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

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...

 

@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.

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.