Suggestions welcome!
Did the VPI line exist in 1976?
Our first major product, which is still in production in an improved form, was our HW-16 record cleaning machine introduced in 1981. Harry Weisfeld, then a dedicated audiophile, wanted his records to be as clean as possible (including the dirty ones whose sonic potential lay beneath a layer of contaminants). However, the only available record cleaning machine at that time was the Keith Monks Record Cleaner. How could a newly married husband justify this expense to his wife! (“Too bad some of those conversations were not recorded for posterity”, says one reviewer”; no doubt they would have had a familiar ring to many audiophiles and their designated others). Without much choice, Harry decided to make a record cleaning machine for his own use. This became the original HW-16, which sold for less than 1/5 the price of the Keith Monks Cleaning Machine. The 16 was noisy, but so was our corn popper.