Okki Nokki - worth it?

[Paulq]

Having recently invested in a TT to resurrect my 30-year-old vinyl collection I am considering investing in an RCM and the Okki Nokki seems highly regarded.

I am just baulking at paying over £400 (I know the sonic ones are over £1k) for something to clean records so it's going to have to be pretty outstanding for me to buy it.

Has anyone experiences using them who can comment on their quality and value for money? Are there any alternatives that do as good a job as they are reputed to do?

Thank you.

 

[AntAxon]

If you have hundreds then perhaps it is worth the outlay. Personally I found the Knosti Disco Antistat to work really well with an outlay of only about £40. You can make your own cleaning fluid using the What HiFi receipe.

 

[iceman16]

I have no experience with the Okki Nokki but my Pro-Ject VC-S rcm really works well and more affordable.

 

[daytona600]

clean records are essential for vinyl reply

Okki made in china , Project made in EU

 

[Paulq]

I am not really bothered which solution I end up with but if there's one that's effective and doesn't cost the earth then I'll go for that. I just have no prior experience with anything other than an anti-static brush.

 

[thescarletpronster]

I suppose one relevant factor is how many records you have. The Knosti does a decent job of cleaning the disc, but it's completely manual and a bit of a pfaff. And you have to leave discs to dry in the rack for c. 20 minutes before you can pack them away; there are only 8 slots in the rack, so that limits how many you can clean in a set space of time.

I have a Knosti (couldn't justify the outlay on a vacuum cleaner) and have been very pleased with the results, but it is hard work and I've not yet finished cleaning my entire collection (I bought it in 2012)...

A vacuum cleaner is many times more expensive to buy, but should do a better job of cleaning the discs than the Knosti (it'll suck off the residue rather than leaving gravity to pull it off) and will be a lot more convenient and quicker to use.

Does that help?

 

[Al ears]

I suppose one relevant factor is how many records you have. The Knosti does a decent job of cleaning the disc, but it's completely manual and a bit of a pfaff. And you have to leave discs to dry in the rack for c. 20 minutes before you can pack them away; there are only 8 slots in the rack, so that limits how many you can clean in a set space of time.

I have a Knosti (couldn't justify the outlay on a vacuum cleaner) and have been very pleased with the results, but it is hard work and I've not yet finished cleaning my entire collection (I bought it in 2012)...

A vacuum cleaner is many times more expensive to buy, but should do a better job of cleaning the discs than the Knosti (it'll suck off the residue rather than leaving gravity to pull it off) and will be a lot more convenient and quicker to use.

Does that help?

+1 The size of your collection should determine the outlay on devices such as these. They don't need cleaning that often if stored correctly and I dont own one. With my LPs I am luckily enough to have a cheapest deal with a local record shop that will clean my muckier ones for me otherwise is the Knosti and a bit of elbow grease.

 

[Paulq]

I haven't actually counted them but, at a guess, around 250 with plans for expansion

.

They could do with a clean as prior to buying the Rega they had been in the attic for around 20 years. If a vacuum is the best one then so be it, I'll just have to take a big deep breath at the cost.

 

[Al ears]

I haven't actually counted them but, at a guess, around 250 with plans for expansion .

They could do with a clean as prior to buying the Rega they had been in the attic for around 20 years. If a vacuum is the best one then so be it, I'll just have to take a big deep breath at the cost.

Whilst I would never advocate someone buying a RCM that might cost more than their turntable the choice is, obviously, up to them .

 

[thescarletpronster]

With 250 records that have been stored reasonably carefully, I think you'd find the Knosti enough for your needs. You don't have to clean them all at once; you can clean a batch of 8 each time you want to listen to something that you haven't yet cleaned.

Another point: did you buy most of your records new, or did you buy lots of second-hand records? And are you planning to buy mostly new or second-hand from now on? In my experience, a lot of second-hand records are horrendously mucky and benefit massively from cleaning (sometimes even ending up near mint); the records I bought new in the 1980s mostly didn't particularly need a clean, although they still benefited from cleaning.

With 250 records, I'd recommend the Knosti, and do them in little batches when you're in the mood. You'll then have £400 to spend on records!

If you do opt for the Knosti, let us know as there are some detailed threads in the history on this forum with tips, including how to make up a good cleaning solution. I'll try to find one of them for you.

 

[nopiano]

Hi Paul, you may remember that last year I heard the Ortofon roadshow where they demoed several cartridges in one session. The records were universally quiet, and an audience member asked what they did to maintain them. (For context we heard about ten albums, most with two passes of the particular track). The answer was only that they’d all be cleaned on Pro-jects own record cleaner. To be fair, the turntable and cartridges themselves probably deserve some credit!

I made a mental note of that, and I think brownz has mentioned them here too, as the latest model is better, quieter?

Can see why a £50 cleaner is much better value, but with your collection if it costs about a quid per record you might feel that’s worth it. I recently got a used LP described as near mint and it was filthy. A decent cleaner might resurrect it so I’m going to try a Knosti I think. Thankfully, most of mine play very cleanly despite being mostly 40 years old or more!

 

[Paulq]

Hi Paul, you may remember that last year I heard the Ortofon roadshow where they demoed several cartridges in one session. The records were universally quiet, and an audience member asked what they did to maintain them. (For context we heard about ten albums, most with two passes of the particular track). The answer was only that they’d all be cleaned on Pro-jects own record cleaner. To be fair, the turntable and cartridges themselves probably deserve some credit!

I made a mental note of that, and I think brownz has mentioned them here too, as the latest model is better, quieter?

Can see why a £50 cleaner is much better value, but with your collection if it costs about a quid per record you might feel that’s worth it. I recently got a used LP described as near mint and it was filthy. A decent cleaner might resurrect it so I’m going to try a Knosti I think. Thankfully, most of mine play very cleanly despite being mostly 40 years old or more!

Hi nopiano

Thanks for that. I guess one of my blind spots here is that I have never used one before so I have little idea whether the more expensive ones such as Pro-ject and Okki Nokki are actually worth it. Using my TT is an occasional pleasure, to be honest, but given that most of my vinyl is approaching 30+ years old I have no idea whether such a device would actually improve it. I always tended to look after my stuff so it's all in respectable condition but there is an inevitable build-up of dirt and fluff that you cant see with the naked eye.

As always, there's a range of opinions from 'buy cheap' to 'buy expensive'. It's like the source and speaker discussion all over again.

.

Thanks for your help.

 

[insider9]

I've seen a very interesting record cleaner at the last Kegworth Hifi Show. It was made by one of the forum members Tim (Spider). He's based in Chesterfield.

He makes them now. I believe the price is £250 and from what I've heard everyone's happy with results.

Have a look here's a link

https://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/127148-homemade-ultrasonic-vinyl-cleaner/?tab=comments#comment-2223374

 

[insider9]

I've seen a very interesting record cleaner at the last Kegworth Hifi Show. It was made by one of the forum members Tim (Spider). He's based in Chesterfield.

He makes them now. I believe the price is £250 and from what I've heard everyone's happy with results.

Have a look here's a link

https://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/127148-homemade-ultrasonic-vinyl-clea...

 

[thescarletpronster]

I always tended to look after my stuff so it's all in respectable condition but there is an inevitable build-up of dirt and fluff that you cant see with the naked eye.

A clean would certainly always improve the sound, but on my 30+-year-old records that I bought from new and looked after, the improvement was marginal. If it's just loose dust on the records, a decent carbon-fibre brush (there's Pro-Ject one for about £10) might be all you need. It's when there's caked-on dirt (the kind that second-hand records shops excel in) on the record that a cleaning machine really comes into its own, sometimes even turning an almost unlistenable rice-krispie-fest into an as-new, beautiful-sounding record.

Cleaning does also get rid of static, so if you find your records sticking to the ceiling (or just to the inner sleeves, or attracting dust when they're on the turntable), it might be worth buying a machine. But if your records are all in really nice nick, a brush might be enough to get the dust off – I don't know whether it would be worth spending £400, or even £40, on a machine. Only you can know, really.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

The only problem I have found with the Knosti is label bleed as the seal doesn't stop the fluid wetting the outer edge of the label, apart from this it's a cheap method of cleaning.

 

[Gonepostal]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but why can’t someone invent a wet wipe that can be used on records, similar to what I used when I changed my babies nappy.

 

[Al ears]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but why can’t someone invent a wet wipe that can be used on records, similar to what I used when I changed my babies nappy.

Probably because it wouldn't lift the cr+p out of the grooves which is the whole object.

 

[Gonepostal]

Fair enough, so it was a silly question lol

 

[Al ears]

Fair enough, so it was a silly question lol

Not really, it certainly would be good if someone invented one that could lift the dirt.

 

[Gonepostal]

Exactly. Some clever person out there must be able to do it. It can’t be that hard, I’m not talking about it being as thorough as a cleaning machine, but if the records are in a reasonable condition then just being able to grab a wet wipe and give it a clean wound be very easy to do.

 

[AntAxon]

If you want to give the records a quick clean then you could spray a little of the WHFi cleaning fluid on a Lidl Micro Fibre cloth.

They are really soft I use them for cleaning/dusting the plastic cover of my record deck and my HiFi.

 

[brownz]

Hi Paul, you may remember that last year I heard the Ortofon roadshow where they demoed several cartridges in one session. The records were universally quiet, and an audience member asked what they did to maintain them. (For context we heard about ten albums, most with two passes of the particular track). The answer was only that they’d all be cleaned on Pro-jects own record cleaner. To be fair, the turntable and cartridges themselves probably deserve some credit!

I made a mental note of that, and I think brownz has mentioned them here too, as the latest model is better, quieter?

Can see why a £50 cleaner is much better value, but with your collection if it costs about a quid per record you might feel that’s worth it. I recently got a used LP described as near mint and it was filthy. A decent cleaner might resurrect it so I’m going to try a Knosti I think. Thankfully, most of mine play very cleanly despite being mostly 40 years old or more!

The MK1 VC-S used a very hi-torque motor geared down - which was quite chattery !

The MK2 VC-S addressed this and a few other items fed back from customers.

As per all other vacuum based machines the vacuum motor is noisy, so I normally sit there banging through a crate with a pair of headphones on ! (and maybe a wee glass of Ardbeg or Lagavulin).

As with all cleaning solutions (not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs) but always remember to use distilled water for the best results.