advertisement


What vinyl condition problems can you live with?

paulfromcamden

paulfromcamden

Baffled
The Discogs thread got me thinking about what vinyl problems bug me and what I can happily live with.

Unsurprisingly skips and jumps are out. Distortion from groove wear drives me nuts as well.

Off centre-pressings where the piano starts to sound like a stretched tape... argh!

The odd repeated click from a small scratch I can live with if it's not too intrusive.

General surface noise and crackle I can generally live with too. Especially if it's a nice loud pressing.

I've noticed it's strongly genre dependent though (or perhaps recording age?) - I'm far more tolerant of faults on 50s/60s jazz than, say, modern electronic music.

Curious to know how other members feel. Does everyone else only accept perfect minty vinyl?
 
I’m sure a lot of my records are less than minty but with a good clean and a well set up system, most surface noise etc is v close to being inaudible and certainly not intrusive in the main.
Warps, dishes and big scratches are out, of course.
 
RickyC6 said:
I’m sure a lot of my records are less than minty but with a good clean and a well set up system, most surface noise etc is v close to being inaudible and certainly not intrusive in the main.
Warps, dishes and big scratches are out, of course.
Click to expand...

Yes, me too.

When buying new, my biggest gripe is records being damaged in the post, so you end up with bent corners or seam splits; they nearly always go back. As for the vinyl, I remember an on-line record shop telling me that warps up to 4mm are acceptable (not to me they aren't); they sent me an LP where the label wasn't sitting flat. It had some kind of pressing fault, whereby the label was bubbled to the extent that the record wouldn't sit flat. They sent me two copies that were exactly the same, at which point I gave up. Pressing faults too, where you see the little dimples in the vinyl; they always go back too.

Buying used? It’s got to play all the way through with no major issues; no excessive surface noise or clicks or pops, warpage no more that 2mm, pressed on centre.

Sleeve, again, no major issues; in all, if graded correctly, minimum of VG+ is acceptable I would say.
 
I am prepared to have LPs in various condition so long as I have chosen it so. I will accept VG but frankly I have found that that can move over a wide spectrum of noise. I recently bought a record as mint which had a great visible mark across one side. "no, it's still mint because you cant hear the mark'!! And they were really a pain about getting the lp sent back and refunded.

I would be delighted to just have mint but frankly there are very few new records that you can guarantee are actually mint.
 
None. I just have to have dead mint vinyl (okay, nothing less than excellent condition then)! Having said that, it all rather depends on the scarcity of the item in question. With all the great (if expensive) heavyweight vinyl reissues that have become available since the 1990’s to now, I don’t see the point in paying the often inflated prices asked for sometimes poorly cared for originals dating from a time when records were just the standard carriers of recorded music.

Then again, a wonderful memory of my late mother just came to me, “I don’t like things to be too perfect...” as she cleaned her Rolling Stones album with a quick wipe on her jean trouser before banging the record back on the turntable for another spin...
 
I now only buy records pressed in the pre digital era. I fail to see the point in using an analogue medium as a carrier for digital recordings. Unless it's something I really, really, want, like a new Feelies record, I'm happy to stream or download it.

Condition wise, I stick to VG+ as a minimum on discogs, but will go to VG for really rare stuff. I'm currently hovering over a VG copy of Distortions by the Litter for £300. The only record on discogs that has been a disappointment was a spanking timewarp copy of Who Are You? with what sounds like horrible groove wear.
 
Groove damage or hot presses as it sets off my audio nervosa: Is the stylus worn? Did I not align the cart properly? OMG I’m going to ruin all my records.
 
I buy a lot of stuff via Discogs & eBay, and the sense of foreboding I get when they arrive is palpable: will it be a complete train wreck or not? The sense of euphoria felt when you see it and realise that it's far better than expected, is wonderful, especially 60s jazz albums. Once cleaned up, these have a 'presence' that far outshines whatever CD transfer has been made, and you can easily put up with the odd crackle.

I've only once had to reject an album for bad IGD, which is pretty lucky.
 
No wonder vinyl costs so much with so many being returned.

The medium is what it is - not perfect. But as said above, a well set up up system (this includes the phono stage), has next to no 'noise' and a good arm/cart can handle almost any disc irregularity.

Used vinyl is like a used car, all depends on how it has been treated under it's former keepers.
 
Inner groove distorsion. Clicks and pops.

I find ML tip profile is able to play a lot of records that are just awful with other profiles.
It can go deeper, where other badly aligned or agricultural tips have never been. Amazing.
 
Depends on the album. IME many albums recorded entirely in the analogue domain, do not transfer all that well to digital.
Classic rock is the genre I tend to listen to most, so for example the 'porky' vinyl cut, of Deep Purple's Made in Japan, with some warts and all is much more preferable than digital alternatives (including the much sooght after DCC cd edition).
 
Last edited:
paulfromcamden said:
Probably a daft question but don't you just end up with a centre hole that's too big?
Click to expand...

What I've done in the past creates more of a subtle 'egg' shaped hole. I then put a tiny marker on the label where it needs to be tight to the spindle. It's not ideal, probably buggers up the 2nd hand value, but it gives me peace of mind when playing it.
 
Surface noise and crackles and nothing else. Dishing and eccentricity are the worst.

LPs released since the late 90s have been such a lottery for me that I don't buy them anymore, and they're crazy expensive.
 
RickyC6 said:
I’m sure a lot of my records are less than minty but with a good clean and a well set up system, most surface noise etc is v close to being inaudible and certainly not intrusive in the main.
Warps, dishes and big scratches are out, of course.
Click to expand...

Good posting, also find MicroLine cartridges help, a record clamp for warps, Ultrasonic Record cleaning helps quite a bit, and l have found my valve phono ( where it is a dark sounding device) can 'disguise' imperfections, some records l have are incredibly quiet... though some are not so good.....:)
 
Depends how much I paid for it. Funnily enough those crackly records aren't so bad when you get a refund via Ebay because the seller has massively over graded it, serves them right though. I once paid £50 for a very rare dance 12", only to find the seller had sent it in a flimsy envelope! Amazingly it wasn;t crushed to pieces, just cracked, then the seller wondered why I negged him, to which he replied 'buyer returned, even though record was cracked, it still played"!!
 
Theo said:
What I've done in the past creates more of a subtle 'egg' shaped hole. I then put a tiny marker on the label where it needs to be tight to the spindle. It's not ideal, probably buggers up the 2nd hand value, but it gives me peace of mind when playing it.
Click to expand...

I never done the label thing, good idea!

I happen to know that at the Swedish Radio they had undersized center 'things' on the turntables and that the technichans playing the records where trained to do a centering of the records. Don't know excactly how, though.

Pssst. Don't tell any one here, but when I get a new record I imedatially transfer it to digital, so I only do the centering excersize once per side.
 
One of the few good things the Roksan Xerxes had going for it was the removable centre spindle, so you could align off centre holes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top