A few years back, I stopped obsessing over my analog front end. The turntable—and all its supporting infrastructure—can be a maddening time burglar. One day your turntable sounds fantastic, beyond reproach, musically satisfying in a way that digital, be it streaming or physical disc, can never replicate.
The next day it sounds like hammered shit. And it’s a fool’s game trying to track down exactly what’s causing the problem. You can mess with cartridge alignment and VTF, re-route wires, whatever you want. And nothing will work. So you leave the room, disgusted, angry, and defeated. Maybe it’ll take a day or two, but eventually you come slinking back, ready to try some more troubleshooting. The first thing you’ll probably do is slap a disc on the platter and take another listen, to remind yourself of what’s wrong.
And you know what? Suddenly it’ll sound great again. It’s maddening. So on those very rare days when things don’t sound right, I’ll typically roll my eyes, give the ’table a little pat, and leave it to sulk. Then I’ll come back another day, and it’ll probably have fixed itself.
My lack of fussiness has saved me a lot of angst, and it makes for an easier vinyl life. The one thing I won’t stand for, though, is a dirty record. This is the single consistent aspect of my decades-long analog life. And, of course, since part of the charm of a quality vinyl rig comes from the fact that it requires you to lay hands on it, I’ve always found satisfaction in cleaning records, no matter the method.
From flat brushes to vacuum-cleaning machines to ultrasonic baths, I’ve enjoyed them all—but I’ve especially enjoyed improving my game. And now, I think I’ve reached my endgame with the AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One ultrasonic record cleaner from Audiodesksysteme Gläss.
This one-box machine combines ultrasonic cleaning with physical brushes, and it’s totally automatic. Just drop your record in, and it takes care of the rest. It’s a premium product, retailing for US$3699, CA$4895, £2800, or €2799, but as I think you’ll see, it lives up to its billing.
It’s like the car wash, but for records
The chassis of the AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One is made from a smooth composite embedded with a fibrous material. It’s a no-nonsense finish that looks like it will hold up well over time. Water droplets don’t stain or discolor the surface, and it doesn’t show fingerprints. It’s utterly businesslike while still feeling high-quality. The machine is available in white, black, gray, and a cool fire-engine red. Although the red one appeals to me greatly, I think I’d choose the gray of my sample because its industrial vibe matches the machine’s purpose.
Despite several back-and-forths with the distributor, I couldn’t get a definitive answer about the frequency generated by the AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One’s ultrasonic emitters. And after doing a shallow dive into the science behind the differing frequencies used in the products currently on the market, I decided that their reticence was fair enough.
While ultrasonic frequency affects cavitation behavior, I could find no definitive scientific evidence that 40kHz, 80kHz, or 120kHz—or anything in between—is inherently better for cleaning vinyl records. My understanding is that the cleaning system’s implementation matters at least as much as, if not more than, the frequency.
So I guess it all comes down to whether this thing works. Does it clean my records? How well does it accomplish this? Is it easy, fun, and satisfying to use? Those are the questions that matter.
Setup is fairly simple. Given a new, empty unit, just dump 4.5 liters of water into the washing chamber, then add one of the small bottles of cleaning fluid. Place the foam filter inside its little chamber and replace the clear lid. Done. Ready to go.
The AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One is a pleasure to use. You just drop the record in the top like a piece of bread into a toaster, then push the power button and then the start button. It’s exciting the first few times—and still kinda cool after 40 records—to watch the machine slurp water out of the reservoir into the washing chamber. Right off, the drive wheels start turning the record; once the chamber is full, the four microfiber cleaning barrels clamp down and begin to spin, each pair counter-rotating to avoid torquing the record’s trajectory.
Two rubber windshield-wiper blades on the right side of the machine sluice the fluid off the record as it rotates. This prevents any fluid from dripping down onto the label. At no point in my testing did fluid touch a record label, so it obviously works.
The cleaning cycle is quite short: about 90 seconds, depending on when you start the timer. Then the pump drains the water down into the reservoir, and the microfiber barrels move aside far enough to no longer be touching the record. Next, the two fans—one on either side—spool up, and within three minutes, the record is dry. The fans, each of which has its own filter, are surprisingly quiet, given how much air they move.
You need to be a bit careful when removing the record. It’s important to lift it straight up; otherwise, it can brush against the still-wet cleaning cylinders, and you’ll get a bit of water on the surface. This happened to me a few times, but it was no big deal. I just rubbed the wet spot against my T‑shirt. If you were toilet-trained earlier than I was, you can reinsert the record and run another drying cycle by pushing and holding down the start button until it beeps six times. That engages the fans for another full minute.
The only operational oddity I encountered was when, on occasion, the record failed to rotate. Depending on how you initially insert the record, it may not always make sufficient contact with the drive wheels. After about ten records, I discovered the solution. Lower the record in, push it all the way to the left, then—snick—a little push to the right and it slots right in. After discovering that little handling trick, I did not encounter this issue again.
Audiodesksysteme Gläss states that a single fill-up with one bottle of cleaner is good for around 100 records. The word around is doing a lot of heavy lifting—if those are filthy garage-sale records, then obviously that number should be reduced. Likewise, if you’re only cleaning new, just-unsleeved records, then maybe you could clean more with that one fill-up.
The box includes two bottles of fluid, so that’s around 200 records. Audiodesksysteme Gläss really wants you to use its own cleaning concentrate, warning in the user manual that if any other fluid is used, “no liability can be assumed for damage to the device or record. Furthermore, the warranty will be invalidated.” The fluid is available from their website (a 20ml bottle costs €12) or from dealers. The box also includes a satin-like dustcover. It fits quite snugly, and—as far as I’m concerned—it’s not the best for day-to-day use. As I used the AudioDesk maybe five days out of seven, I didn’t really want to fuss with the supplied dustcover. Instead, I simply placed a piece of cardboard over the top plate to stop airborne contaminants from settling into the exposed works.
In order to change the fluid, you need to access the drain plug around back. That means you’ll either have to move it to the sink, or use a bucket to catch the fluid. Since the AudioDesk Premium isn’t overly heavy, and since the fluid doesn’t slosh around when the machine isn’t in use, I’d vote for the sink option.
There’s a slot at the back of the machine that holds a rectangular sponge filter. To my eye, this appears to be a bypass filter. Water circulates around and through the filter, but it doesn’t actually have to drain through it to escape the filtering chamber. That said, it clearly works. After about 60 records, I could see the filter becoming discolored from extremely fine sediment. While replacement filters are available separately or in Audiodesksysteme Gläss’s 500-record accessory kit, I found the filter extremely pliable and easy to clean with some Dawn dishwashing liquid.
The primary consumable is the aforementioned cleaning fluid. Longer-term user-replaceable parts include the microfiber roller brushes, O‑rings for the drive mechanism, the sponge filter, and the two wiper blades. You can get all these supplies from Audiodesksysteme Gläss’s website or from your local dealer. Not included, but available from Audiodesksysteme Gläss, are adapters for 7″ and 10″ discs.
So that’s how it all works. The most important takeaway for me is that, near as I can tell, there’s currently no comparably priced record-cleaning machine that combines ultrasonic cavitation with automated mechanical cleaning in the way the AudioDesk does. My VPI Cyclone has long been the machine I’ve trusted and enjoyed for its solidity, simplicity, and brute-force effectiveness, but in close second place comes the Spin‑Clean Record Washer Mk.II, which uses brushes and a water bath. In some ways, it’s a primitive AudioDesk, obviously without the ultrasonic component, the magical automation, or the fan drying.
Some considerations. First off, you have to use the supplied cleaning fluid. Without this surfactant, the ultrasonic process can’t get deep into the grooves, so it represents an ongoing cost.
Further, since you’re committed to using cleaning fluid, that means some tiny amount of that fluid may remain on the record’s surface after it’s been washed. Personally, I really, honestly, truly don’t care. The record has been sanitized within an inch of its life. It’s clean, it’s done, it’s fine. A couple of molecules of surfactant are irrelevant to me, but you do you.
My neighbor Ron ran about 60 or so records through the AudioDesk Premium and was exceptionally satisfied with the results. As I tidy up this review, I’ve cleaned 40 total records. From day one to now, the machine has worked flawlessly.
Kills 99.9% of all germs
Let’s get this out of the way. It’s impossible to accurately compare the performance of record-cleaning machines without setting up some sort of industrial rigmarole involving numerous copies of the same record, a standardized contaminant-application process, controlled cleaning conditions, and statistical analysis. Before you get all in my face about microscopes and imaging and all that, consider this: no two records are the same. Further, once a record is cleaned, you cannot get it back into its pre-cleaned state and run it through a different machine. Even if you have two brand-new records and you run them through two different machines, you can’t guarantee that the original, pre-cleaned state was identical. I once received a brand-new record that was noisy AF. I returned it and received a replacement that was silent. How could I have used them to compare cleaning machines?
So the purpose of this review isn’t to tell you how clean the AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One actually gets the record compared to other machines. Not to get all meta, but what I’m trying to do here in this review is relate to you how this machine works, what it’s like to live with, and, yes, whether it cleans records well. The last part isn’t scientific, and I won’t pretend it is. That said, I’ve been cleaning records for over 30 years, so I have a pretty good grasp of what actually works.
Further, there’s no way I’m going to play a filthy record on my ’table just so that I can clean it and then play it again. I’m still too fussy for that kind of thing. So my before-and-after dirty-record tests were largely relegated to visual inspections—did it remove fingerprints? Are the surfaces clean and glossy? My actual A/B listening tests were limited to records that were visually at least somewhat sanitary, along with some that I’d already cleaned with other machines so that I could see if the AudioDesk Premium would improve on previous methods.
The upshot: the AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One cleans records exceptionally well. That’s totally not surprising, given its functionality. The brushes rotate at a good clip, such that in those 90 seconds they’re running, they’re not only scrubbing but also agitating and circulating the cleaning fluid across the record’s surface, complementing the cleaning action of the ultrasonic waves.
I attacked a whole bunch of old garage-sale classical records that were buried in an almost-forgotten cube of my record rack. Some were marginally serviceable, and I did a before-and-after listening test on a couple of those. One example was a 1966 recording of Mozart’s Serenade No. 10, with Otto Klemperer conducting the London Wind Quintet & Ensemble (Angel 36247). This is a nice piece of classical music—not the best in terms of recording quality, but hey, if I remember correctly, it was free. Anyway, the AudioDesk Premium removed a fair number of ticks and pops, and it also dramatically reduced the surface noise.
This was a solid win. The record’s sound quality improved noticeably. Part of that improvement was the reduced surface rumble, which let me focus better on the start of notes and the trailing harmonics.
The real winner in this experiment, the barn burner of my garage-sale classical records, was Robert Schumann’s Liederkreis, performed by baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Gerald Moore (Angel 36266). This is German Romantic poetry set to music for solo singer and piano. But to me, it feels like the soundtrack for having a molar pulled by the town blacksmith. Sonically, this 1965 record is magnificent. The center image is rock solid, and even though it’s mono, there’s tons of depth, with the piano directly behind the vocalist but—somehow—off to the right side just a smidge.
Here’s the thing. My first playthrough of side 1 was just fine. It sounded nice, and the music was just odd enough to capture my attention. But after I cycled it through the AudioDesk, it simply exploded out of the speakers. It went from being a nice record in decent shape to a totally silent, demonstration-quality recording. It wasn’t just a quiet pressing. Now it was dead silent. At this point I was running the Mola Mola Lupe phono stage into the Electrocompaniet EC 5 and AW 800 M combo, which is a blacker-than-black combination when it comes to noise.
The thing is, this record didn’t sound that bad; it wasn’t that dirty before the scrub. And more generally, the before-and-after results of a pass through the AudioDesk Premium were inconsistent. Then again, vinyl is inconsistent—from record to record, from one play to the next. An example of this was my reissued pressing of the Tragically Hip’s Road Apples (MCA 3844804), which is one noisy record, full of pops and ticks. I ran it through the AudioDesk and got some relief in return. The surface imperfections were reduced, but it was still not a quiet record. So I persevered, slamming it through twice more. Each of the first two times it seemed just a little better, but the third wash elicited no further benefit. Sometimes a noisy record is just that.
Clean and pure
Back in 2019 at the Montreal Audiofest, I watched with morbid fascination as Charles Kirmuss demonstrated his record restoration system. It was an involved process that saw Kirmuss use multiple solutions and brushes for manual hand scrubbing prior to lowering the record into the pool for an ultrasonic spa treatment. Kirmuss wore a lab coat but no PPE, and this uniform seemed appropriate. While I greatly respect his dedication, and while his process undoubtedly restores a record and makes it as clean as possible, there’s no way in hell I could handle that level of involvement.
For nearly a decade, the VPI Cyclone has served as an appropriate reflection of my level of commitment to record cleaning. It takes me about two or three minutes to clean a record—a wet wash and scrub with my alcohol-based homemade solution, then another quick swipe with a different brush and distilled water, with a vacuum-cleaning in between. Flip and repeat. I can decant a record that I want to listen to, eyeball it, and decide it’s dirty; then it’s over to the Cyclone, where I ram it through my process, and then back to the ’table.
The AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One is easier and undoubtedly more thorough. Drop the record in and push the button. Admittedly it takes a minute or two longer than my Cyclone routine, but who’s counting? And given that it’s totally hands-off, you can do other things in those five or so minutes—plus it’s quieter too, so it’s Time Regained, Marcel Proust–like, where lost moments are reclaimed from the noise.
I don’t think I’ll get any pushback when I say that if you’ve got a substantial record collection, you need an automated record-cleaning machine. If so, you’ll need to figure out what kind of process works for you. How much work do you want to put into the job, and how much are you willing to pay? A Spin‑Clean works very well, and it’s cheap. But holy hell, is it a lot of work. The manual drying process really sucks. The VPI Cyclone is fantastic—it’s built to last generations, and though it has all the finesse of a Soviet-era tractor, it cleans records well. That said, it doesn’t use the ultrasonic-submersion process, and I don’t think it’s quite as effective as the AudioDesk.
And then we have this Audiodesksysteme Gläss AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One, which is so slick, so automated, that it made me want to clean records. I can’t imagine a process that could be more effective—an ultrasonic bath combined with aggressive brushing just has to be top-level. The overall package is superb also: drop in the record, and it’ll wash, scrub, and dry it in under five minutes. And it’s fairly quiet too, unlike the Cyclone, which really earns its name.
Given the option, I would choose the AudioDesk over any process I’ve yet encountered. This machine is a clear winner.
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
Associated Equipment
- Turntables: VPI Prime Signature, European Audio Team Fortissimo S
- Cartridges: European Audio Team Jo N°8, DS Audio DS 003, Goldring Ethos SE, Ortofon MC 90X
- Phono preamplifiers: Aqvox Phono 2 CI, Hegel Music Systems V10, EMM Labs DS‑EQ1, Meitner Audio DS‑EQ2, Mola Mola Lupe
- Preamplifiers: Hegel Music Systems P30A, Meitner Audio Pre, Simaudio Moon Evolution 740P, NAD Masters M66, Electrocompaniet EC 5
- Power amplifiers: Hegel Music Systems H30A, NAD Masters M23 V2, Electrocompaniet AW 800 M
- Integrated amplifiers: WiiM Amp Ultra, Spec RSA‑EX1000
- Digital source: Meitner Audio MA3
- Speakers: Focus Audio FP60 BE, Aurelia XO Cerica XL, Totem Acoustic Sky Tower
- Speaker cables: Siltech Ruby Crown, Audience Au24 SX, Nordost Tyr 2, Crystal Cable Art Series Monet
- Interconnects: Siltech Royal Single Crown, Audience Au24 SX, Furutech Ag‑16, Nordost Tyr 2, Crystal Cable Diamond Series 2
- Power cords: Siltech Royal Single Crown, Audience FrontRow, Nordost Vishnu, AudioQuest Thunder, AudioQuest Hurricane
- Power conditioners: Nordost QBase QB8 Mk II, AudioQuest Niagara 5000
- Accessories: Little Fwend tonearm lift, VPI Cyclone record-cleaning machine, IsoAcoustics Gaia III Neo loudspeaker isolation footer
Audiodesksysteme Gläss AudioDesk Premium Silent Core One record-cleaning machine
Price: US$3699, CA$4895, £2800, €2799
Warranty: Three years, parts and labor
Audiodesksysteme Gläss
Seestraße 1
89551, Königsbronn
Germany
Phone: 49 (7328) 7138
Email: info@audiodesksysteme.de
Website: www.audiodesksysteme.de
