If you have extremely steady hands, a bright light and a good loupe (10X Tripplet minimum, glass not plastic) you can usually "pick out" the offending material or deformed vinyl wall. I have done this on several occasions. My tool of choice is usually a 24-26 gauge syringe needle, which has a very sharp point and a nice taper. Re-clean the LP after surgery. Good luck.
Vinyl pops and clicks: Can they be eliminated??
I have a Mobile Fidelity issue of "Close to the Edge" by Yes. The LP is at least 20 years old or more. Always help up well until today. There is now a skip that repeats over and over. Other pops and clicks don't interrrupt the flow of music like this one. I checked several things: cartridge, tracking, stylus, and also damped cleaned the LP, but it continued to skip repeat in that one place. It may be time to retire this piece of vinyl, but if I could inexpensively repair or correct that skip, it would be great. However,I intend to replace this album with the Japanese SHM-CD import when the reissue is available again. All advice welcome
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Sunnyjim, In 2008 you inquired about record cleaning to eliminate "pops, clicks and noise" on this thread. Did you adopt any of the ideas offered there? You never responded to any of our suggestions. Two years later your pops, clicks and noise have become actual skips. If you'd wet cleaned and vacuumed your LP's effectively that would not have happened. I have 4,000 LPs and most are 30+ years old. None of them has a skip. Only a few have any pops, clicks or noise worth mentioning. One of the unavoidable downsides of vinyl as a music medium is that it requires effective maintenance, which requires some effort and expense. Without maintenance it can indeed be a frustrating medium, and Sid42's advice may be best. |
This is a frustrating nature of the vinyl beast. All you can do is clean them the best you can. Accept that the surface noise is a trade off for the better more natural sound of vinyl over digital. You have to train your ear to hear the music and drown out the pops and ticks while you are enjoying the natural timbre of Jon Andersons Voice, the technical guitar work of Steve Howe, the bass line of Chris Squire, etc. It is a great album, I have it as well and my copy is less than perfect. But I also have the CD and it is less involving regardless of the CD player I use. I use the Walker 4 step and a VPI 16.5, I also use L'art du'son, MoFi Enzyme, Record Research, to name a few. You may try different methods but eventually admit, some vinyl is just scarred for life. Try Palasr's advise if you can clear the skip, enjoy. Not being critical here, just pointing out the reality of an old technology that with all things considered, should not sound as good as it does. |
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