Mark II might bring.

It didn’t take long for my jaw to hit the floor . . . let’s say it took 8mins 45secs of the medium cleaning cycle plus the time it takes to cue a record and listen for few seconds. I mean literally a few seconds!

Noise levels are substantially reduced. Many folks talk about sounds emanating from a “black background”, but the way low level detail and dynamics are enhanced is quite remarkable.

Vocals are purer and silky smooth. Bass gets deeper and the decay length and detail in cymbal hits are much enhanced. It really needs to be heard to be believed!

Some users have claimed of further enhancements with additional washes and I have no reason to disbelieve them. I guess a heavy wash may have additional benefits.

Like a good fillet steak, whether you like your records rare, medium or well done, pleasure will abound after cleaning with the Degritter Mark II.

If you are interested in auditioning any of the products mentioned in this blog or from our extensive range of quality gear, please get in touch.

Thanks for reading.

Ade, John and Paul - Audio T Brighton

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to Contact Us.

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