more help with vinyl..


I posted on 11/02 and maybe one step closer to understaanding the complexity of tt's and music it produces. I have an old pioneer PL-516 with new belt & cartridge & 50 mostly used lp's. New Yamaha ax-596 amp with Paradigm speakers. 90% of my albums have much surface noise---pops etc.....newer stuff(mid-80's?) pop...that looks unplayed is ok. I bought the diskwasher system...no help. 2 weeks ago bought a great Ellington album.'59...looked great ..did the dw system again & again...only got worse.! I bought 2 new albums...played on my Kenwood system (new-2 years old and Pioneer PL_516) great! The Ellington record sounds bad on both systems...took the record to dealer in Spokane...auditioned Pro-ject 1.2....had seen reviews ..it sounded better but still bad. I bought the pro-ject 1.2 and will add a new cartridge (grado red) in about 6 months after I get this tt thing and vinyl figured out. I don't want to spend the $450 for machine but had hoped to save the 40 plus albums and restore them. It looks like I have to buy virgin or near mint records but most in second hand record stores look ok but still may sound poor (on my system)..am I right on this..? If this is right then I can only buy on internet or pay big $ for new records but at that cost maybe I should go for the convience of SACD, HDCD, etc. the cost differnce is not much over perfect LP"s. But once you hear great vinyl all your cd's sound so limited. Maybe the problem is I'm trying to do this on the cheap...? How do you get good vinyl sound for only $5-$10 per record...can you do this on my tt's...? HELP! What can I use on my records to restore sound..? anything..or give them to goodwill..? It doesn't seem to be a tt problem..a condition of my vinyl..? How do I keep my new ones from going bad...? I'm starting to get anal about this like you other guys...save me before it's too late...!
dla405j
I was in that kitchen swallowing clicks and pops and the surface noise since I couldn't afford a good turntable. In that time I knew nothing about gruv-glide or discwasher. What I knew is to sweep the dust with anti-static brush, not to touch the playback surface(and even lead-in/out areas) with the fingers, keep the records in their sleeves(later-on i always changed them for the plastic ones). My first hello to the CD player was in 1992 and there was my first dissapointment when I said to myself I'd better hear a bunch of clicks and pops than listen the music so limited that even regular audio cassette sounded much better.
Nowdays I have an analogue setup that allowes to play records of early 60's or 50's found somewhere from garage sales or just simply thrown on the street with so minimal surface noise... Clicks are simply not to be heard since the needle digs the groove so deep that it kind-of bypasses scratches.
Call around to any used CD and LP store in your area and ask them if they have a record cleaning machine and if they can clean your record. They may charge a minimal fee. A local shop here in Atlanta cleans LPs for $2. If it still sounds bad, you have groove wear (deterioration) which is not visible to the naked eye.

Good luck and don't give up yet. Vinyl is really a lot of fun.

Johncan
If you are using a MM cart. loading is critical for reducing surface noise. Capacitance in parallel with the inductance of the cart. results in a high freq. resonance around 19K for typical cart. and 200pf cap. Ultra-sonic noise will excite this resonance and produce ringing decays in the audible band. I removed the shunt capacitance from my Clearaudio Wood cart. and the surface noise was less bothersome. Cleared up the highs too.