Equipment, phono settings, cables and cartridge make a huge difference on the amount of noise you hear. My first system was an old Krell phono/pre, Clearaudio Moving Coil, and Krell amp. This setup had a soundstage that wrapped around me 270 degrees, was from the floor to the ceiling, and a couple of city blocks deep. The sound was crystal clear unlike anything I have ever heard, then or since. It also reproduced every pop and tick with supreme enjoyment and the groove noise sounded like surf on the beach. I enjoy my vinyl almost 50% of the time with CD's and streaming splitting the rest. The stylus size must be small to avoid previous groove wear. I am currently using a Benz Micro Wood SL that I bought rebuilt on Agon, using the 400 ohm setting and a Clearaudio Charisma MM cart, and I am playing records I felt were too noisy with great enjoyment. Good Luck.
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Also, I clean my records with a Nitti Gritti machine and use an Anti Static brush from Maple Shade. I have cleaned records multiple times with poor results because I played them with the same stylus shape that caused the damage to begin with. IE elliptical versus Shibata or Ridge Line. When I changed the stylus shape much of the noise disappeared. Also, I've bought quite a few records from Music Stack with good results. |
I agree with some of the other posters. Digital audio has progressed to a point that it is very competitive with vinyl. To my ears, they both have wonderful traits that are just different. They will never sound the same no matter how much money you throw at either format. I still have a nice vinyl rig and love spinning records. But streaming my files from a NAS or Quobuz from the internet sounds mighty fine. You shouldn't limit yourself to one format, you lose out on a lot of good music when you do. Oz |
People are always complaining about the records when I think it's their rig. While clean records are absolutely essential, the music to noise ratio is more important. Find someplace where you can compare your rig to a "Sota Star Saphire" TT; that will put you in the ball park of how much you need to spend in order to get a high SNR (signal to noise ratio) They do not require the most expensive cartridges either. |
CLEAN, QUIET LP’s (inexpensive manual method) I’m loving how quiet my dirty old lp’s sound. Your problem helped me out, I now have a very successful inexpensive manual cleaning method. I am getting essentially no noise out of old dirty static filled lps. I just cleaned a few NEW lp’s, to check, no noise, so goodbye mold compounds, .. If you get noise after this, something else is wrong! ...................... Listen to some music while doing this of course. Wear thin plastic gloves to protect your hands and block finger oil 1. plastic sheet to protect the table below. smooth white, so you can see any/every speck. kitchen garbage bag, or, thin plastic table cloths from the party store, something. 2. lay lp flat 3. cover lp paper label with plastic lid diameter of label, i.e. chinese soup take-out lid. 4. spray cleaning fluid on lp (my home-made mix below) 5. CRITICAL: scrub fairly aggressively: circular, back and forth a few times, with soft multi bristle brush (pre-wet with cleaning fluid for 1st lp) try an lp you don’t care about, you will find you can be more aggressive than you think. this is what really cleans deep into the grooves. 6. flip, clean other side: place carefully so paper label goes down onto dry area of plastic 7. rinse in distilled water in the record cleaning kit. CRITICAL: Distilled Water ONLY!!! spin 2x each direction, it has fine brushes for final cleaning while rinsing. 8. use the two included cloths to handle/pre-dry the lp, and put in the included drying rack. note: dry the center area of the plastic sheet where the paper label goes frequently with a separate cloth. dump distilled water after each batch of ten. rinse everything and dry between batches. ................................ Equipment 1. record cleaning kit with drying rack for 10 lps, $58. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GSSQ1MN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 2. distilled water, $1.00 per gallon (check online for stock before going to the store) https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Distilled-Water-1-Gallon/10315382?wmlspartner=wlpa&se... 3. alcohol, 91%, $3.00 https://www.target.com/p/isopropyl-alcohol-91-32oz-up-up-8482/-/A-13970972?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&... 4. wetting agent. $4.00 I use Finish, Jet Dry (dishwasher stuff) https://www.amazon.com/Finish-Jet-Dry-8-45oz-Dishwasher-Drying/dp/B0014E82II/ref=asc_df_B0014E82II/?... 5. soft multi-bristle brush, I found one in a drawer, but here’s a 3 pack, $9.00 https://smile.amazon.com/Scalp-Scrubbie-Sterile-Cradle-Sponge/dp/B005EJ7YH4/ref=sr_1_154_sspa?ascsub...= .............................. my mix, nothing scientific, a small 6 oz spray bottle (8oz, 10, doesn’t matter) 1. a few drops of wetting agent 2. 1 cap of condensed cleaning fluid that came with the kit 3. fill with alcohol. you may think it’s a pretty strong alcohol mix, but you will be rinsing right away, and, you will find, even that strong, finger oil spots will be very reduced but not fully disappear. I’m loving how quiet my dirty old lp’s sound. ................................... CLEAN STYLUS! Leave a small mirror on TT under your headshell, so you can see if the stylus is clean. Clean the stylus during if needed, and always after every listening session. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DI8I2JM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 my friend uses gel stuff, loves it https://coloredvinylrecords.com/blog/best-gel-type-stylus-cleaners/ ............................ Still use Anti-Static brush before each play, DRY, just a light touch needed to get any paper sleeve dust, airborne dust. |
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