@lewm , if i understand your situation, you have a very small percentage of your LP collection with warps that concern you, BUT , when played, you dont notice a mistracking or audible problem....may i ask why you why wish to attempt to remedy this? If its not broken, dont fix it.. I have a few similar, as well, BUT also dont note mistracking or pitch problems....it has bothered me, but I just shrug my shoulders....
How best to eliminate LP warps
I own about 2500 LPs, and I like to think they're flat. Furthermore, I espoused the view that warped LPs ought to be discarded. But lately I have found 2 or 3 of my LPs that do have warps but sound too good and are too precious for the music recorded on them to throw away. So I am in the market for ideas on how to remove warps. I am aware that there was a device on the market that looked like a large waffle maker, to be used for warp removal. I think Furutech made it, but I never see it advertised these days. I am also aware of the DIY method of placing an LP between two glass plates and heating the ensemble. The question there would be how hot and for how long? Any suggestions are welcome, especially opinions on the efficacy of the Furutech. Thanks. Please no comments on vacuum hold down; I think it's a great idea but none of my five turntables has that feature.
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@drbond They've been available in the UK for ages... |
Dear jw, Your assumptions are not quite accurate. I normally do not fuss over warped LPs, as I observe them very infrequently in LPs in my collection of 2500 or more LPs, but I would not dare to guess what fraction of that total is warped. However, in the last 2-3 weeks, I observed on separate occasions that two of the LPs I selected for play on those particular days (to be clearer, one LP per listening session) were warped "severely". Especially affecting the outermost one or two tracks on each. Since I only noticed the warps when the LPs were already spinning, I was also able to observe that both LPs sounded great, were tracked well by two different high compliance cartridges (B&O MMC20CL and Ortofon MC2000 mounted in Dynavector DV505 and Triplanar, respectively), had very quiet surfaces, no ticks or pops, and great music. Because of the latter good qualities, I am loathe to discard the LPs. Normally if an LP is as warped as these two, I discard them; they usually have some other defect that justifies trashing. So I started wondering what are the latest and most cost effective methods for flattening; I would not spend the $3000 cost of the Furutech, which I already knew about, because the problem is so unusual in my personal experience. I would not make the general statement that I don’t have a problem playing warped LPs, only that these two LPs play OK. |
Mistracking and wow are only part of the problem. If you want to get the most from your vinyl, you have to set all TT parameters pretty accurately. That includes stylus azimuth. A dished LP will significantly mess up your azimuth adjustment consistently for the whole record. A warped LP will severely mess up your azimuth every 1.8 seconds. My DIY air bearing tonearm / Koetsu setup is sensitive to small azimuth changes - 6 minutes of arc from perpendicular is clearly audible. The effect manifests itself as a loss of beauty tending towards grating coarseness. It's not better when it comes and goes. A 1 mm dish over the 150mm from edge to spindle is 1/150 of a radian, or 23 minutes of arc. Warp similar. My reflex clamp reduces most imperfections to nil, which works for me. YMMV |
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