Ramar Tina

REVIEW
Alan Sircom
Mar 04, 2026

In a vinyl world where obsessiveness is the norm, the humble record brush was rarely much more than an afterthought. Until Rangel Vasev of the Berlin-based Ramar introduced Tina and her six counterparts. These are record brushes as art, but beyond that, they work damn well.

The differences between the seven brushes are the finish of the wooden case, while premium-priced models are wrapped in metal. ‘Premium’ for the metal versions is the wrong term, as Tina is beautifully finished. Each brush features a two-piece case milled from a single walnut blank, with the bristle cover finished in chemically-plated Nickel.

Magnets

The oiled-wood case snaps shut thanks to eight magnets, strong enough to keep the brush in place, not so strong as to trap your fingers. However, the magnets repel if you try to put Tina the wrong way round. This ensures the grain on the box matches perfectly. In addition, the CNC-milled lower-case ‘ramar’ logo is always in the right place. There’s also a magnet in the lower box for the supplied stylus brush (called Angus), which is held in place by four magnets and available separately. And beneath that stylus brush is Tina’s serial number. Seriously, it has a serial number.

That serial number is not just for ownership brownie points; it allows Ramar to track the fibres used in your brush should it ever need repair. I’m not sure the six dual rows of carbon fibre hairs coupled to two rows of goat hair will ever wear out, but it’s nice to know that a brush this costly can be restored. Day-to-day cleaning of the brush is provided by a cork-backed felt disc, supplied at the top of the tube in which Tina arrives. You can buy replacements.

The packing tube also includes a six-card manual, bolted together, and QR codes linking to videos showing how to operate Ramar’s brushes. Before you start sniggering and pointing to the decades of record-brush use already under your belt, Ramar recommend an arcing backwards-to-forwards motion as opposed to the more commonplace ‘slide the brush to the edge of the record’ action. You then remove dust from the brush by wiping it tangentially across the felt disc. Afterwards, you repeat the process if necessary.

On to something

There are two points to this. First, Ramar is onto something with this cleaning method. I tried it with my old Decca record brush, which I’ve had since the late Jurassic Era. It improved its cleaning properties. The combination of the arcing motion and ‘cleaning the cleaner’ with a felt pad made me a little bit embarrassed that I’d been doing record cleaning wrong for all this time. Oops!

The second point is that the Ramar Tina is better than any brush I’ve used, by a significant margin. None seems to get as much dust off the disc as Tina does. Also, none are so willing to deposit dust onto that felt pad. Records are quieter and more vibrant, as if you rolled away a few years of play. What’s surprising about the Ramar Tina is that it works well on seemingly clean – or even recently cleaned – records. It’s surprising just how much dust sits on the grooves within seconds of taking that album out of its sleeve. Moreover, the combination of very gentle cleaning and Tina’s inherent antistatic properties makes even recently cleaned records sound more detailed and fresher.

Angus the stylus cleaner is excellent, too, although it faces stiffer competition. I’ve been using a long-discontinued Audio-Technica AT-637, and I’ve never found anything to better it. This gets close, though. Close enough that if that ultrasonic cleaner finally gives up the ghost, Angus lies waiting.

360 room elephants

Let’s face the elephant in the room. Three hundred and sixty elephants, to be exact. From the outside, £360 looks like a lot to pay for a record brush. However, the Ranar Tina delivers the goods and looks great while doing so. In fact, if you take your records seriously enough to invest in a top-notch turntable, arm, and cartridge, the Ranar Tina is a must-have!