Ultrasonic stylus cleaner and digital pressure gauge in one, the S-Duo offers excellent value for maintaining and setting up your turntable.
Via their HumminGuru brand, Happy Well International Enterprise are on a mission to manufacture quality turntable and vinyl accessories at sensible prices. Following on from their excellent record cleaner, the HumminGuru S-Duo is a combined ultrasonic stylus cleaner and digital pressure gauge, designed to simplify the process of cleaning and setting up your stylus.
The S-Duo is a nicely designed and well made little unit roughly the size and shape of a computer mouse. Power comes from four AAA batteries (not included) and, with suitable cells installed, a clear plastic protective cover can then be removed from the scale platform and the unit is ready to use. For cleaning, plain water must be added using a pipette to the small water basin on the cleaning side of the S-Duo, then a rubber support chosen from the small selection supplied. It’s important to set the water level such that the stylus is just submerged but the cartridge and cantilever remain dry. With the stylus floating in the water, tapping the cleaning button activates a slightly anticlimactic cleaning process, completely silent and with no visible feedback that anything’s actually happening, save for the 20 second countdown timer. Once the timer reaches zero, use one of the dust-proof drying pads to dry your stylus tip. Job done.
You don’t need to remove the cartridge from your tonearm to clean the stylus; the S-Duo can be placed on the platter of your turntable, meaning that the entire process is quick and easy. The results are effective even on a dusty, well used cartridge. Examining the stylus with a loupe, it’s noticeably cleaner even having been dusted with a carbon brush before using the S-Duo. In addition to the sonic benefits of more precise playback, a clean stylus will also help protect your records and avoid wear; it makes a lot of sense to use the S-Duo in combination with a good record cleaner such as HumminGuru’s ultrasonic offering, ensuring that all aspects of your vinyl collection and turntable are kept in optimal condition. HumminGuru don’t specify how frequently your stylus should be cleaned, and it’s a hard question to answer dependent on how much you use your turntable and how clean your records are.
When it comes to setting stylus pressure, the S-Duo is turned 180 degrees, aligning the pressure gauge to the right hand side as you look at the unit. Pressing the touch-sensitive button for the pressure gauge, the numbers on the display flip to face you and show the weight on the scale. A 5 gram calibration weight is included to test the scale, specified as being within ±0.01g tolerance. Sure enough, our review unit measured the weight at 5.01g, reassuring us that the scale was accurately calibrated and within tolerance. Once you’re happy with the tolerance, setting tracking force is a simple trial and error process, adjusting the tonearm according to your turntable manufacturer’s instructions and dialling in the force required for your chosen cartridge.
The simplicity of the S-Duo makes it a pleasure to use. The entire cleaning process can be carried out in just a few minutes from start to finish, while checking tracking force is a matter of seconds. It’s worth noting that not all cartridge manufacturers are on board with ultrasonic cleaning and some, including Ortofon, specifically recommend not to use a cleaner like the S-Duo. But with due care taken in the process, you can safely clean a range of cartridges (and many would argue that Ortofon are being overly cautious with the recommendation). Digital pressure gauges are widely available for little money, but the ultrasonic cleaner is likely to be the main draw here. At a very reasonable price of just over £130, the S-Duo proves effective, simple to use and well built.
Greg Scarth
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