Best way to flatten them is to run them over with a truck. It destroys the sound quality, but the will be flat. |
I performed a similar process on a badly warped record a few years back and it worked great. Used a hair dryer as the heat source and was very careful as to how much heat was applied and for how long.
Chuck |
Do a search of prior thread "warped lp's," it will give you a bunch of info. |
There is a treatise on a company making units to flatten LP's in the October Stereophile. This may be the safest bet to flatten valuable LP's. |
...and expensive.
glass in the oven will do fine. 10 minutes may be too short though. Be sure to leave it in the oven for the 24 hours with the oven off unless you like your licorice pizza crispy.
Rega glass platters work great because they're the optimal size and the thickness gives you the optimal weight, without the books as well as distributing and holding the heat optimally. |
I did it the following way: I placed the record between to pieces of granite, set in the center of my backyard with my tool box on top. I did it in mid July. Left it out for an hour or so, then turned the water hose and cooled it down. It's the only good thing about summer in the Great Southwest Desert. Tarsando do you leave the cover on or off ; |
Vegasears... I leave the cover off. Otherwise, the cardboard gets meshed in with the vinyl and it's harder to track. Plus, really, since the issue is flatness, the direct contact of the steel-belted radials with the bare lp stands the best chance of achieving maximal flatness. Hope this helps. (And because you mention it, I too live in that selfsame desert and do my best flattening in the summer before monsoons hit). |
Find a nice fat-bottomed girl and have her sit on them.....the soundstaging actually increases if you also feed her while she's sitting on them. |
I prefer round bottom babes... All my records are a flat as can be because I have a VPI Superscoutmaster with the periferal ring and center weight. I can't tell you enough how positively it affects the tonearm's performance. The arm sits quietly in the groove doing its work..it looks motionless. The resulting sound is great stability and naturalness. |
Well, thank you all for your responses
I think the Babes are out, I'm married, butt then again my wife has a cute little... never mind.
Sounds like a breeze if one lives in a desert
As for the truck - did it have off road tyres? - the big FAT ones?
Now...the VPI Superscoutmaster sounds very nice - at first I thought it was one of those multi bladed do it all knives
Thanks for the smiles - I'll look up the old thread |
In the last 2 months I have been seeking out 180 gram albums at around $45-$55/album
I'd heard that not only were the "recordings" superior, but 180 gram albums were much better quality "finish" compared to the "flimsy" albums of the past.
From this statement, I seem to have mistakenly assumed that "quality" also included a reduced amount of pops and ticks and NO scratchy areas
Since my quest began I have found that the "finish" on about 50% of my purchases does not even come close to that of the past.
Most of the albums (save two) have quite discernable pops and ticks and scratchy areas across the whole album and only about five of the albums, out of nine, are actually FLAT!
Two albums had so many pops cracks and warps, I returned them, at which point I was told "the pops, cracks and warping were within acceptable limits"
Acceptable to whom?
With the exception of the new albums, the rest of my collection is at least 18 years old - that's when I got my first CD player, and most of them are better "finished" pressings.
What are the acceptable limits?
- if the edge of the album is off of the platter by more than 1.5mm?
- the the popping and cracking occurs every 1-2 seconds throughout the entire recording?
I clean each new album with a carbon fibre brush at least twice before the first playing to remove any imbeded crud (or so I thought).
On the two albums I returned, it would have taken a jack hammer to remove what sounded like small bolders
When buying vinyl in the past I probably had to return 10-12, in 14 years of purchases, that were not acceptable to me. But back then, the record stores simply gave you a new album or a refund without any objections.
It seems from conversations with two store owners, my expectation level is just too high, but then, if the quality of two of my new purchases can be so good - why can't the rest?
If this IS the new world of vinyl - I'm going back to CD!
Is anyone else finding & returning a high percentage of bad 180/200 gram vinyl?
Does the 180/200 gram vinyl require extensive cleaning with fluids and brushes?
Should we live with warps? (a couple of albums are like a satelite dish and only contact the platter close to the label) |
agreed. Classic Records in particular seem to be negligent. Having said that, there is some benefit in deep cleaning even new record, regardless of the apparant shape it in. |
Clean your record and place it in a clean paper sleeve with a center hole. Place the record between two plates of glass. Place a heavy object on top (40-50lbs). Wait two weeks, remove and inspect. Still warped? Repeat until flat. If you're in a hurry, try the oven method. Once I used the oven method without success, so I just laid it on a shelf and it flattened after a couple of weeks. |
After giving this topic some thought, I remembered that my wife has an electric warming pad for her back, which should provide adequate heat to releive the stresses in the vinyl in a slow and controlled manner.
Combine this with two pieces of heavy glass plate and it may just produce the desired results
I'll keep you posted!
BYW - Mikkysix: from another thread - what is PRaT? |
PRat= Pace, Rythym and Timing |
A black hole is your best bet... A black hole will infinitely flatten your warped records into a singularity. |
In a black hole, all lp's sound the same--even the music |
It is the only way to be "at one with" the music. |
Probably not "at one" but "at infinity". Which, hey, might be the best way to listen! |
Probably not "at one" but "at infinity". Which, hey, might be the best way to listen! In a singularity, everything is one. This would include, "you," "me," and "the music." |
But the singularity is infinite and black holes can preserve information, although there is a sh*t load of jitter associated with it. |
But the singularity is infinite and black holes can preserve information, although there is a sh*t load of jitter associated with it The singularity may be infinite, but because it is not broken into discrete bits it is analog, thus it can't have jitter. |
