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Record cleaning near Oxford

G

Gremlin

Member
Hi all, I've recently inherited about a hundred records. They look fine to the naked eye but they're all noisy as hell and need a clean. I do have a Project machine (I forget the model) so I could buy some more cleaning solution and start working my way through them, but that was a chore when I did my own records a few years ago.

Does anyone know of a good record cleaning service within reasonable driving distance of Oxford? I'd rather not ship them as they have sentimental value and all the record cleaners I could find on Google were up North somewhere. Yorskhire seems very well catered for. :)

If I do need to ship them should I be looking at buying a flight case, or is there something better (and lighter) for this purpose?
 
Peak HiFi in Yorkshire…but in the south of the county have an ultrasonic cleaning service, might offer a discount for the amount you need cleaned.
 
It may be worth contacting Deco Audio in Aylesbury. They clean all of their used stock and may be either able to help or offer some pointers.

I'm also in Oxford but don't know of anyone who provides this service locally. I'd be interested to hear if you find a solution.
 
Anyone commercial will be look at over a £1 a record plus carriage

Just start with the ones you want to listen to and see how it goes...especially as you already have a machine ;)
 
kjb said:
It may be worth contacting Deco Audio in Aylesbury. They clean all of their used stock and may be either able to help or offer some pointers............
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I live in Aylesbury and was going to suggest Deco. However depending on which side of Oxford you live, it will take you, roughly an hour to get to Deco. So two hours there and back - roughly. If a record takes 5 minutes or so to clean then that's 20 or so records you'll have done yourself just in the time it takes to travel between the two places. Given you have the record cleaner, would this not be a better use of your time?
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've spoken to Rapture and Deco Audio as I've used them both before (just as shops) and they can both do the cleaning. It never would have occurred to me to ask them. They both do wet/vacuum style cleaning, so no fancy hypersonic stuff, but the prices are good. I think Rapture said they have a Loricraft professional machine, but I forgot to ask what Deco use.

Rapture are slightly cheaper but you'll need to take your own inner sleeves if you want to replace them. They're mostly geared up for one or two records at a time 'while you wait' but said I could drop off a collection if I wanted. The guy who usually does them is only there on certain days of the week though. Deco provide new sleeves as part of the (slightly higher) price and were happy for me to drop a collection off.

In the end it came down to how bad the traffic on the A40 was (in and out of Oxford), so I've taken some records over to Deco and I'll see how they turn out.
 
Mynamemynaim said:
Just start with the ones you want to listen to and see how it goes...especially as you already have a machine ;)
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I don't really know which ones I want to listen too. They're so incredibly noisy I've only played a few (I'm worried about my stylus), and whilst I like what I hear I'm being surprised by what I like (my grandparent's musical tastes being quite different to mine). That's half the fun; and why I want to clean all of them. They're all pre-digital too, so they're not likely to be on Spotify (afaik).
 
Gremlin said:
I don't really know which ones I want to listen too. They're so incredibly noisy I've only played a few (I'm worried about my stylus), and whilst I like what I hear I'm being surprised by what I like (my grandparent's musical tastes being quite different to mine). That's half the fun; and why I want to clean all of them. They're all pre-digital too, so they're not likely to be on Spotify (afaik).
Click to expand...

It might sound odd but I'd opt for a vac clean first followed by an ultrasonic clean, by somebody who knows what they're doing, if I was paying. I agree with starting with a few to giving them a test run...
 
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