Anyone else ever experiment with wet playback?


From time to time I will get back into this. Wet playback vs. dry is night and day. Talk about "liquid smooth"!!! One caveat is ALWAYS true, however: once you have wet-played a vinyl LP you can NEVER dry-play it.
gaslover

Showing 2 responses by crem1

Wet playback does appear to smooth out the sonics . Unfortunately, the pull on the stylas may cause the cartridge's front-end to be altered. The alternative is to properly clean the Lp , reduce friction on the stylas thereby extracting the most information possible during playback. Steam Cleaning perferred.
Imagine the micro world of cartridges. The V grove is filled with liquid , the debris accmulated from manufacture to the home enviroment deposits in the V grove. Liquids give the appearence of "less friction" but the soup you create is filled with all sorts of micro stuff that impose limitations on the stylas. Just because we can not "see" the restrictions doesn't mean that a they don't exist, thats what microscopes chart-out.

Of course , all depends on the cartridge stylas size, and lots of of issues that can put you sleep. Depending on the cartridge the drag will be higher or lower but all have an effect on playability. Again, if you talking 78's and 6-12+gr. arms whats the difference- you need all the help you can get just to play the side. In todays world, carts are made to play @ 1-2 grms. You want to play wet go ahead, twenty-thirty years ago I did the same, but I have a feeling you could change your feelings when the Lps groves begin to fill with even more gunk as the years roll on. Cheers, Charlie