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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
drmuso's avatar
drmuso
249 posts
 

@audio-b-dog  You're welcome.  IIRC correctly, records tend to get negatively charged, and you just want to use the Zerostat to give them positive ions, which happens when you pull the trigger; releasing the trigger produces negative ions, so you direct them away from the LP.   I've read here that it's desirable to pull the trigger slow enough to avoid the "click" sound, but that's hard to do on some of the guns.

"Karma" is a great record, well-recorded as well as good music.  Alice Coltrane's music from this period fits well with Pharoah's and he plays on some of them.

audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
788 posts
 

@drmuso 

I have a number of Alice Coltrane albums on vinyl, and I was fortunate enough to see her live about forty years ago. I also saw Flora Purim live about the same time, as well as the great Brazilian Jazz artist Tania Maria. Flora Purim's "Encounter" is another album in the progressive jazz (abstract jazz?) category that I play often. It's a great one for testing out new equipment. I just picked up her husband Airto's album "Free," which is fantastic for hearing all kinds of sounds. I like playing music so much, I probably don't spend enough time on tuning my equipment as I should. I have a Pass Labs preamp with louder and softer adjustments for both channels. My left speaker needs more umph. So, I just give it a few more dBs of power rather than moving it all over the place. 

mikewerner
132 posts
 

Vinyl can also be dangerous.

I recently placed a BRAND NEW album on the platter and gave it a small shove to start it spinning. The edge was so sharp it cut my finger. I left blood on the tracks.

Too much...

 

audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
788 posts
 

@mikewerner

That's a vinyl foible if I've ever heard one. I am working on getting the anti-tracking right on my VPI Prime Signature with a Fatboy Arm. I am in contact with VPI because on a blank record the arm seems to speed too quickly to the center, and I've done everything I can think of doing to slow it down.

mikewerner
132 posts
 

The fact is you need two hands to handle vinyl. That's a foible too.

Especially since I'm going to have shoulder surgery next month. I'll have to put it down for a while.

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