They are both pretty good. I use a clearaudio Simple Matrix, but have used VPI
and Nitty Gritty with excellent results too.
I'm sure we'll get a million different arguments (I mean suggestions) on how to
get your records clean, but I've had the best results getting old, dirty records
with some fingerprints clean with Todd The Vinyl Junkie's Vinyl Zyme cleaner.
It's an enzyme based cleaner (rumor has it that Mobile Fidelity's new cleaner
is also enzyme based, but they aren't talking...).
Get a carbon fiber brush and brush the heavy dust to the middle of the record
and blow off with compressed air. This will save your cleaning head from getting
a lot of heavy crud on it.
Get the full strength stuff, spray it on and leave it soak for about 2-3 min.
Vacuum it off, and then if you want to take it a step further, do one more pass
with distilled water. Let the water sit for about 30 sec and then vacuum off.
The VPI is kind of handy because you can have a seperate cleaning wand for really
dirty records, new records and one more for the distilled water step. Just depends
on how meticulous you would like to get.
But, this will work wonders and you will be amazed at how good those old records
can sound!
Good luck....
