vinyl question

[robin]

as some of you may know I got back into vinyl last weekend, so tonight I put my first brand new album for many years on, and theres random loud pops and some crackleing, :shock:

how can this be its brand new

 

[meninblack]

Welcome back to vinyl!

Top tips to minimize noise (you'll never eliminate it!)

1. Wet clean your vinyl, even if brand new

2. Make sure your arm and cartridge set-up is spot on.

 

[rocky raccoon]

Could be the quality of the vinyl. Some of the new stuff is not as good as a lot of the old stuff.

There is also some sort of gunk in some records that causes audible distortion. I bought Aerial by Kate Bush and the end of the sides was unplayable. If I didn't know better I'd have thought it was the cartridge set up. A double-clean with Disc Doctor solved the problem entirely. Mould release agent ? Who knows.

The best way to find out is clean that sucker ! Disc Doctor, Distilled water & a vacuum cleaner with some wands is a good way to do this. If you're serious about records, you have to do it. It can be done on the cheap (my wands are copies of VPI wands made from electrical conduit with clothes-brush material super-glued on either side of a slit in the tube, connected to a second hand vacuum cleaner. My cleaner' is a Jap-crap TT found in a skip with the arm removed........)

http://s572.photobucket.com/user/bloodyhell451/media/MVI_0042.mp4.html

It sounds rudimentary but by god it works. Whichever way you choose to wet-clean them - you won't regret it.

 

[Bazzer]

Welcome back to vinyl! Top tips to minimize noise (you'll never eliminate it!)

1. Wet clean your vinyl, even if brand new

2. Make sure your arm and cartridge set-up is spot on.

Correct, you wont notice it soon Robin just enjoy the music :^

 

[BD Audio]

Wet clean the vinyl, use a brush, make sure fluff isn't hanging from stylus before playing.

 

[robin]

cheers guys will look into this- more cash involved :doh: , and some finer adjustment is needed I know, like the other two screws from the arm to armboard, once I get I drilled

 

[pmac]

more cash involved :doh:

You're on the boat now Robin.

Expect worrying bank statements, concerned comments from the other half, frustration,

oh, and sublime music, once you've got it right :stereo:

 

[Bazzer]

You're on the boat now Robin.

Expect worrying bank statements, concerned comments from the other half, frustration,

oh, and sublime music, once you've got it right :stereo:

Oh yes, you'll wonder why you ever bothered with that Johnnie come lately silver coaster :^

 

[pmac]

Oh yes, you'll wonder why you ever bothered with that Johnnie come lately silver coaster :^

Cheers Barn'

I'd almost forgot that there was actually a use for them :^

 

[voyduser]

Welcome back to vinyl! Top tips to minimize noise (you'll never eliminate it!)

1. Wet clean your vinyl, even if brand new

2. Make sure your arm and cartridge set-up is spot on.

I concur - Make sure that vinyl is spotless, a wet cleaner is the best solution.

Also, some cartridges are more prone to surface noise than others. When I changed from a MM to a good MC I found a huge reduction in surface noise, so much so that most of my well looked after vinyl is nearasdammit silent.

 

[awkwardbydesign]

TRy to minimise static.

 

[FiftyPlus]

TRy to minimise static.

Reading the above is a bit of deja vu. Back in the 70s vinyl listening was full of paranoia. There was mass record cleaning, wet playing, setting cartridge weights as low as possible, and many other routine practices. Result - CD started to seem like a good idea when it arrived. I argue that wet cleaning routinely is not neccessary and might actually cause harm to the disc (that became the percieved wisdom of many towards the end of the paranoia period). Actually what makes the most difference is correctly matching your arm, cartridge and turntable, and setting it up properly. When I changed my turntable from a popular japanese design of the day to my present Focus One with budget Linn arm, even using the same cartridge and styli, records I had given up on because of poor sound or surface noise were suddenly transformed and remain reference discs to the day. Most albums I buy still sound good, new and old!

 

[browellm]

I just cleaned some new vinyl, and now it sounds worse. :dunno:

Whatever I've done has introduced a lot of what I would describe as "soft" pop/click surface noise that wasn't there before. I don't know whether it's down to the cleaning solution or my cleaning technique.

 

[vacdac]

I just use a side to side scrubbing action using the supplied C.F. brush with my Moth Pro mk2. RCM Mark. I do this directly over/parallel with the suction arm. As this is mounted from the underside, it offers good lateral support so the LP doesn't flex under the scrubbing action.

Certainly with some brushes if you exert too much force to the scrubbing action slipping & making contact with any hard edges on a brush could be an issue. Only fairly light but firm pressure is actually needed to do a v effective job IMV.

I've always found some improvement following a clean.

 

[RobHolt]

I' going to disagree and say that wet cleaning isn't necessary for relatively quiet surfaces.

I have an RCM and while it's nice for problem or old vinyl, it's far from essential IMO.

Static build up can be a problem as mentioned up thread and this can be addressed through correct grounding of the arm and TT.

Good secure tracking from a properly set up cartridge is essential - and after 30+ years playing with more cartridges than I can remember I've tended to find that those tracking at the higher vtf of 2g+ have given the most secure, clean tracking. Featherweight tracking encourages noise IME and I never go below 1.6g.

You could just have a poor pressing. Plenty about unfortunately.

Don't discount the fact that years of listening to pop free digital will have conditioned your listening, so initially any noise from vinyl will seem more intrusive.

 

[robin]

I' going to disagree and say that wet cleaning isn't necessary for relatively quiet surfaces.I have an RCM and while it's nice for problem or old vinyl, it's far from essential IMO.

Static build up can be a problem as mentioned up thread and this can be addressed through correct grounding of the arm and TT.

Good secure tracking from a properly set up cartridge is essential - and after 30+ years playing with more cartridges than I can remember I've tended to find that those tracking at the higher vtf of 2g+ have given the most secure, clean tracking. Featherweight tracking encourages noise IME and I never go below 1.6g.

You could just have a poor pressing. Plenty about unfortunately.

Don't discount the fact that years of listening to pop free digital will have conditioned your listening, so initially any noise from vinyl will seem more intrusive.

cheers rob, but grounding the rega arm with its plastic mounting looks tricky

 

[vacdac]

cheers rob, but grounding the rega arm with its plastic mounting looks tricky

I thought that your Arm was an A.O. RB251, FULLY FETTLED BY J7 @ Audio Origami Robin. I thought his rewiring jobs on Rega arms usually included a dedicated/separate earth lead, rather than Regas usual arrangement of earthing to one channel of the output phono lead.

I think it may be possible to add an 'earthing pin' to these arms & a seperate earth connection from this. I'm not sure how this is achieved, but I've seen mention of this somewhere. Deffo possible though, as my Michell Technoarm, had a proper separate earth lead. This exited from the same point at the underside of the arm as the phono lead out wires.

 

[robin]

it appears not, has the A O sticker on it, but no earth lead, wouldn't know what else to look for compared to a standard arm

 

[vacdac]

it appears not, has the A O sticker on it, but no earth lead, wouldn't know what else to look for compared to a standard arm

TBH Robin this may be no issue here.

If any other Wammers have heard your new TT bits. I'm sure they'd have been wise to any issues pretty sharpish. Chris who delivered it should have sussed out fairly quickly if your new bits had any hum/ground loop issues. Presuming he had time to stick around of course. I know he knows TT's & there vagaries pretty well.

Funnily enough this was discussed in this thread from yesterday. If you read this & my next post here.>>> .http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?92854-Noise-recording-with-Rega-Fono-Mini-Help-please!&p=1684429&viewfull=1#post1684429.