Vinyl foibles
I'd like to make this a space to ask questions about vinyl problems you're having trouble solving. I have a lot of questions, but I think it's better if we ask one at a time, or else I think we could have long lists.
Here is my first question. I have a Degritter album washer. I think it works great. I wash all my albums once, but not before I play them again and again. Somehow, though, and this includes new albums no one else has ever touched, they pick up ticks and what sounds like scratches. I rewash the album and it sounds like new again. I only touch albums by their edges. How do inner bands become so dirty that sometimes a smudge can last a minute or more? I've been playing vinyl albums for more years than many of you have lived, and I have learned to be very careful with vinyl. Are there vinyl gremlins haunting my album shelves?
@audio-b-dog It's more likely that you are bringing the static to the turntable where it us being grounded by the metal platter.
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I feel a little bit foolish to be constantly repeating myself, but setting all the armchair theorizing aside it has been my experience that there is a solution for the static on records problem and it works quite effectively when used as directed. Furutech Destat III. I wish I could loan you mine. If you buy it from Amazon and you don't like it you can always send it back. If I had the problem you describe, I would not let my financial advisor stand in the way. YRMV. |
I haven't found that static is audible, generally. The main problem with it is that it attracts dust to a record. I use Zerostat guns and have always found them quite effective, but the humidity in my home is about 50%; maybe they don't work as well in lower-humidity rooms. It is necessary to zap the record before and after play, even when flipping to the other side. I suspect the friction from the stylus induces static on the record. I have also reduced static by cutting inner sleeves on two sides so they open like a book, reducing the sliding of the record, which generates static. LAST record preservative also seems to reduce static some, especially the older formulations; I'm not so sure about the current formulation. I second others' advice to clean records before playing, even new ones. They have mold-releasing compound on them which can supposedly reduce sound quality, and which can be cleaned off with certain cleaning products. I don't know if an US machine does that; I use a vacuum RCM. |
I'll use the Zerostat gun before playing records. Cleaning, on the other hand, takes about five minute on the shortest Degritter cycle. I work while I listen and want to move along with my work, so I won't clean with the Degritter, although I bruch the record. I always clean new records before playing. Again, when I was using Audionet's PAM 2 and only had the turntable grounded to it, rather than also grounding the PAM 2 to my Venom power supply, static became so bad the stylus was skipping tracks. Something about the Audionet, although it sounded brilliant, built up static. |
Another of the endless topics about vinyl, what kinds of interconnects do you folks use from your turtable to your phono preamp? I picked up a pair for a few hundred dollars many years ago. My VPI Fat Boy tone arm is wired with Nordost and I wonder if I'm defeating VPI's purpose by having inexpensive interconnects. Although, I never have blown the budget on interconnects and speaker cables. Mid-level Audioquest is my speed. |
