Reducing background fizz and pops on Vinyl.

I was not knocking products, I was just wondering if their was a good way to do it without Miracle Treatments that cost alot. Please understand that I do not have hundreds of records so I have not found a way to justify the cost for about 20-25 albums. But I will consider putting my experiance in Record washing on my resume for the next dishwashing job thanks.

Matrix, I've got to chime in on this one. I have been collecting lp's for over 35 years and only recently purchased a Nitty Gritty machine. What I have found is that records that originally came with a paper sleeve almost always have surface noise and the audiophile lp's were markedly quieter. With the vacuum machine the surface noise is gone. Interesting though, it does take time and perhaps repeat "washings" to really get them clean and quiet. I wish I would have purchased a similiar unit years ago. My suggestion is get a vac machine now, save money for a really good table/arm/cartridge, and buy the vinyl last. I don't have experience with many tt's but can honestly state that my Linn/Ittok is stunningly quiet, revealing, and offers qualities not found with compact disc.

Going back in time, my first "real" table was a Thorens with a Shure cartridge purchased in the very early 70's. I purchased a B&O years later for the convenience and bought my first Linn about 1980. Having kept the above mentioned tables and being able to compare their performance it became clear to me that much of the noise is table induced. Why else would the Linn, playing the same recordings, be so silent compared to the others? The lack of background noise is but one benefit. After all this time I can still rediscover hidden nuances in my collection as veil upon veil has been lifted through upgrades. This is coming from a guy that rarely upgrades but wishes he would have done these things early on.

Regards,
Patrick

Matrix,sorry to be so sarcastic. If I knew of one I would not need the $600 record cleaning machine I bought 20 years ago.I can't imagine playing records without it. If you only have a small collection it is hard to justify the cost of the machines. Someone out there may have a great DIY formula for you. This is why CD's have been so popular. They are real easy to use. Unfortunayly there is no free lunch with analog,everything, including the cleaning of the vinyl seems to be pricey. The Disc Doctor thing sounds like sort of a pain in the butt, like washing "dishes". With only 25 you won't get dishpan hands, I just imagined trying to do one or two hundred, it could take months to get thru them all.

Dear Matrix,
Great question. I have tried many of the above mentioned products. Many of which are quite good too. I have the best, consistent sound improvement with Genuine Gruv Glide. I've used Gruv Glide for over 15 years with fine results. It's easy, and very economical. Check out their web site at www.gruvglide.com for reviews and technical info.

Hope this helps, Happy Listening!
hififile

Thanks guys I appreciate the honesty, and I am pretty much sold on the quick and easy fix of the Gruv-glide because it is cheap and everything I read about it makes sense. It is a lubricant and it would have to physically give smoother playback after a good basic cleaning and treatment. so I am going to try it and go from there and that way i'm out 20 bucks and so what? Its worth the attempt to get quiet playback without getting to deep into it. I hate buying equipment and tweaks now, I use to do it all the time, but now All I am worried about is the music thats all I want to hear, I don't care about who's name is on the products anymore as long as they work. :-) thats why I wanted your experiance's so I don't follow the same crash and burn paths by my own trial and errors as I used to.