It is possible to trace a different part of the groove and mitigate at least some groove damage; I've heard this myself. When a record is damaged by mis-tracking or a bad stylus, chunks of vinyl are removed so that the wall becomes pitted, it is possible to avoid these pits by contacting the groove above and below that area. When a record is played, the stylus deforms the groove slightly, but because vinyl is highly elastic, it snaps back to its original shape. The pits will affect how the groove deforms, so even though a different stylus might not be tracing the pits, the absence of vinyl will affect how the groove deforms, so, in that sense, the pitting cannot be totally avoided unless one uses a system like the ELP laser table. I saw a demonstration of that table where a severely worn record was played with the laser focused at different groove depth--when the laser avoided the damaged part of the groove the record sounded like it was new.
- ...
- 32 posts total
- 32 posts total