2) TRUTH IN ADVERTISING:

LATEST NEWS FROM MR. MICHAEL FREMER:
Reference:
https://trackingangle.com/features/at-pacific-audio-fest-2023-ari-craneheritage-auctions-director-of-vinyl-acquisitions-interviewed#comments

His Video, Title: At Pacific Audio Fest 2023 Ari Crane, Heritage Auctions Director of Vinyl Acquisitions Interviewed. CHARLES KIRMUSS RESTORES A SUPER-VALUABLE RECORD FOR CRANE

His Subject Material: At the Pacific Audio Festival, Michael Trochalakis gets a video scoop for Tracking Angle at the Kirmuss Audio booth. First Michael describes his experience getting a prized record restored by Charles Kirmuss and then Kirmuss turns the microphone over to Ari Crane, Heritage Auctions' Director of Vinyl Acquisitions. You'll want to watch this video for sure!

FREMER QUOTE IN RESPONSE TO A SCEPTIC:
" I've cast a critical eye and pen at Charles Kirmuss for as long as he and his machine have been on the scene. I've gone after him on video and in print, asking for proof of his statements. Over the years he's gone to great lengths to clarify and amend his claims and statements and ultimately, I find his claims and statement about his machine and processes and others to be true. I suggest you watch the end of one of the AXPONA 2023 videos (on my channel trackingangle.com ), in which a chemical engineer with no "skin" in this game discusses the science behind Kirmuss's record "charge" vs. water's "charge" and how his spray works. So yes, Kirmuss's statements over the years have been probed, disputed, and have been "fact checked" well before this video was posted. END QUOTE.

SUMMARY: Not only does the Kirmuss Process remove films left over from prior cleaning methods used as well as the pressing oil that surfaces during the record manufacturing process, also now discovered where it also removes films left over by the outgassing of the record in a polyvinyl sleeve and coating the record over a year upwards to 70 plus years.

Indeed all process surface clean and shine records. Not the intent of the Kirmuss process as just described. The Kirmuss allows your stylus to pick up the details in the vinyl as pressed as best as it can. The Wally Tools from WAM Engineering and J.R.Boisclair allows your cartridge and tone arm to be at their best. Both allow you to hear the music as it was intended to.

4) AS TO VALIDATION OF THE KIRMUSS PROCESS: The Keyence VHX-7000 digital 2D/3D microscope is used to see dirt and dust once fused in the cooling of the record's pressing's release agent, dust heard as a pop in a new record, both removed. Your ears will also hear the improvement.

We used this microscope to prove where there is a measured reduced height of the groove where not only the release agent has been removed, but also films inadvertently air or vacuum dried onto the record's surface by other peer cleaning processes, ultrasonic or not.

FURTHER: Using a spectrum analyzer, a net increase in signal over floor is measured, the result depends on the provenance of the record and how it was previously cleaned. Your ears will also be the judge: the breath of the artist and music revealed.

This result of increased signal and frequency response is also measured using tools we have on hand: Specifically: an Agilent Spectrum Analyzer, Nakamichi TC100 signal analyzer, Shure and Ortofon Cartridge testers, and lay equipment such as amps and tape decks with VU meters.

YOU BE THE JUDGE: At Audio Shows and at Authorized Dealer Events we ask that you bring in records from home to do a before and after audition and measurement. BRING IN THOSE NASTY ONES! This to see first hand the process and hear the improvement. BRING IN A RECORD CLEANED BY ANY OTHER PROCESS! Seeing and hearing is believing. No other manufacturer that we know of has gone to this extent to prove their process.

With release agent and any films left over from air or vacuum drying removed, this increases the imagery, soundstage, and timbre of the record, it's like seeing your needle ride the stamper!

5) Technical Topic as to the myths surrounding Ultrasonic machines and as to the myth of ultrasonic frequency: The Kirmuss KA-RC-1 uses a 35 KHz, 810 Cavin pressure, even ultrasonic signal throughout the tank. The original signal is modified with a passive resonance of 70 KHz to even out the known uneven effects of cavitation. Per the ultrasonic loading factor rules, only 4 records maximum may be inserted in a 7.5 liter tank without affecting even cavitation and resulting record groove restoration power. We prove this using aluminum foil records that should see even dimpling of the foil. (Convex, not concave, as imploding bubbles create a void, a vacuum of sorts, low pressure area, that pulls contaminants and the pressing oil away from the record). (That is why frequency needs to match what we are trying to achieve).

As to peers:
Mentioning “wattage” on a product data sheet has no meaning. Rather, pressure needs to be measured throughout the tank to see even effectiveness between records from record's edge to the dead wax area. This in Cavins or watts per square centimeter. (How does your ultrasonic fare?) Ultrasonic transducers produce an audio signal by way of an ultrasonic generator which when coupled to a stainless steel metal tank then excites the liquid that it makes contact with, creating microbubbles that rise, which in turn implode unevenly, causing that uncontrolled “plasma wave” and the "vacuum" or area of low pressure The closer the records are to each other, standing waves negate the effects of cavitation.

THE SCIENCE AND FREQUENCY: As dust, dirt and fungus are 3 to 5 microns in size, they are removed easily by a 35 KHz base sonic signal. The 40 KHz and especially 120 KHz and higher frequencies while they, to the layperson, create a smaller bubble size with increased velocity as a result of cavitation, to the contrary assumption, these are not destined and known to easily remove dirt and dust of 3 to 5 microns in a 6 to 35 micron “V"-shaped” groove. Rather, these higher frequencies are best suited to be used on items of greater detail than those found in a record's groove. The 120 KHz range sonics even if they do use cavitation are per science destined to better remove the smaller sub micron 0.05 bacteria found in the manufacture of silicon chips, substrates, spacecraft borne items, especially bacteria found in endoscopic cameras and medical instruments. Not dirt and dust in record grooves. Further: Bacteria do not affect the needle picking up music and the detail pressed by the stamper. To 25 KHz machines as used by many DIY enthusiasts with those notorious rotisserie skewers assemblies: known for their annoying loud noise, they are best suited for removal the removal of oil and grease.

5) A FINAL NOTE:
WATER WITH OR WITHOUT A SOAP ADDED AS ANY CLEANING SOLUTION IS REPELLED BY THE PVC RECORD. Even a record that would spin in the Kirmuss machine with proper cavitation and left alone for days will not see the pressing oil and contaminants in the groove removed. Other machines also will not do this as the water droplets are larger than the record's grooves. That is why IN ADDITION TO PROPER CAVITATIONAL FREQUENCY AND ENERGY DISTRIBUTION we need to additionally apply a spray to the record to change the charge of the record to be opposite to that of water. WE CALL IT RECORD IONIZATION.

( Stated: PVC and Water repel each other as they both have a slight negative charge. (even if water is a bi-polar molecule as it is a dipole). This charge per the Tribelectric Table of Charges.)

Thus, with the Kirmuss, several cycles in and out of our machine are needed as the induced charge that attracts the distilled water in the tank and that attracts the rising cavitational bubbles is "washed off" as the record spins.
To know when to stop this cycling: (End of the restoration process). (a): The colorant in the spray allows one to see what was removed by the ultrasonic in the prior cycle. (b): This rapid dissipation and a virtually dry record coming out of the machine indicates there is nothing else to remove.
(No air or vacuum drying needed. A lint free optician's cloth is used to mechanically remove any remaining water droplets from the record, droplets that are larger than the record's grooves).

Typically 4 records are processed simultaneously and are RESTORED in 18 to 25 minutes.

Once restored, this process is never again repeated.

6) RESULT:
New or vintage records see a 1.3 to 3 or 4 dB gain over floor, with aprox. a 20% increase in frequency response.

The needle will finally pick up the detail as pressed by the stamper. You will hear for the first time the increased soundstage, imagery, timbre, separation never heard before, even in new records. RESULTS GUARANTEED!

As to peer processes and cleaning solutions: Shiny records are not indicators where the pressing oil has been removed. Most further coat the record with a film using air or vacum drying.

A surface cleaning takes 2 minutes.