You shouldn’t have that many noisy records. I buy quite a bit- say 15 records a week? Many old copies, some new. Sure, the older ones could have been abused (I try to limit myself to M- grading, but that’s no assurance) and occasionally I’ll get a new pressing that is defective. But, leaving aside the ones I reject or return (a relatively small fraction), the vast majority play fine- no clicks, no groove noise.
Ralph @Atmasphere wrote recently in another thread about how phono preamps can oscillate in a way that emphasizes noise. I thought you said you had the Allnic 1201 but I may be misremembering. What phono stage? If decent, I’d focus on the cartridge itself--what do others who own that cartridge say? Set-up- I can set my arm/cartridge well or really, really well if I take the time, so that’s worth revisiting. And the cleaning? If you have a new record that appears clean, try it without wet cleaning -something I don’t usually advocate- see how it plays, then do your cleaning and see if it is worse. That could tell you if something in your cleaning process is causing the problem--
Kind of hard to diagnose stuff remotely, but I’m sure others can weigh in on the Ortofon/VPI set up, on which I have no insight.
Punchline: records aren’t that noisy, click or pop ridden unless abused or badly pressed. You should not have to suffer this- it is NOT part of the vinyl experience for those of us who have worked through it (and you don’t have to be a genius to do this-- it’s partly isolating the problem and then rectifying it). Records can play clean, quiet and without the annoyances of clicks and pops you describe. Static is another potential gremlin. Do the records seem charged when you remove them from your cleaning machine or unsleeve them? FWIW, I quit dry brushing records b/c I’ve found the brushes ineffective, shed and can actually impart a charge (though they claim to be ’anti-static’).
@dgw4tube makes a good point about keeping the stylus clean. I use a cheap 10x jeweler’s loupe which is enough to see if there is crud on the stylus- i dry brush the stylus after each side, just to be sure and do a deeper clean of the stylus periodically.
Ralph @Atmasphere wrote recently in another thread about how phono preamps can oscillate in a way that emphasizes noise. I thought you said you had the Allnic 1201 but I may be misremembering. What phono stage? If decent, I’d focus on the cartridge itself--what do others who own that cartridge say? Set-up- I can set my arm/cartridge well or really, really well if I take the time, so that’s worth revisiting. And the cleaning? If you have a new record that appears clean, try it without wet cleaning -something I don’t usually advocate- see how it plays, then do your cleaning and see if it is worse. That could tell you if something in your cleaning process is causing the problem--
Kind of hard to diagnose stuff remotely, but I’m sure others can weigh in on the Ortofon/VPI set up, on which I have no insight.
Punchline: records aren’t that noisy, click or pop ridden unless abused or badly pressed. You should not have to suffer this- it is NOT part of the vinyl experience for those of us who have worked through it (and you don’t have to be a genius to do this-- it’s partly isolating the problem and then rectifying it). Records can play clean, quiet and without the annoyances of clicks and pops you describe. Static is another potential gremlin. Do the records seem charged when you remove them from your cleaning machine or unsleeve them? FWIW, I quit dry brushing records b/c I’ve found the brushes ineffective, shed and can actually impart a charge (though they claim to be ’anti-static’).
@dgw4tube makes a good point about keeping the stylus clean. I use a cheap 10x jeweler’s loupe which is enough to see if there is crud on the stylus- i dry brush the stylus after each side, just to be sure and do a deeper clean of the stylus periodically.